FOLLOWING the closure of the Chagford Post Office earlier this month, the former subpostmaster has told the Times of her difficult decision to end her contract with the company.

Anne Thorn held the role of subpostmaster in Chagford for 21 years, after taking over from her uncle as a favour to him. Now in her late 60s, Anne decided to retire after working on longer than she had intended to and doing all she could to try to sell the business on.

Anne’s uncle Douglas Thorn was subpostmaster at Chagford for nearly 40 years and before that worked as a delivery postman in the area. Anne had worked as a nurse for most of her career and moved back to the area with her two young children in 1991 from the USA.

Douglas had wanted Anne’s brother to take over from him at the post office but he was not keen and as Anne was ‘at a loose end’ she agreed to take it on for a short while.

‘I just kind of fell into it,’ Anne said. ‘I said I would do it for five years. After the five years my uncle begged me to stay on — and here I am. The last five years have not been so much fun due to changes in the Post Office Ltd system — still the same amount of work to do but they keep cutting the salary down.

‘I wanted to keep a postal service for the community so I put the business on the market in 2012. I didn’t get a lot of interest — a couple of people came to have a look. The Post Office has changed the rules now and they can’t sell it on the existing contract. We were getting a subsidy but if someone came in on a new contract, they wouldn’t get that sort of support.’

Anne said the Post Office will no longer support free standing post offices such as the one in Chagford; the company now prefers the postal service to be sited in another retailer in the area, but no such site could be found at the time.

‘It’s a real shame it had to go. These days people don’t use the post office as much as they used to. Most people go online now but for older people it can be a struggle. I can see it from both sides.’

Anne is now enjoying retirement, spending more time with her dog, has plans for travelling and hopes to get back into gardening.

A temporary hosted outreach service has been set up at the Jubilee Hall while Post Office Ltd looks for a more permanent solution for the area. Undelivered mail can be picked up from the Post Office at Moretonhampstead.