Yorkshire Postal History

The annual Keith Griffiths' Memorial Lecture for 2011 was a presentation by Don Richardson on Yorkshire postal history. Don's choice of topic was highly appropriate as Keith Griffiths had been born in Yorkshire, in 1931. With his wife Joan he moved to New Zealand in 1964, and quickly became involved in the local philatelic scene. Keith was noted for his contribution to aerophilately, and at the time of his passing was Patron of the Auckland Philatelic Society.

Don's presentation came in two parts, Wakefield postal history, and then Yorkshire Penny Posts. Wakefield is a county town in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The earliest postal markings from Wakefield are straight line cancellations. These come as either single-lined or two-lined hand stamps, and may be either thick or thin lines. Double-arced circular cancellations were in use in Wakefield from about 1829. Don spent some time speaking about mileage markings. In the eighteenth century postal routes radiated from London, and postal markings indicated the distance of particular towns from the capital. Wakefield initially had a 185 mile marking, but the route was later re-surveyed, and the distance was found to be 187 miles. This change was made in 1802. The amount of postage to be paid was determined by the distance the piece of mail had to travel, and how much it weighed.

Amongst the material on display was a Penny Black on cover cancelled Wakefield, a Mulready cover from Wakefield, and a Sideway duplex cancel used by Wakefield. There was a good range of cancels used by sub post offices as well.

Don then went on to talk about the Yorkshire Penny Post. As early as 1765 the British Parliament authorised the creation of local Penny Posts throughout Great Britain and Ireland. A single postage rate of one penny was charged within an area, calculated by weight. The main post office was located at York, which had a number of sub post offices. Some Yorkshire head post offices were not actually in Yorkshire at all, but were located in Durham, Lancashire and so on. The main post office for the North Riding was in Durham. The East Riding had only a few post offices, including Hull, and there were not many Penny Posts in this riding.

The West Riding had quite a variety of Penny Posts, including Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds. Hebdon Bridge covers may have either Halifax or Rochester markings. Skipton Penny Post markings denote only the Penny Post - there is no indication of place, and Skipton was the only place where this happened. Some West Riding Penny Posts came under Manchester.

Don's display of material was very impressive, and something quite different for most of those in a fairly large audience.