The Postal History of Sale and Jamaican Parish cancels make for an interesting combination

The society were delighted to welcome Anthony Wilkinson to our afternoon meeting to present us with two contrasting displays.

The first was all about the postal history of Sale, in Cheshire, and attracted members from other societies who have an interest in that area. The second half was a display on the smaller and more obscure parish postmarks from just one Parish in Jamaica, focused all around the railway stops.

The Sale display gave us an overview from the earliest pre stamp letters through the development of the cancellers and then onto the 12 sub post offices that are in the area. We learned that these cancellers were all numbered, something that we hadn’t previously realised.

Part two was based around the post offices in St Elizabeth parish including the wonderfully named Balaclava, Appleton, Ipswich and Maggotty. These were stops on the railway line towards Mango Bay which has now subsequently closed. We were also grateful to Norman Hudson from Chester who was able to give a first hand account of how the book on this railway was written by his late partner.

The vote of thanks was given bySecretary Carol Slater and a certificate was presented to him by Chairman Jonathan Guy. The society are grateful to Mr Wilkinson for travelling some distance to share his material with us, and as always, photographs of the event are shown below.