Description

Canvey Island Local Post 50p stamp, issued on 18 November 2024 and celebrating the horse-drawn Hester’s Monorail, from 1902, as part of CILP’s local history series.

As the CILP website notes, the enterprise was established by property developer Frederick Hester to connect the mainline railway station with Hester’s own Canvey Island developments. However, the monorail’s operation was short-lived – lasting only a season or two – and described by the CanveyIsland.org website as a “rather dismal contraption”.

The stamp shows the monorail carrying visitors – including a dog! – on one of its journeys.

The print run of this stamp was limited to just 160 copies.

U/M / Unmounted Mint / MNH / Mint Never Hinged.

About Canvey Island

Canvey Island itself is both an island and a town that can be found in the Thames Estuary, near Southend, with road bridges crossing the creeks that separate it from the rest of Essex.

Canvey Island Local Post (CILP), meanwhile, badges itself as a “private non-commercial local post”, dedicated “to the promotion of Cinderella stamps, postcard collecting, modern local posts (philopoly) and the history and development of Canvey Island”, and has operated since 2010.

Most recently, new issues have been released throughout 2023 and beyond after CILP took a production break for over a year.

The well-maintained website at canveypost.org features regular news updates and a full catalogue of past issues up to 2021.