(RCSD) Question: Old Manchester (UK) postal districts

Could someone please identify the
following (old) Manchester postal
districts, as reflected on their cancels?
(I assume the first is from the main
post office.)

Manchester
Manchester C
Manchester F
Manchester K
Manchester L
Manchester P
Manchester S
Manchester SE
Manchester SW

Thank You
Blair

Blair

Can't be too specific but with the probable exception of SE and SW
( and only possibly S ) these may only be check letters for the actual
cancelling machine- depending on the period of postmark, Concentrated
cancelling centres, particularly in large cities was quite an early
innovation. Small offices using CDS usually only cancelled mail for
the immediate vicinity which would not require sorting. Postal
districts in Manchester were always numbers ( they are perpetuated in
current post codes low numbers e.g. M11 is the old manchester 11
postal district - the higher numbers are former seperate towns now
within the Greater Manchester postal area ). If we are talking 20th
century there is unlikely to be a great deal of significance in the
location but there might be significance in the type of mail- and the
period. For example some machines only saw use at peak times such as
Christmas - and some machines may only be used at peak collection
times each day. In more recent times seperate machines have been used
to cancel first class and second class mail, Also some machines have
been brought into use when a regular machine has broken down.

Of course there are always exceptions to any system and quite often
there is an overlap between an old system and its eventual
replacement.

It might be of use to contact a stamp club in the Greater Manchester
area or the study group concerned with UK postal mechanisation.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Malcolm




On Feb 17, 11:08*pm, "Blair (TC)" wrote:
Could someone please identify the
following (old) Manchester postal
districts, as reflected on their cancels?
(I assume the first is from the main
post office.)

Manchester
Manchester C
Manchester F
Manchester K
Manchester L
Manchester P
Manchester S
Manchester SE
Manchester SW

Thank You
Blair

"malcolm"
Can't be too specific but with the probable exception of SE and SW
( and only possibly S ) these may only be check letters for the actual
cancelling machine- depending on the period of postmark,

That's what I concluded,
an area postal district would require a map,
and I searched early UK directories without succees
1852-1909

These are the only "districts" I could locate from
the Northern Midlands? Directory of 1852

http://cjoint.com/data/ctahpGVtwi.htm

On Feb 18, 1:34 pm, malcolm wrote:
Blair

Can't be too specific but with the probable exception of SE and SW
( and only possibly S ) these may only be check letters for the actual
cancelling machine- depending on the period of postmark, Concentrated
cancelling centres, particularly in large cities was quite an early
innovation. Small offices using CDS usually only cancelled mail for
the immediate vicinity which would not require sorting. Postal
districts in Manchester were always numbers ( they are perpetuated in
current post codes low numbers e.g. M11 is the old manchester 11
postal district - the higher numbers are former seperate towns now
within the Greater Manchester postal area ). If we are talking 20th
century there is unlikely to be a great deal of significance in the
location but there might be significance in the type of mail- and the
period. For example some machines only saw use at peak times such as
Christmas - and some machines may only be used at peak collection
times each day. In more recent times seperate machines have been used
to cancel first class and second class mail, Also some machines have
been brought into use when a regular machine has broken down.

Of course there are always exceptions to any system and quite often
there is an overlap between an old system and its eventual
replacement.

It might be of use to contact a stamp club in the Greater Manchester
area or the study group concerned with UK postal mechanisation.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Malcolm


Thanks Malcolm and Rod:

The cancel that I was thinking of was 1968.
http://www.cijoint.fr/cj200802/cij2141413234738.jpg

The other cancel letters I found on the web.
I thaough that they might be machine IDs, but
the Manchester SW, SE ans S threw me off
the track.

Blair

Blair

That is I think likely to be a machine number. I also think the "S" is
too - I have Birmingham R, S and T on a series of postmarks of the
same period ( as each other but later than yours). The format is
identical. Again this is a guess but SE and SW are probably an
"intermediate" stage of concentration of postal facilities and may not
refer to " Manchester" at all - SE is possibly Stockport,Stalybridge,
Hyde and Mossley area while SW could be the noerthern part of what
used to be Cheshire before Greater Manchester got their hands on it -
Sale,Cheadle etc. Currently Wigan, Bolton and Bury ( in Greater
Manchester but North and West of the City) use a generic " Lancashire
and South Lakes" postmark, which also includes areas in the county of
Lancashire and presumably the south of Cumbria.I haven't seen any
recent mail from Manchester so I don't know what postmarks are used
there.

One of the problems now is that since the creation of the
"Metropolitan" counties-Tyneside( based on Newcastle),West
Yorkshire( Leeds and Bradford ),South Yorkshire( Sheffield and
Doncaster),Merseyside(Liverpool), Greater Manchester and West Midlands
(Birmingham and Coventry) - there is even less correlation between
"political" and "postal" divisions than before.

Malcolm




On Feb 19, 1:40*am, "Blair (TC)" wrote:
On Feb 18, 1:34 pm, malcolm wrote:





Blair

Can't be too specific but with the probable exception of SE and SW
( and only possibly S ) these may only be check letters for the actual
cancelling machine- depending on the period of postmark, Concentrated
cancelling centres, particularly in large cities was quite an early
innovation. Small offices using CDS usually only cancelled mail for
the immediate vicinity which would not require sorting. Postal
districts in Manchester were always numbers ( they are perpetuated in
current post codes low numbers e.g. M11 is the old manchester 11
postal district - the higher numbers are former seperate towns now
within the Greater Manchester postal area ). If we are talking 20th
century there is unlikely to be a great deal of significance in the
location but there might be significance in the type of mail- and the
period. For example some machines only saw use at peak times such as
Christmas - and some machines may only be used at peak collection
times each day. In more recent times seperate machines have been used
to cancel first class and second class mail, Also some machines have
been brought into use when a regular machine has broken down.

Of course there are always exceptions to any system and quite often
there is an overlap between an old system and its eventual
replacement.

It might be of use to contact a stamp club in the Greater Manchester
area or the study group concerned with UK postal mechanisation.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Malcolm

Thanks Malcolm and Rod:

The cancel that I was thinking of was 1968.
*http://www.cijoint.fr/cj200802/cij2141413234738.jpg

The other cancel letters I found on the web.
I thaough that they might be machine IDs, but
the Manchester SW, SE ans S threw me off
the track.

Blair- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -