There are three of us waiting round the sunken steps.
We’re heading in @JennyAssis. The exhibition is in the building nearest to the lake. Let us know if you can’t find us 
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Photos, before I completely forget! Thanks all for coming, it was so great to meet you; we both had a great afternoon and I’m glad everyone’s enjoyed yourselves too 
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I had a great time too, everyone was so nice and i really enjoyed my first meet-up! I really hope we can do it again! 
Thank you everyone for making it a good laugh and a special thank you to @BriJN for organising it
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Thank you all for a super afternoon. Was lovely meeting everyone. Hope to see some of you again soon.
@BriJN @ZoeJN @jobloggs thanks again for all your hard work in organizing.
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I can take no credit! I’m looking forward to a Manchester and / or Liverpool meet up now Simon 
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Thank you everyone, it was lovely to meet you all!
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Thank you for a lovely afternoon…
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Hi guys
I’ve had a couple of questions about the special postmarks from Royal Mail that I showed some of you earlier… happy to share a few pointers here … Disclaimer: I don’t claim to be an expert… This is just knowledge I’ve picked up with the help of other users - notably the great @Maddymail during my time on Postcrossing and on the BI Forum.
The monthly Postmark bulletin can be accessed in PDF format here https://www.royalmail.com/postmarks
There are generally a number of temporary monthly postmarks - which often tie into commemorative stamp issues and then a number of permanent special postmarks which as the name suggests are permanently available.
Royal Mail operates two special handstamp centres - one in London (Mount Pleasant) and one in Edinburgh (Tallents House). The respective addresses can be found in the Postmark bulletin on P2, along with the email address and telephone number of the Special Handstamp team.
Once you have selected the postmark you would like, prepare and address your postcard as normal and apply sufficient UK postage to its intended final destination.
The Handstamp centre you need to send the item to is listed in the Postmark bulletin, either on the top of the page (in the case of temporary postmarks) or in the list / guidance notes in the case of permanent postmarks.
Once you know which postmark you want and to which Handstamp Centre you need to send your item, prepare an envelope with the address of the Handstamp team you are sending your item to. On the second line of the address, insert the reference number of the Handstamp you wish to have applied prefixed by a “#”. Add the rest of the address and the relevant UK postage to this envelope (ie first or second class as you wish).
Place the item you wish to have postmarked inside this envelope and post the item in the normal way. An example of a completed envelope ready to go the the relevant Handstamp centre is attached to this post for reference purposes.
Upon arrival at the relevant Hand Stamp Centre, the item will be opened and have the relevant Hand Stamp applied. It will then be placed in a plastic wallet (to prevent any further marks being added during its return journey through the postal system) and placed back into the post to be delivered to the recipient whose address was originally added to the item.
I’ve always sent one item per envelope, I don’t know if this is official policy but the first time I sent more than one item for different people in the same envelope they all ended up with the person whose address was on the top postcard. So I’ve done one per envelope since then, others may be able to comment as to whether this is official policy…
The above, to my knowledge, only applies to special postmarks, I have no idea how First Day covers work. Maybe again others on here can advise… ?
Finally, give the postmark bulletin itself a read as the opening preamble does give useful information / instructions. I hope this is useful as a start for you guys though…
@Maddymail - any glaring errors / omissions here to your mind ? PS - we missed you today!
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I had sent 10 to 14 postcards and they all reached their destination.
Thank you @BriJN for organizing this meetup.
It was definitely a record in sign in postcards! LOL
Nothing like a meetup to make us to visit new places, meet new Postcrossers and sometimes just put faces at the names that you already know. Xx
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Had a great time today, thanks everyone for organising/stamping/writingyournamebecauseyouforgotyourstamp 
(delete as applicable)
Even better, when I got back to my house there were two postcards waiting on my doormat!
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Thanks for all your support folks, couldn’t have done it without you all
I posted a picture of our trolley in another thread if anyone’s interested in what it looks like 
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Ooh i love it! And Honey has got in on the photo too 
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She is a diva, likes to make it awkward to photograph her when I want to and then muscle in on every other photo I take!
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Thank you so much for organising this @BriJN
It was really nice to meet you all - you’re all so nice and easy to talk to. It was such a great atmosphere.
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Hello! Would anyone like to exchange the meet-up card to any of mine?
You all look like you had a grand time! But for pre-existing plans I would have been there too. Hopefully there’ll be another Meet-up in Nottingham or elsewhere in the East Midlands soon!
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I couldn’t put it better myself,
everyone does things in slightly different way, I usually add the postmark number on the reverse of my envelopes and I usually enclose an covering letter to the handstamp team with the postmark and date required (on occasions the handstamp teams will backdate postmarks, so if you guys want to send off for the Nottingham Permanent Postmark tomorrow or in the next few days, I’m sure the team will happy to backdate and endorse with the ‘3rd Feb 24’)
During COVID there was a limit to five items of mail to be postmarked, and I for some reason have kept to that rule, but I have known other to send 10-15-20 items for postmarking with no problems.
‘First Day of Issue’ or FDI postmarks can only be applied to the relevant new stamp issue, for example if you want one of those new Weather Cloud FDI postmarks only the new 2024 Weather stamps can be used and not older or other issues.
@simmo11 well get round to posting a Wikki on the British Isles section, I used to have one, but deleted it as someone from RM told me some of the information at the time wasn’t correct.
The handstamp teams have been most helpful in recent years with literature and telephone conversations in the past.
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