Local Stamps of GB, Channel Islands and Isle of Man

Caldey Island, a little over 2 square kilometres in area, is off the South Pembrokeshire coast of Wales. There was a monastery there from the 6th to the 16th century (when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries of England and Wales). In 1906 it was bought by a group of Anglican Benedictine monks, who established a monastery there which revived the monastic tradition. In 1925 financial problems forced them to sell the island. Since 1929 the island has been occupied by Cistercians, and there are now some 20 monks, together with about 40 other residents. The monks make a living mainly from the manufacture and sale of perfume, shortbread and chocolate. There are caves with prehistoric remains, and a lighthouse. The monks operate a sub-post-office. Between 1973 and 1981 the monks issued four local stamps, shown below, for the carriage of postcards to the nearest mainland town, Tenby. They depict monastery buildings. They are denominated in dabs, a local Caldey currency named after the fish of the same name.

@michaelcayley, I created a thread almost a year ago about Commodore Shipping Company locals. These locals were used on a parcel service that ran during the 1960s. See the following link: stampbears.net/thread/2231/commodore-shipping-company

Nice idea for a thread. Is there any resource that lists all these local issues. They're out of scope of the worldwide catalogs I use. But I would like to know more about them......

Bardsey Island is off the Lleyn Peninsula of NW Wales - the peninsula in which Caernarvon, where Princes of Wales have been invested, is situated. For a few years there were local stamps - I am not absolutely certain of the years, but it seems to have been between 1979 and 1981. The small island (about 0.6 square miles) is a nature reserve and has been administered by a Trust since 1979. There is accommodation which holidaymakers can rent. In the past it was a place of pilgrimage, and Welsh tradition had it that three pilgrimages to Bardsey had the same spiritual value as one to Rome. There was a monastery from the 5th century to 1537, when it was demolished as part of Henry VIII's money-grabbing dissolution of English and Welsh monasteries. The island is known as the Island of 20,000 Saints, and is one of a number of places which lay claim to being King Arthur's burial site. In 2003 the permanent population was under 5 (down from 132 in the 1881 census). Ferocious weather with fierce sea currents can lead to visitors being stranded for days.

The local stamps mainly served as tourist souvenirs, but were (like most local stamps of British islands) used for the carriage of postal items to the mainland. Here are the first four of a 1979 set of definitives, issued just after the Trust acquired the island, one showing where the island is in relation to the Lleyn Peninsula, the others showing a bird (I am not sure which species, but it may be a wheatear), the (now-automated) lighthouse, and an island house.

I think the main, possibly only, reasonably up-to-date resource is on CD, available at www.seahorsepublishers.co.uk/Local_Postage_Catalogues/cat305913_226431.aspx

My curiosity having been roused, I have it on order.

Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, between Devon and South Wales, has an area of 1.72 square miles and a current permanent population of under 30. It is visited by over 20,000 people a year. It has rare flora and fauna, including a primitive cabbage and its insect predators not found natively anywhere else. From the 16th to 17th centuries pirates sometimes took control of the island, and its reputation for lawlessness continued well into the 19th century. It is currently administered by a special trust which leases the island from the English National Trust. In 1928 the British Post Office ceased operating on the island, and the following year local stamps were first issued for the carriage of mail to the mainland: normal British stamps had to be affixed for onward postal services. The stamp charge was known as puffinage, after the many puffins found on the island's steep granite cliffs. Local British island stamps are normally valid only to cover carriage to the nearest accessible mainland place, where they are fed into the national postal system and UK stamps have to be used. Since 1974 it has no longer been necessary to affix ordinary British stamps to those of Lundy: Lundy stamps are now valid for mail from Lundy to anywhere in the United Kingdom: so the stamps are in some degree a cross between local stamps and regional issues like those of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some 350 stamps have been issued since 1929. The Lundy postal service is the oldest extant private postal service anywhere in the world. Here is a picture of the 1982 definitives, showing puffins.

I got them for less than face value. They are still on sale at full price from the Lundy postal service. Maybe I should go to Lundy and use them. BTW, I left one stamp out of the image. I hope the poor puffin on it doesn't take umbrage.

The island of Pabay is between the Western mainland of Scotland and the East coast of Skye. It has an area of about half a square mile. According to Wikipedia there are currently no permanent residents, but formerly a small number of people lived there. When the British Post Office refused to make more than one weekly delivery and collection, the owner, a resident potter who needed a more frequent service, took matters into his own hands, using a converted lifeboat. He issued his first local stamps in 1962. In 1971 the island changed hands, and the new owners continued to issue stamps. Here is a 1969 miniature sheet showing Abyssinian cats.

The Summer isles are an archipelago off the NW coast of Scotland. The year-round resident population is tiny - 5 in 2001 - but is added to in summer by tourists staying in holiday accommodation. There is a Post Office, and local post, to take mail to the mainland. As far as I can gather, the local post service may have very recently ended: the philatelic bureau seems to have become dormant or defunct in the last couple of years. As with many British island local posts, a lot of the stamps have been sold to collectors and as tourist souvenirs, and the Summer Isles Philatelic Bureau has been one of the more prolific issuers of local stamps in Britain. Some of the sets, though, are attractive. Here are some bird stamps from the 1960s.