In the 1820's the use of handstamps with mileage figures largely ceased and post offices with an annual revenue of less than Cl 1000, whatever their status, were provided with an undated circular handstamp to indicate the office of posting on each letter. At this time the cost of postage was still dependant upon the distance a letter travelled and so it was essential that the place pf posting was stamped on each letter.

In Warwickshire, Leamington was issued with an undated circular handstamp and Henley in Arden in 1828, and Alcester and Shipston on Stour in 1829. Warwick and Coleshill were considered high revenue offices and issued with in 1825, Atherstone However, Stratford, dated handstamps.

Following the introduction of the adhesive postage stamp and the universal penny post in 1840, the principle offices in post towns were issued "Maltese Cross" cancelling handstamps. Letters from Alcester were stamped with the "AULCESTER" UDC on the reverse and then the postage stamps were cancelled in Stratford with the "Maltese Cross" and backstamped with a dated handstamp.

More UDC's were issued progressively from 1840 onwards particularly to rural offices where there had been no handstamps previously. As new rural post offices opened an undated circular handstamp was issued, usually within a month, sometimes before a receiver (Postmaster) could be appointed.

The early UDC marks varied from less than 24mm to more than 3Omm in diameter. By mid 1830's 29mm became the standard using seriffed letters. In 1844 sans-serif lettering became the norm and the diameter was reduced to 25mm. From 1857 they reduced progressively until the last of the UDC types were just 19mm across.

By the late 1840's many of the larger sub-offices received a dated handstamp to enable them to function as money order offices. Since money orders needed to be stamped with the issuing office and date, it was considered inefficient to use more than one handstamp. Alcester became a money order office in 1846 and the UDC was withdrawn and replace by a dated circular stamp.

The UDC's completely disappeared by 1860. By this time many letters were posted in pillar boxes or wall boxes and so the identification of place of posting became less significant. In addition, economically, savings were made by not backstamping letters with UDC's and by not needing the stamping equipment.

Many of the village sub-post offices did not receive another handstamp or letters for forty years when the cheap vulcanised rubber stamps appeared.

This table lists the UDC's of the Alcester area.

It is not known why Alcester's UDC should be spelt "AULCESTER", since this spelling had apparently gone our of fashion in the previous century and two previous handstamps had been inscribed "ALCESTER". Perhaps the GPO civil servant who ordered the handstamps inadvenently took the spelling from an old directory of post towns .

You will see from the list above that the village UDC's are rare or unknown (except in Post Office archives). The author of this article would be grateful to see any letters from this period bearing UDC's, especially of the villages.

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