Signals the last post

metic. It’s a lot easier now. Everything is quicker.”

While the job placed Sandra and her husband John at the heart of small, friendly community it was sometimes hard work.

Sandra recalls: “I had my son on a Wednesday and then on Thursday evening I had to count up all the pensions. Now it all just comes up on the computer.”

And just 18 months into the job, a pair of robbers, one armed with a gun, attempted to hold up the post office.

But the pair fled when her husband John sounded the alarm. Quick-thinking John, now 70, also noted the registration of the getaway car which allowed the police to catch the robbers shortly afterwards.

John was awarded a commendation by the police.

And there were plenty of other rewards to the job.

Sandra, 68, said: “It’s been lovely. The place is lovely, the people are lovely and I’m sad to see it go.”

The mum-of-two and her husband, a semi-retired plasterer, will be spending some of their retirement touring in their caravan.

But the couple, who live in the post office, won’t be going away for long.

Sandra, who has three grandchildren, said: “We’re staying in the village so we will still see the people.”

She added: “I’d like to thank the villagers.”

Gary Cook, of GCHQ Hair Designers in Brockholes, said they’d worked over the road from Sandra for 15 years.

He said: “She will be very much missed by the Brockholes community.

“She’s been an important part of the community and we’re all going to miss her.

“We’re not going to have a post office anymore and a lot of people in the village do use the post office – even I used to go in for pound coins.”