Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain

Vol. 2 No. 3; September 1, 2004

Charringtons Gardner Locket (London) Ltd.

by Michael Behm

Charrington Gardner Locket (London) Ltd. were coal and coke merchants. Formed in 1731, the company was headed by five generations of men named John Charrington.

The John Charrington who was born in 1856 was trained with F. Green & Co., Shipbrokers. He became the Chairman of Charringtons and of the Association of Private Owners of Railway Rolling Stock. He also held the position of Honorary Secretary, Treasurer, and, finally, Chairman of the Society of Coal Merchants, London, from 1895-1915 and was Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Charringtons had expanded their coal selling operations into coal transport. Included in their fleet were ships named The Lady Charrington and The John Charrington. Charringtons railroad cars and coal delivery trucks became a common sight in Britain.

By the 1960s, Charringtons also was involved in mechanical engineering, designing a barge that moved the American Wind Symphony Orchestra along the Thames through London.

The company seems to exist today as Charringtons Solid Fuel, but I believe that it is owned by a larger conglomerate that keeps the familiar Charrington's name for marketing reasons.


C.G.L.

C.G.L.

Click for a larger image (110KB).


Resources


Overprints and Local Government in Great Britain

by Lawrence Armitage

In England after the Norman Conquest, the boundaries of the ancient kingdoms and provinces formed the shires. Centuries latter these county shires divided, such as the old East Anglian kingdom divided becoming Norfolk and Suffolk. Yorkshire roughly corresponded to the Danish kingdom of York. Wessex was divided into Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire. The kingdom of Mercia was divided into nine counties, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Worstershire, Staffordshire, and possibly parts of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire. There was a further revision of county boundaries in 1874.

In the 1888 Local Government Act, six new counties were established such as East and West Sussex and Suffolk, Isle of Ely and the Stoke of Peterborough. In 1974 there was a major revision of county boundaries; some disappeared while others were created. The early Welsh counties were formed after the Act of Union between England and counties stayed much the same until major revisions in 1974 although in 1964 London was enlarged by the absorption of parts of Surrey, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and the whole of Middlesex disappeared.

Today, after further revisions to local authority structure, there is a fairly complicated system of different authorities throughout England and Wales. In rural areas, there are county councils and beneath them district councils. All have different functions, paid for by rates. So for example, repair of roads is largely the responsibility of councils while districts run waste disposal. Town councils have very few powers. In some parts of the country such as Berkshire, the county has been disbanded and its powers given to the district councils renamed unitary authorities. In urban areas, such as greater London there are unitary authorities called ‘London Boroughs’ and a single strategic authority under an elected mayor currently Ken Livingstone The mayor is responsible for major issues that affect all London boroughs, for example travel and transport.

In Wales, the early Welsh counties were formed after the Act of Union between England and Wales in 1536. Monmouth shire has always been particularly interesting. The Welsh and English have consistently claimed the county, although ecclesiastically it was almost all the ancient diocese of Llandaff. Since 1974 it has assumed its original name Gwent and is officially part of Wales. Historically, the system of councils beneath and alongside counties has been broadly similar to those in England.

In Scotland, Malcolm III established the Scottish counties in the Lowlands in the 11th century and those in the Highlands were formed in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The union of England and Scotland came about by an act of Parliament in 1707.

Terminology

Some terms that collectors of commercial overprints will come across:

A charter is a written grant of rights by the sovereign or legislature—for example to a town, company, or university. In local government a charter would be used to convey a particular status on a town or area such as the creation of a borough, the award of a title such as ‘Royal County of Berkshire’, or city status.

A city is a large and important town or borough originally with a cathedral, or an Episcopal see (that is, having a bishop). Nowadays, the Queen, on the advice of the government, awards the title ‘city’ to a town. It has very little meaning other than to convey a status on the town. Some very large towns are not cities whereas other small and less important towns have become cities. There are several towns, ones having a ‘see’ and others without, that do not have the title ‘a city.’

A council is the elected local administrative body of a parish, district, town, county or city. The County Council is administered by a chairman, aldermen, and councilors.

Boroughs (councils) developed over the centuries with the amalgamation of villages and towns. The dictionary gives the origin for the word burg ‘a walled or fortified town’. The town needed governing, and over time, elected mayors and councilors emerged. Eventually the town came to be represented in the Hours of Commons; the representative being known as a Member of Parliament, abbreviated MP. In due course, the town or district was then granted the status of a borough, a town with a municipal corporation and privileges conferred by a Royal charter (see Corporations).

Rural District and Urban District Councils (abbreviated on stamps R.D.C. and U.D.C. followed by a place name) came about by the Local Government Act 1894, and the Parish Councils Act of 1895. These Acts divided the whole country into URBAN Districts and RURAL Districts if not already classified a Borough, and each having its own council. It was the 1889 Local Government Act provided for the establishment of District Councils.

Burgh: A Scottish borough or chartered town having its origins in the twelfth century with trade privileges. In the 1889 Local Government Act, Burgh means any royal or parliamentary burgh. The expression ‘county’ means a county exclusive of any burgh wholly or partly situated therein, and does not include a county or city. This status was abolished as a unit of local government by Local Government Act 1975.

A royal burgh is an honorary title for a Scottish burgh holding a charter from the Crown. In the past, this brought mercantile and trade privileges.

Corporations were preceded by boroughs and incorporated them by the Municipal Corporation Act 1835. This laid the foundation of modern local government. There were similar acts in Scotland 1833 and Ireland in 1840 giving similar powers. The 1835 act followed soon after the Reform Bill of 1832. Both reformed the voting rights by extending them to each male person who had lived within 7 miles of the borough for the previous six months. Towns with a population of 6000 were divided into wards, with rules for voting rights. The act introduced the term municipal borough. A very important feature of the act required audited accounts on the monies received and spent.

Key dates for overprints

1835 MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ACT

Established directly elected corporate boroughs in place of the self-elected medieval corporations that had become widely discredited.

1888 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT

Established 62 elected county councils, including London County Council, and 61 all-purpose county borough councils in England and Wales.

1894 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT

Revives parish councils and establishes 535 Urban District Councils, 472 Rural District Councils, and 270 non-county Borough Councils.

1899 LONDON GOVERNMENT ACT

Sets up 28 metropolitan borough councils in London and the Corporation of London.

1963 LONDON GOVERNMENT ACT

Creates 32 London Boroughs and a Greater London Council (GLC)

In 1972, the year after receipts were discontinued the Local Government Act removed County Borough Councils, reduces the number of County Councils in England and Wales to 47, establishes 6 Metropolitan County Councils and 36 Metropolitan District Councils and replaces the Urban and Rural District Councils with 334 District Councils that were allowed to petition for a charter confirming the status of borough.


Resources


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