Such Postal Sub-Districts as Horton, far remote from their principal centre, were classified under Parliamentary legislation. Thus the fifth Clause posts of early in the 19th Century took their name from the Act 41, Geo. 3, Ch. 7, Clause 5, under which they were established. Special post marks were in use for such posts. In the case of the Bristol district there was only one 5th Clause post, namely, at Thornbury, which was established in 1825, and under its regulations one penny was charged for the delivery of each letter at Thornbury. The post was a horse post from and to Bristol, and the Contractor delivered and collected bags at Almondsbury and Fylton, which were both "penny posts." The main object of the fifth Clause post was to join up small towns with the larger post towns and so it was that Thornbury became thus linked on to Bristol. On the other hand, Bristol had 63 penny posts, including Almondsbury and Fylton, which were denoted by numbers 1 to 63, Clifton being No. 1.
Of the 52 "Fifth Clause Posts" existing in 1839 Bristol had only the one which joined Bristol and Thornbury.
Owing to there being no settled port of departure or arrival for vessels employed for conveyance of Foreign Mails, the letters were frequently despatched by privately-owned ships. They were then impressed with a post-mark "Ship Letter," with the name of the town included.
The Penny Post letters were such as had been posted in any one of the 63 Bristol Penny Post Sub-District Offices for delivery in the district of posting, or in any of the 62 other Offices. Thus a letter posted in Fylton for delivery in Fylton would be charged one penny upon being handed in at that Post Office, and another penny would be obtained on delivery to the addressee.
A letter posted at the Penny Post Office of Almondsbury for delivery in the Penny Post District of Fylton would be charged a penny upon being handed in at the Almondsbury Office and another penny would be charged to the addressee on delivery. Thornbury being a 5th Clause Post would have letters posted in its special "Open" box, delivered in the Thornbury Postal area for the one penny, that charged on delivery.
A letter posted in the "Open" box at Thornbury (5th Clause Post) for Bristol would likewise travel from Poster to addressee for the 1d. delivery charge in Bristol, as bags would be exchanged between the two places.
A single letter, i.e., a letter without an enclosure, coming from Reading for Thornbury, would be charged a general post rate of 8d. to Bristol, plus 1d. for delivery, which would be the same in the cases of letters from Reading for Fylton or Almondsbury; but if a letter were posted at Thornbury for Reading, there would be no charge from Thornbury to Bristol, so that the addressee would only be called upon to pay the general post rate of 8d., whereas, the postage on a letter from Fylton or Almondsbury would be 8d., plus a penny charged for collection.
EARLY BRISTOL POST MARKS.
The mail services in the rural districts are not free from danger. The pitcher may have been carried to the fountain year after year without mishap, but it not infrequently becomes broken at last. In like manner the contractor for the Portishead, Clevedon, and Yatton mail cart service, after having driven over this route with immunity from accident for forty years, yet came to grief in the last week of his connection with His Majesty's mails, January, 1902. The contractor's time table was arranged thus:—Portishead, leave 9.15 p.m.; Clevedon, arrive 10.5 p.m., leave 10.50 p.m.; Yatton, arrive 11.28 p.m.; attend to apparatus and up mail 12.17 a.m., down mail 12.42 a.m.; Yatton, leave 1.5 a.m.; Clevedon, arrive 1.48 a.m., depart 4.15 a.m.; Portishead, arrive 5.5 a.m.