The Story of Totley Rise Post Office
As the Post Office on Totley Rise moves premises into the newsagents it is interesting to look back over the 130 years of its existence. There had been a post office on the corner of Hillfoot Road in Totley from the 1860s, developing from an initial postal de-livery service provided by the Sheffield - Bakewell mail coach and Totley’s first postman, Joseph Baxby.
Following the opening of Dore and Totley Railway Station in 1872 and the building of substantial residential properties in the Baslow Road area meant businessmen were moving here. A request had been made for a more local post office service, then with the arrival of the Midland Railway Company to build the Totley Tunnel (1889-92) it became an urgent necessity. This was at a time when virtually all communication between businesses, friends and family was sent by letter, or more often in a short sentence on the back of a postcard. There were up to six collections a day and three deliveries, and it has been said that a card posted in the morning might be expected to arrive at its destination the same evening! For a more urgent message there was the Telegraph service that received and delivered telegrams.
‘Totley Rise Sub Post Office’ was given its license and name in 1889 and was initially run from the top shop, no.71 Baslow Road, coincidentally to where it has just returned. At that time this was John Gill’s grocery store and beer off, one of the shops to be established on The Rise just a few years earlier when nos. 67, 69 and 71 were built specifically for that purpose.
In 1900 the post office moved into no. 63, Selby and Mary Wolstenholme’s drapery shop, but finally settled at no.67 in 1908 where Miss Fanny Booker combined her role as sub-postmistress with running her confectionary shop and refreshment rooms. This is where the Post Office was to remain for more than a century. As the sender and receiver of telegrams Miss Booker would have been the first in Totley Rise to hear of important events relating to the local residents, her discretion being essential… perhaps the joy of a grandchild’s safe arrival was news that would soon be shared, but one suspects there would be many private and sad messages too. Was she the first to hear of the death of a soldier, one of Totley’s sons fighting in WWI? Having to pass the sealed envelope to the telegram boy for him to deliver, a family’s life changed forever. On a more practical note we have the certificate of insurance she took out in 1915 covering any illness or accident that might befall her ‘One Messenger’ in the service of the Post Office. His wage was de -clared as £20 per annum and the insurance premium 4/- (20p).
Circa 1910: Looking remarkably like it did when it closed in July.
When Fanny retired in 1931, Ernest Jackson took over as postmaster and was to run the business for more than fifty years. His wife Annie worked behind the counter, having first come to Totley Rise as Miss Booker’s assistant. She had worked in Calver, Banner Cross and the Moor post offices and brought with her a glowing reference. She was able to run the service at Totley Rise during the hiatus between Fanny’s departure and the formalities of Ernest’s ap-pointment being completed. She and Ernest also married in 1931 but it was business as usual on the following Monday, finding time for their honeymoon only some twelve months later!
Hours of work were listed in his terms of employment. They were long and spread over the full week, to include a half-day on Saturday and from 9.00-10.30am on Sunday. Presumably that was to do with the Sunday collection needing sorting. The post office was also a sorting office at this time, ceasing only in 1950 when rapid growth in Totley’s housing had meant the volume of mail became too great for the sub post office to handle.
In 1968 Annie received an award from Sheffield’s Head Postmaster, acknowledging her part in helping the police to catch a man who had robbed Highfield Post Office. She had realised that he was cashing stolen postal orders and immediately contacted the police. As a result he was apprehended shortly afterwards and given a prison sentence of three years for the theft of over £15,000 in cash, postal and money orders. By the time she retired she had worked in sub post offices for an amazing sixty-five years.
Annie Jackson's letter of thanks from the Assistant Head Postmaster.
Jim Webb was the postmaster to take over in 1982, making changes to the layout of the shop and concentrating on the sale of cards and stationary. In Ernest and Annie’s time it had sold an eclectic mix of essentials, from pots and pans to hairnets.
And so to the final postmaster and postmistress at no.67, Lindsay and Kathy Garrad, who came in 2002 and have just passed the baton to the newsagent, Mr ‘Kaj’ Kajeeban. Let’s hope our Post Office is never taken away from us, a misfortune that has befallen so many other communities in recent years. Bank there, get your cash there, get your holiday money, pick up your on-line orders there. Use it as much as you can to show the powers that be that we still need our Post Office in Totley Rise.
Pauline Burnett
August 2018