nigelc

28 Oct 2018
06:04:10pm

re: New, Free British Isles Number Cancel Lookup Tool

It's strange to see the Republic of Ireland flag being used for the whole island of Ireland.

I also see that some very old county names have been used, for example Argyllshire and Linlithgowshire instead of Argyll and East Lothian.

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nigelc

28 Oct 2018
07:00:26pm

re: New, Free British Isles Number Cancel Lookup Tool

No Don, but it is a pretty flag!

It might have been more useful to show the format of the cancel rather than the flag so that collectors can see whether they are looking at a Scotland / Ireland / England & Wales format postmark.

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re: New, Free British Isles Number Cancel Lookup Tool

Linlithgowshire is an anachronism. I am a Brit who specialised in geography and I had never heard of it, although I do know of the town of Linlithgow.

It would be better termed West Lothian, which is how it is much better known.

The problem is that successive governments have messed about with administrative boundaries for dubious economic and even more dubious political ( using the demographic to obtain electoral advantage )reasons. This makes it difficult to categorise places with any consistency.

To illustrate this West Lothian is now no longer a county but an administrative unit within the "new" county of Lothian. Now this may or may not have boundaries exactly corresponding with the old West Lothian county( large cities like Edinburgh sometimes expand taking over parts of adjacent "Shire" counties). It is likely ( but not definite ) that West Lothian county corresponds with the previous Linlithgowshire ( which is used in the article because probably in Victorian times this was the official usage) assuming no Edinburgh expansion as mentioned above.

The usage of Linlithgowshire may be pedantically correct, but definitely hinders understanding.

Incidentally I am waiting for the first university to offer a degree course titled " The History of Boundary Changes in the United Kingdom" LOL.

Malcolm

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re: New, Free British Isles Number Cancel Lookup Tool

Thanks for the offer, but regrettably my overall knowledge is neither great enough nor precise enough to make a significant contribution. However if you have any specifics I can assist you with you can PM me.

From tne start of postal mechanisation onwards things get even more complicated by the fact that postal addresses ( inbound mail), postmark identities ( outbound mail ), geographical, and political boundaries seldom coincide.

Additionally some terminology ( geopraphical as well as postal ) is confusing. For example "Parish Council". A civil PC is the lowest level of devolved ( rural or semi-urban) governmet, whereas an ecclesiastical parish council refers to the ( usually Church of England in England) local church management. They seldom correspond. Expansion of population ( civil) together with redundancy and merging of church parishes(ecclesiastical) conspire to confuse matters. For example one of the local villages close to me is that of Littlethorpe (Leicestershire ). It is in the (civil) parish of Narborough, but the ecclesiastical parish of "Cosby with Littlethorpe". The postal address ( inbound ) is Littlethorpe, Leicestershire, while who knows what the current outbound postmark ID is ? It seems to change. Of course this is linked to the increase in pre printed envelopes and decrease in stamps usage. My own village of Countesthorpe is defined as the same both civilly and ecclesiastically.

Those who choose to collect postal history have to get to grips with all this. It is difficult enough for the natives - how the rest of you find it I shudder to think

Malcolm.

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nigelc

02 Dec 2018
08:16:14pm

re: New, Free British Isles Number Cancel Lookup Tool

Nice clear strike of Gullane!

Yes, the old county went by the names of both East Lothian and Haddingtonshire.

The current East Lothian is the same with the addition of Musselburgh and Inveresk, both of which were at one time in Midlothian.

The name Haddingtonshire sounds strange to me simply because it wasn't in use when I was growing up in Scotland.

The same goes for Linlithgowshire which was known to us as West Lothian although both names had been used previously.

Similarly, in Ireland, Queen's County and King's County are today almost always called Laois and Offaly.

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re: New, Free British Isles Number Cancel Lookup Tool

Just to confuse you all even more, there are "shires" which are nothing to do with counties-Bedlingtonshire in Northumberland, and Hallamshire in Sheffield are two examples. Now these may or may not have been counties in the dim and distant past, but have never been administratively counties since modern local government commenced. They certainly are not simple name changes like the Linlithgowshire to West Lothian example, as they are parts of "proper" counties. Also the County of Lincolnshire ( always shown thus on postmarks) was actually three separate administrative counties ( Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland ).

Anyone not interested in local or postal history ( even here in the UK ) hasn't got a clue about what we are talking about, and even those who are struggle.

…. and don't get me started about Wapentakes .

Malcolm

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