Saturday, June 10, 2017

Great Brington, Northamptonshire


Hub

In the town where I live (population roughly 6,000) the Post Office has closed and we now have a Post Office counter in the town’s branch of the Co-op. The Co-op staff do very well in the small space allocated to this in my view important function, and they open longer hours than the Post Office did, but it’s still not the same.

How refreshing then, to find small villages where the Post Office still functions. Here’s the Post Office in Great Brington, which seems to be going strong, the archetypal village Post Office with stone walls under, thatched roof, and tiny shop window – presumably it was once a cottage but no matter, its central location is the most important thing. Post Offices are local hubs, places where people meet, talk, exchange news, read notices, and network, and this function is nearly as important as the posting of letters and parcels, and the doing of the many other small financial and administrative tasks that Post Offices still perform, even in their somewhat diminished modern form. Perhaps the fact that a bench has generously been provided on the pavement outside reflects this role of the Post Office as a local centre.
Clearly this Post Office has been doing the business for decades. I found a 1922 photograph of it online, with its Post Office sign up and another sign telling customers that the services on offer then included ‘money orders, savings bank, parcel post, telegraph, insurance and annuity business’. That sign has gone, but the worn wooden Post Office sign, also visible in the 1922 photograph, is still there, faded but just about legible. It’s not exactly essential – the letter box (a George VI era wall box) and red sign above the door tell us where we are. But it is pleasing that it’s still here to remind us of the office’s long history.
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6 comments:

  1. Joe TreasureJune 10, 2017 at 8:40 PM

    A particularly picturesque example, Phil. But as you say, aesthetics aside, the post office has been an essential hub. Woodmancote Post Office (nr Bishop's Cleeve, Glos) 1956-62. We knew the post mistress by name (it might come to me later) from regular visits to collect family allowance, put money into savings accounts, mail parcels to Ireland. I still own the £1 premium bond my mother bought in the local post office (Hester's Way?) when I born.

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  2. Philip WilkinsonJune 11, 2017 at 10:41 AM

    Was that a thing, buying a £1 premium bond for a new child? I have one, too, probably bought somewhere in rural Lincolnshire.

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  3. Joe TreasureJune 11, 2017 at 3:02 PM

    Perhaps it was a modest alternative to a silver christening spoon. As far as I know we all had one in our family.

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  4. HelsJune 12, 2017 at 3:03 AM

    Our post office is still intact thank goodness, but now it has added more profitable elements - selling stationery, magazines, birthday cards etc. I much prefer your description of the archetypal village Post Office as having stone walls, tiny shop window, letter box and outside bench. Perhaps not the thatched roof.

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  5. Peter AshleyJune 13, 2017 at 11:12 AM

    One of my all time favourite village post offices is, in fact, my local in Medbourne. Dog food next to stacks of newspapers, Malteser Cake in the cabinet and the original bronzed security mesh around the post office bit.

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  6. Philip WilkinsonJune 13, 2017 at 11:16 AM

    Peter: Thank you for reminding me about Medbourne and its excellent Post Office - you took me there once to admire the mesh. I hope it will carry on providing the valuable service it offers to Medbourne and the surrounding villages.

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