Description
Attractive privately produced £1 Bardsey stamp, issued on 8 August 2024, depicting the island’s distinctive lighthouse with its red and white horizontal stripes.
The lighthouse was established by Trinity House in 1821, and has been automated since 1987. It has the distinction of also being the tallest square tower lighthouse in the UK.
This particular stamp features the island’s name misspelled as “Bardsley”, perhaps a deliberate nod to the 1990s Bardsey Princess Diana issues – also privately produced, but from a different source – that included that same error. This 2024 issue was subsequently reprinted with the correct spelling.
U/M / Unmounted Mint / MNH / Mint Never Hinged.
About Bardsey
Bardsey (Ynys Enlli) is an island located two miles off the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, and owned by the Bardsey Island Trust since 1979.
Between 1979 and 1982, the Trust issued local carriage labels for its own postal operation, to supplement the one-day-a-week service provided by the British Post Office, and to help generate funds to support the Trust's work managing the island. At least fifteen well-designed issues were produced over this period, printed by Format International Security Printers Ltd, though the extent to which they performed a genuine postal function is unclear. This excellent article includes further background and illustrations relating to Bardsey's stamps during that period.
Further issues bearing the island's name appeared throughout the 1980s and 1990s, though many of these were just overprints on earlier releases, produced in seemingly small quantities and, as far as we can tell, not sanctioned by the Bardsey Island Trust.
In 2015, an attractive new £1 stamp and £3 miniature sheet inscribed with the Bardsey name appeared, followed by a label depicting Bardsey lighthouse in 2017 and another lighthouse issue in 2024. However, these too are privately produced fantasy issues, rather than a resumption of 'official' Trust-issued Bardsey stamps.
For more about Bardsey's postal history, read our own blog post here.
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