Memories of Willsbridge

historybuff, on August 9, 2007, said:

Memories of Willsbridge

When Willsbridge Post Office closed last year, it ended 185 years of postal service. George Burgess, landlord of the Queen's Head, had started it all with his Post Receiving House run from the pub and adjoining house. Burgess stamped the mail and a post boy collected it until 1828 when a mail coach called.

It was not until 1901 that the post office moved to a cottage in Brockham Terrace which had been a grocer's shop since about 1880. Alfred Bence and family were the first to run the Post Office from here and they did so for almost 40 years.

Mail was sorted in an old blacksmith's forge next door (an archway is still visible) where Miss Dorothy Bence, purveyor of postcards, stamps, hairgrips, Fry's chocolate and Lyon's tea, scolded the schoolboys who liked to tease her. Queen's Head publicans had also been butchers, on and off, for 200 years and by 1900 a converted stable near the alehouse was still Willsbridge's chief slaughtering site.

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