Sheffield (Woodseats)
South Yorkshire, England

The Sheffield area has seen the growth of what was probably one of the largest Charity run Christmas Posts in the UK. From small beginnings in 1981 (Sheffield & Dronfield only) it has grown to an operation that sells almost one million stamps a year and covers an immense geographical area. For some years it has also exchanged mail with the Chesterfield Scout Post, itself a large operation and via that post also with Barlborough & Spinkhill Post (prior to 2000) which occupies a small area between the Sheffield & Chesterfield delivery areas.

For the first nine years of the Scout Post stamps were not inscribed with the area name, only with the name of the original organising unit "Woodseats Venture Unit". From 1990 onwards The name "Sheffield" was used and these issues can be seen here.

The various Sheffield Districts are part of the Scout County of South Yorkshire.

1981 (December 9th)

Type 1, ?x?mm, designed & printed by P J Stevenson, in sheets of 48 (8 rows of 6 ), perforated about 11. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes.

1982 (November 25th))

Types 2 to 6, 38x32mm, designed & printed by P J Stevenson, perforated about 11. Sheets contain 8 rows of the 5 designs. Covers accidentally posted in Royal Mail boxes received the cachet X1 in purple and were returned to the Sheffield Scout Postal service for delivery. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes.

1983 (December 2nd))

Types 7 to 11, ?x?mm, designed & printed by P J Stevenson, pin-perforated about 11. Sheets contain 8 rows of the 5 designs, offset so that both horizontal & vertical se tenant sets are available. The buildings shown all have postal history connections. Two adjacent stamps in the bottom row of each sheet show a different small flaw affecting two letters. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes.

1984 (November 29th))

Types 12 to 17, ?x?mm, designed & printed by P J Stevenson, pin-perforated about 11. Sheets contain 8 rows of 5 stamps, offset so that vertically se tenant sets of 6 are available. The photographs of the Chief Scouts were supplied by the publicity department at Scout HQ. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes. An insert card gave potted biographies of the six Chief Scouts.

1985 (November 29th))

Types 18 to 22, ?x?mm, designed by Barbara Mitchell-Kirk, printed by Henry Boot Design & Print Ltd, Chesterfield, line rouletted about 10. Sheets of 25 (5 rows of 5) with each row and column containing a complete set. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes. A limited number were signed by the artist.

1986 (November 28th))

Types 23 to 27, 30x40mm, designed by Barbara Mitchell-Kirk, printed by Henry Boot Design & Print Ltd, Chesterfield, line rouletted about 10. Sheets of 25 (5 rows of 5) with each row and column containing a complete set. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes. A limited number were signed by the artist.

1987 (November 27th))

Types 28 to 32, 30x40mm, designed by Barbara Mitchell-Kirk, printed by Henry Boot Design & Print Ltd, Chesterfield, line rouletted about 10. Sheets of 25 (5 rows of 5) with each row and column containing a complete set. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes. A limited number were signed by the artist.

A severe vertical colour shift affected part of the print run.

The magenta colour was omitted in part of the print run.

1988 (November 29th))

Types 33 to 37, 30x40mm, designed by Barbara Mitchell-Kirk, printed by Henry Boot Design & Print Ltd, Chesterfield, line rouletted about 10. Sheets of 25 (5 rows of 5) with each row and column containing a complete set. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes.

A severe vertical colour shift affected part of the print run.

Several colours were omitted in part of the print run.

1989 (November 30th))

Types 38 to 42, 30x40mm, designed by Barbara Mitchell-Kirk, printed by Henry Boot Design & Print Ltd, Chesterfield, line rouletted about 10. Sheets of 25 (5 rows of 5) with each row and column containing a complete set. First day covers were produced on special locally designed envelopes.

Cancellations

Type P1 - used in 1981 on FDCs and ordinary post.

Types P2 to P9 - special cancels used only on FDCs and specific to each year.

Type P10 - used in 1982 ordinary post.

A selection of Unit-specific cancellations can be seen at the end of the Sheffield page here.

A range of undated "number in circle" cancellations were used for general mail - examples of those seen by the compiler can be seen here.

Type X1 - used occasionally when the Post Office returned wrongly posted cards to the Woodseats post.

Statistics

Year	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990
Start	Dec 9	Nov 25	Dec 2	Nov 29	Nov 29	Nov 28	Nov 27	Nov 29	Nov 30	None
Printed	60,000	400,000	.	1,000,000	1,000,000	.	.	.	.	None
Carried	11,500	184,000	323,000	509,000	544,000	625,000	784,551	821,000	940,000	None

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Sheffield (Woodseats)South Yorkshire, England