Today more and more collectors are turning to the somewhat esoteric areas of philately. Many are probably disgusted by the endless avalanche of new stamp issues from countries which previously were respected for their serious new issue policies. Other collectors are attracted by the many discoveries to be made in the unmapped philatelic territories. Whatever the reasons, our stamp hobby has developed a lot in recent years.

Stamp News is proof of this development with monthly columns devoted to Cinderellas and Revenues.

Most Stamp News readers will probably never have heard about Brecqhou, a tiny island located just 80 yards west of Sark, one of the Channel Islands. The island achieved a certain degree of philatelic fame way back in 1969 when it released a set of six stamps. Rather interestingly, the Brecqhou stamps could only be used on September 30, the day of issue, as all local postal services were then banned by the newly established Guernsey Post Office.

The set has six different stamps. The three lowest values illustrate a pigeon in flight. Then there are two stamps depicting the Brecqhou flag. The two-shilling top value shows a helicopter over the island. Reportedly 25,000 sets were printed of which 10,000 were used on first day covers.

Somewhat surprisingly the island’s name is indicated as Brechou on the 1969 stamps (pictured below) while on the printed covers the more correct version of Brecqhou is used. I guess the Brechou variety was an error.

From 1363 until 1681, Brecqhou was owned by the Marchant family in Guernsey and in historical sources it is often referred to as the Île des Marchants (being located very close to France a number of French expressions and place names still seem to be in use today in the Channel Islands).

In 1993, the island was acquired by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay who are the owners of the Daily Telegraph, one of the major British newspapers. The Barclay brothers have built a castle home which they have named Fort Brecqhou.

Brecqhou, being the private home of the Barclays, is not really open to visitors and helicopters are used to ferry people to and from the island. Thus it came as a surprise when Brecqhou resumed issuing stamps in 1999.

There have been a very limited number of new stamps most years ever since. In 2004 there was a £2-stamp honouring the Daily Telegraph. Some of the helicopters serving Brecqhou have been depicted on its stamps. There have also been several Christmas issues.

I understand that some Brecqhou stamps have been used in connection with the preparation of commemorative covers sold in support of different charities.

In recent years the printing quality of Brecqhou stamps has improved a lot. In 2002 there were a couple of stamps depicting the island’s beautiful coastline.

Various sea creatures were depicted on a 2004 issue (pictured above) with each stamp having a face value of £1 (which of course makes a complete set quite expensive). However, it is a delightful issue of interest to topical collectors.

The latest issue (pictured below) appeared in the summer of 2006. Once again printed as a se-tenant block, the four £1 stamps are devoted to butterflies, moths and flowers found on Brecqhou. In my humble opinion a most charming set of stamps.

Your friendly neighbourhood stamp shop probably doesn’t stock these interesting issues. They can be obtained from Brecqhou Developments Ltd., Passee Vinery, St. Sampson, Guernsey, GY2 4GRA, UK. In today’s computerized world readers “down under” will probably get a faster reply by emailing Brecqhou’s philatelic agent at chrisletissier@cwgsy.net.

Do these local stamps serve a real postal need? Probably not but they most certainly are wonderful Cinderellas.

There are several other small Channel islands which operated local posts until 1969. The most famous one is Herm Island which issued some 110 different stamps between 1949 and 1969. Its very first stamp was intended to frank messages sent by pigeon! The Herrn local post service very much was a bona fide local postal service. When it had to close in 1969, the Guernsey P.O. opened a post office on the island which receives thousands of tourists each year.

Inspired by Herm’s success the owners of Jethou, Lihou and Brecqhou also started local posts and issued stamps. These were mostly philatelic in nature although token postal services most certainly existed. Over the years several catalogues of the Channel Islands local posts have been published. The most recent one is Jon Aitchison’s Channel Island Locals.

* Published by kind permission of the Editor of Stamp News Australasia.