As a service to
collectors Royal Mail has a number of pictorial postmarks in use for different
cities. Each postmark shows a famous landmark and is available at one of the
Special Handstamp Centres.
The Europa
stamps 2017 have the central theme 'castles'. The British stamp has Windsor
Castle on it. Since there is just one Europa stamp and it is only possible to
buy the complete series of six stamps, I decided to use two stamps to obtain
the Windsor postmark. The envelope was sent back in a plastic bag, a perfect
service by Royal Mail.
Windsor Castle
is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is
notable for its long association with the English and later British royal
family and for its architecture. The original castle was built in the 11th
century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Since
the time of Henry I, it has been used by the reigning monarch and is the longest-occupied
palace in Europe. The castle's lavish early 19th-century State Apartments were
described as "a superb and unrivalled sequence of rooms widely regarded as
the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste". Inside
the castle walls is the 15th-century St George's Chapel, considered to be
"one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic"
design. Originally
designed to protect Norman dominance around the outskirts of London and oversee
a strategically important part of the River Thames, Windsor Castle was built as
a motte-and-bailey, with three wards surrounding a central mound. Gradually
replaced with stone fortifications, the castle withstood a prolonged siege
during the First Barons' War at the start of the 13th century. Henry III built
a luxurious royal palace within the castle during the middle of the century,
and Edward III went further, rebuilding the palace to make an even grander set
of buildings in what would become "the most expensive secular building
project of the entire Middle Ages in England". Edward's core design lasted
through the Tudor period, during which Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made
increasing use of the castle as a royal court and centre for diplomatic
entertainment.
Windsor Castle
survived the tumultuous period of the English Civil War, when it was used as a
military headquarters by Parliamentary forces and a prison for Charles I. At
the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II rebuilt much of Windsor
Castle with the help of the architect Hugh May, creating a set of extravagant
Baroque interiors that are still admired. After a period of neglect during the
18th century, George III and George IV renovated and rebuilt Charles II's
palace at colossal expense, producing the current design of the State
Apartments, full of Rococo, Gothic and Baroque furnishings. Queen Victoria made
a few minor changes to the castle, which became the centre for royal
entertainment for much of her reign. Windsor Castle was used as a refuge by the
royal family during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns of the Second World War and
survived a fire in 1992. It is a popular tourist attraction, a venue for
hosting state visits, and the preferred weekend home of Elizabeth II.
The postmark
(number 4680) can be obtained by writing to London Special Handstamp Center, Royal
Mail, Mount Pleasant, Farringdon Road, London, EC1A 1BB, United Kingdom.
Images of all
pictorial postmarks can be seen on the website of Norvik Philatelics: norphil.co.uk/postmarks/perm.
Date sent: 18 April
2017
Date postmark: 24
April 2017
Date received: 26
April 2017
Number of days: 8
Envelope in
collection: 18
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