Provincial Airways - The Air Covers

Provincial Airways Flights of the 25th November 1933 and 26th November 1933.

There were only two mail carrying flights of this airline. The first on the 25th flew from Croydon to Southampton and then on to Plymouth. On the 26th the aircraft came back and called at Southampton but due to inclement weather was not able to get to Croydon and had to land at Heston. The basic six covers are shown below. There were two cachets ‘West of England Air Service’ and ‘First Flight’. They may occur together. There were two Plymouth cachets. The first says Provincial Airways Limited and has two lines in the middle. The second much scarcer type says Provincial Airways Ltd and has just the date in the middle.

There was a round flight which may have been twenty covers. The cover flew down from Croydon on the 25th and the label has a Croydon cancel. Then on the 26th the cover came back to London and this time has the Plymouth cancel on its own and not cancelling a label.

London to Southampton 25th November 1933

London to Plymouth 25th November 1933

Southampton to Plymouth 25th November 1933

Plymouth to Southampton 26th November 1933

Plymouth to London 26th November 1933

Southampton to London 26th November 1933

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Mail in 1935

In July 2020 two covers appeared for sale at Cavendish Auctions. They purported to be first flight covers on the new Plymouth - Hull route which according to Stroud started on the 4th March 1935. It is difficult to get definitive information on this service but we do know that by April 15th it had extended to Penzance and starting at Hull at 8.15 am it flew Hull - Grimsby - Nottingham - Leicester - Southampton - Bournemouth - Torquay - Plymouth - Newquay - Penzance where it arrived at 12.55. It connected with the London service at Southampton. It is likely that this service started earlier than stated by Stroud. The entry for Provincial in ‘Airlines of the British Isles’ says the service started early February but does not give a date. Although I did not bid for the items Cavendish sent me scans which I show below. They appear somewhat dubious. The postmark needs to be of the destination address not the originating address. The way souvenir mails such as these would work is they would be given to the pilot at the start of the journey and at the destination he would post them as normal mail. None of these apply here. The question therefore is how they could have ever flown. If they were posted in Leicester or Southampton for Hull or Nottingham they would have gone by train. They would not have been taken to a Provincial plane and flown. I am not totally dismissing their authenticity just pointing out some serious issues.

This is an example of the much scarcer type 2 cachet where only the date is in the middle of the stamp.

A few covers that were flown from London to Portsmouth and Plymouth were for souvenir purposes only and not intended for handling by the Post Office and this is an example. However, this example entered the postal system where it received the 3d to pay 723 and boxed insufficiently paid. At Eastleigh, the postage due was applied on the 27th November but on delivery the Post Office was closed, thus it received the violet cancellation ‘Charge not Collected’ and manuscript in red. It was subsequently delivered on the 6th December. The label is from the second printing position 1.