Joyce closes the door on 56 years at Herefordshire post office (From Hereford Times)

Joyce closes the door on 56 years at Herefordshire post office

1:00pm Sunday 7th December 2008 in News

Joyce Lewis leaves Sutton St Nicholas Post Office for the last time. 084814-1. Picture by David Griffiths.

ONE of the UK’s longest-serving post office workers has been forced to retire because of a branch closure.

Joyce Lewis, aged 78, closed the Sutton St Nicholas branch for the last time last Wednesday – bringing five decades of service to an end.

The widow, who has lived in the village almost all her life, became post mistress after her mother died in April 1952.

Cutbacks saw the branch reduced to half-day trading, three days a week, before post office chiefs finally wielded the axe last month. Mrs Lewis can now reflect on a job well done, but worries about the people she’s leaving behind.

“It’s all very well for the Post Office to say there’s a bus to Marden but people will have to wait there an hour before getting back,” she said.

“This isn’t your usual post office. My favourite part is meeting people and one of my customers is 102.

“There’s no doubt I’m going to miss people but I’ve got other things to do, like getting out in the garden.”

The Sutton St Nicholas branch is the first to close in Herefordshire as part of Post Office Ltd plans to close 11 county branches. A further eight will operate under an outreach programme with a reduced service, operating period or change of location.