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Additional halfpenny mystery

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:27 pm
by earsathome
Hello all,

We have a letter addressed to William McGowan Dumfries from McNicol of Langholm dated 1837, the letter is written on heavy paper with no watermark. It has 4 postal markings :

Langholm straight-line town stamp in black ink, a partially struck datestamp which looks like DUMFRIES 27 JUN 1837, an unidentified Additional Halfpenny mark and the charge in black ink of ‘8’.

This is quite a mystery, as on the present day maps Langholm is about 24 miles from Dumfries on a direct road, but the 8d charge is for 50 to 80 miles. The map in Robertson’s book does not have Langholm on it, and his reference shows that mail to Dumfries from London went via Carlisle, so it is possible that this letter started at Langholm, went down to Carlisle and then back to Dumfries. However...

Langholm does not have an Additional Halfpenny stamp and the stamps of both Carlisle and Dumfries are boxed types.

Can anyone shed any light on this, all information gratefully received.

Regards

Ron and Eunice