Postal Services
Title
Description
Postal Service
In 1852 & 1868 Richard Holland ran a PO at Sisley and Joseph Workman ran one in Chalford.
Post Office
Information from "Home Words", a parish magazine copies of which were read by Paddy Farroll and notes made:
November 1887 "The vicar, with the kind assistance of George Holloway MP has been successful in obtaining a Post Office for Oakridge Lynch. Postmistress Caroline Hunt, deputy, Elizabeth Hunt."
Directory of 1889 records PO run by Caroline Hunt (who is listed as grocer in 1891 census) and In 1894 directory Caroline hunt again recorded as Postmistress. Apparently Caroline and Elizabeth Hunt lived in the cottage now known as The Old Post Office and Jane Wright continued to run the PO there.
Mary Jane Wright took over on 11 Feb 1896 and appears in 1897 directory as postmistress. She carried out business from her house, The Old Post Office, and people remember the stone flagged floor and the long wooden counter. Bob recalls that on Wednesday afternoons when the PO was closed Jane and Ivy Wright would come to see his mother at the Taut to have their teacups read.
Extract from Stroud News and Journal June 1947 :
"Sub-Postmistress for 51 Years. Birthday List honours Oakridge Resident" aged 74, Mary Jane Wright awarded British Empire Medal. She took over Post Office on 11 Feb 1896 on death of her aunt and has continued ever since. Said she could remember when a letter could be posted for one penny and has since seen it gradually increase until the present two pence halfpenny.
The letters and parcels used to be brought to the Post Office and taken away by the late Mr George Workman.
Mrs Wright lost her husband some 15 years ago and is managing the dutires of the Post Office with her daughter, Miss I Wright."
1948 - 1973
After Jane Wright, Edris Pankhurst took over as Postmistress
1973 - 1985 Cox
es ran the PO from a shop in front of Highridge
1985 - 1994
Ralph and Peggy Turner ran the PO from Highridge
1994 - 2007
Kim Gorny took over shop and PO at Highridge.
2007 - present
Kim moved the shop and PO across the road to Cherryoaks.
Post Boxes
On the 1885 map there was a post box next to Wells Close in Oakridge Lynch and a box in wall marked in Far Oakridge.
1889 wall letter boxes listed at Far Oakridge and Tunley.
1922 map shows Oakrdige PO at Old Post Office and there was a post box in the wall alongside.
1902 and 1922 maps show Waterlane post box beside Post Cottage. It was originally in the wall of the cottage then mounted on a post in the verge alongside.
1922 maps show boxes in Tunley and in Bournes Green in same place as currently.
Harry Couldrey recalled that the first post box in Oakridge Lynch was installed in the cottage behind Brian (now Hope) Cottage on ground now owned by Hungerford.
Bob can recall his Dad helping to replace the Victoria box with a George box.
Bournes Green box is a Victorian box with VR embossed Tunley post box is Georgian with GR embossed.
Far Oakridge and Oakridge Lynch are Elizabethan boxes with E 11 R embossed.
Postal Delivery
Mr Bridgeman from Millfield collected post from the Waterlane box in the 1930s.
George Workman is mentioned in Stroud N&J article as delivering to Oakridge PO.
Hilda Gardiner delivered in Waterlane, Oakridge and Far Oakridge all through WW2 and got a British Empire Medal for this. She lodged in Horns Road and brought the van up from Stroud with the post each day.
Queenie Pearman delivered in Tunley, walking round from Sapperton where she picked up the post.
Bill Pankhurst Remembers, 26th March 2015
Edris Pankhurst was postmistress for 25 years (was given a certificate of 25years service by Post Office) from 1948 to 1973.
Post Office ran from her shop - first a wooden construction that ran the length of the drive at the top of Woodbine Cottage's boundary, then this was replaced in 1965 by a concrete building still standing at the corner of footpath and road.
Edris ran the shop for about 10 years before becoming postmistress - indeed she didn't want to become postmistress because of the responsibility but noone else was willing to take on the job when Jane Wright retired. She took over as postmistress from Jane Wright who had carried out the role direct from home in Old Post Office. Jane Wright did not run a shop alongside the PO business.
In 1965 it became necessary to replace the wooden shop structure (part of this structure had previously formed the shop at The Cottage where Edris worked before running the shop from her own premises, so it was quite elderly) because it was felt that the villagers needed a shop in the village, Edris organised the building of the new concrete structure. The post box was in the wall beside the shop. However, Bill remembers that his mother wished she had known that the Coxes were going to come and provide another shop within a couple of years because she might not then have undertaken the replacement of the structure. The concrete structure still stands and a small part of the wooden structure was converted to a shed tower in the garden and it is still there.
There was a telephone in the shop as long as Bill can remember and he assumes it was there throughout the time the shop was a Post Office. The telephone box opposite Woodbine Cottage was placed there during the 1930s. It is still operational, though only using a card.
Edris retired in 1973 and Cox took over as postmistress then. The Coxes had set up a shop in front of Highridge in 1967.
Extract from the Stroud News and Journal 20th June 1947
"Sub-Postmistress for 51 Years. Birthday List honours Oakridge Resident"
Aged 74, Mary Jane Wright awarded British Empire Medal.
She took over Post Office on 11 Feb 1896 on death of her aunt and has continued ever since. Said she could remember when a letter could be posted for one penny and has since seen it gradually increase until the present two pence halfpenny.
The letters and parcels used to be brought to the Post Office and taken away by the late Mr George Workman.
Mrs Wright lost her husband some 15 years ago and is managing the dutires of the Post Office with her daughter, Miss I Wright.
Source
Contributor
Relation
Gloucester History, 1993 Article by George Cole "Postal Reforms and Gloucestershire's Postal History"
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