WELCOME TO BRADFORD ...

ABOUT US

Our Society was founded in September 1894 and we offer all stamp collectors in the Bradford area a meeting place to see displays of stamps, meet fellow collectors, exchange stamps and buy at our auctions.

We welcome all collectors and our members are always ready to help with any philatelic problems and advance the knowledge of fellow collectors.

Our Annual Subscription is: £7.50 per annum.

We are affiliated to the Association of British Philatelic Societies and the Yorkshire Philatelic Association.

OUR MEETINGS

We meet on alternate Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm in the Latvian Club, 5 Clifton Villas, Manningham Lane, Bradford. Our meetings usually last for about two hours and may be a display by an invited speaker or one of our own members, a members' evening, competition, auction or visit from another local society.

Visitors are always welcome at our meetings. If you are a stamp collector why not come along and find out more about our Society? See our Syllabus below for details of our meetings.

CONTACT US

For more information about the Society, or to apply to join, contact our Honorary Secretary: Mrs Judith Holder
The Barn, Shay Lane, Heaton Royds, Bradford BD9 6SH
Telephone: 01274 544446 (daytime)

SOCIETY OFFICERS

President: Mrs Yvonne Wheatley

Vice-President: Max Smith

Hon Secretary: Mrs Judith Holder

Hon Treasurer & YPA Delegate: Mrs Yvonne Wheatley

Publicity Officer: Steven Saville

Syllabus Secretary: Richard Wheatley

Competition Secretary: Stephen Holder

OUR SYLLABUS FOR 2009 to 2010

2009

8 September

President's Evening - Czechoslovakia: Early Days of the Republic, Yvonne Wheatley

22 September

Universal Postal Union - Barry Evans

6 October

Great Britain Line Engraved - Bill Barrell

20 October

Gibraltar Postal History 1696-1875 - Professor David R Stirrups

3 November

North Borneo and Labuan - David Brown

17 November

Afghanistan - John Whiteside

1 December

Visit from Leeds PS

15 December

Auction

29 December

Members' Displays

2010

12 January

Meeting cancelled because of inclement weather

26 January

Fun with the Isle of Man- John Sussex RDP

9 February

Pembrokeshire Postal History - Gerald Marriner

23 February

Visit from Huddersfield PS

9 March

Postal History of Kingston upon Hull - Robert McMillan

23 March

Competition Evening

6 April

Two Baltic Ports - Stephen Holder

20 April

Royal Visits - Colin Marshall

4 May

Members' Displays

18 May

Annual General Meeting

15 June

Open Meeting

13 July

Open Meeting

10 August

Open Meeting

LINKS

Diary of Philatelic Events

Yorkshire Philatelic Association Home Page

More links on the Yorkshire Philatelic Association's Links Page

Information about Bradford's attractions can be found at Visit Bradford

BRADFORD POSTAL HISTORY

This is an on-going project to show items of Bradford postal history. If you have items to include please email the Webmaster (below) with a suitable caption and an image (preferably as a jpeg).


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Postal history students wishing to learn more about the postal history of Bradford are recommended to consult "A Postal History of Bradford to 1884", by D Boyes, 1977.

Some useful information about Bradford's history can be found in the Wikipedia.

The first Bradford postal marking was a straight two-line handstamp thus:

BRAD
FORD

It is known used from 1737 to 1744 in black.

After a gap, a series of straight lined hand-stamps followed from 1771 until 1802 when mileage marks were introduced showing the distance from London as 216 miles. Mileage marks were in use until 1828 when circular markings came into use. The first circular mark was undated with two arcs at the base and the town name in a semi-circle at the top.

Some images of later postal markings are shown below.

The barred numeral type cancellers began to be issued in England in May 1844 with a different number allocated to each office. The initial series ran from 1 to 936. In 1854 cancellers were issued with a combined circular date stamp and a barred numeral obliterator (the so called 'Duplex' hand-stamps). Number 107 was assigned to Bradford. This type of hand-stamp was in use until the beginning of the 19th century.

1857: Sideways Duplex Cancel with numeral 107

1893: Bradford to Holland. The cover is franked with embossed half-penny vermilion cancelled
with Bradford squared circle with handstamp alongside ‘Found in FNO without contents'.

1904: Bradford squared circle cancel on postcard to Northampton paid with half-penny stamp of King Edward VII.

Contributions of items for this Section invited. Contact the Webmaster.