Post Offices
Post Offices in Wreningham
The County Directories have been a very useful source of data, although the first Directory to which we have access, from 1838, did not provide details for Wreningham. The nearest Post Office it describes was in the Market Place at Wymondham. Letters arrived in Wymondham (from a south-westerly direction) every morning at eight and were dispatched in the opposite direction at six. Letters from Norwich arrived every evening at six and were dispatched to Norwich each morning at eight. Hence, we might presume Wymondham was a calling point in a service running in and out of Norwich towards London.
Robert Day (snr)
The introduction of the uniform Penny Post, in 1840 resulted in an expansion of the nation’s postal system.
There are references to a Wreningham mail service c1865 and we know that Robert Day was receiving letters at his shop: The Larches, Wymondham Road, by way of Wymondham, from 1865.
See more information about the original shop on the page describing his son: Robert Dennis Day.
By 1869, Letters from Wymondham were received at Robert Day’s shop by 9 am and outgoing letters were collected at 5.30 pm.
James Rattee
In 1875, James Rattee is understood to have become the sub-postmaster although the location of “his” Post Office is unclear. Did he share Robert Day’s shop? The County Directory states the nearest telegraph office was in Wymondham – which remained the case until the end of the 1800s.
Alfred Quantrell
Alfred Quantrell took over the Post Office c1877. He was a man of many trades but was principally known as a farmer; the Post Office moved to his home at Peartree Farm, Wymondham Road. The farm belonged to his father-in-law – George Childs.
A County Directory of 1883 describes the Post Office as including a Money Order Office. Letters now arrived at the Post Office by 8.45 am and were despatched at 5.15 pm.
John Kersey
John Kersey took over the Post Office on 6th January 1885. He was a tailor and lived at the north end of Ashwellthorpe Road. Today, his house is called ‘The Old Post Office’.
He had married Ellen Elmer, a schoolteacher who had worked at Wreningham school on the opposite side of the road. Both were well into middle age at the time of their marriage. Perhaps Ellen served the Post Office customers whilst John concentrated on his tailoring?
Letters still arrived/departed the village at roughly the same times as before. In addition, there was now a ‘Pillar Letter Box’ on Norwich Road – emptied at 5.40 pm on weekdays.
On 29th July 1889 this envelope passed through both “Wrenningham” and Wymondham.
By 1892, an “S B Annuity & Insurance Office” was included within the Post Office. There was also a Mr Arthur Blaxall, Insurance Agent, in Wreningham. Was Arthur Blaxall connected with the insurance office? In which case, did he work alongside John Kersey?
Frederick Bell
In 1904, Frederick Bell became village Postmaster. He was still operating the Post Office from its lean-to shed on the side of John Kersey’s house – see the photograph at the top of this page. Mail now arrived in the village (from Norwich) at 6 am and 2.30 pm and departed at 10.30 am and 6.30 pm. The nearest Telegraph Office was now at Mulbarton and the Pillar Letter Box was emptied twice: at 8.15 am and 6.10 pm – but only on weekdays.
In 1910, Frederick Bell engaged Robert D Day to make some new furniture for the Post Office.
By this time, R D Day’s handwriting was leaving something to be desired! His ledger’s listing appears to describe three drawers mounted into a framework with fitted locks and three keys.
The price was £1 4s and payment was received on August 6th 1910.
Mrs Aves, then William Hill, followed by Mrs Folwell
County Directories appear to be recording a similar story until Mrs Aves took over the Post Office in 1934. She ran it until 1946, followed by William Hill, until he retired in 1950. After him came Mrs Folwell, until 1957.
Mabel Ireland
The final Wreningham Post Office in Wreningham was run by Mabel Ireland. In that same year, Mr L Bateman took over from James Wiseman, who retired from having been the village postman for 50 years.
Mabel relocated the Post Office to a ‘summerhouse’ on the rear of her Toprow home by getting the contents moved on a trailer.
In the autumn of 1963, local carpenter Mr Ford made minor improvements to the Post Office – it was only the size of a small shed! He fitted a new door and a new partition as well as repairing the floor and providing a hardboard covering for the counter and tabletop. His carpentry bill totalled £8 4s 11d.
In 1981, Mabel described her typical working day. George, her husband, would get up at 5 am to collect the sack of mails being delivered to the Wreningham office (after which, he went off to work at The Grange). At 6 am, two local ladies would arrive at the post office to help Mabel sort everything so it would be ready for the postlady. The latter would then set off on her bicycle to make the deliveries around the village. During the busy Christmas period, a second person would help out with the round.
The post always needed to get through, whatever the weather. In snowy conditions, the only difference was that the postlady pushed her bike!
When Mabel started, in 1957, a stamp for sending a sealed envelope cost two and a half old pence; for an unsealed envelope, it was just one old penny. By 1981, the charging system had changed and there was no lower price for posting unsealed envelopes; all standard post was now divided into first or second class deliveries. For standard envelopes, first and second class stamps cost fourteen or eleven and a half (new) pence, respectively. Those were the days!
Mabel and George decided to call it a day in 2001 when the Post Office computerised all its systems (– with the now infamous Horizon system!); she told a local newspaper that she did not consider herself suited to the new technology. By that point, Mabel was 84 and had been providing the village service for 44 years.
After a continuous period of about 140 years, Wreningham no longer had its own Post Office.