Postmistress celebrates 50 years running Post Office from Hellidon home
Jenny Fell has been a postmistress for half a century
Popular postmistress Jenny Fell says she doesn't plan on retiring any time soon, as she celebrates running Hellidon Post Office for the past 50 years.
She says serving her village part-time, from her own home, has giving her a great work-life balance.
In the past half a century Jenny has been able to juggle earning money, provide vital Post Offices to her rural Northants village of Hellidon and to raise her family.
Whilst working she also managed to studying for and gain a degree with the Open University and a local history diploma with Leicester University.
Jenny has a passion for local history and has written a book on the history of Hellidon and several smaller guides.
Community-minded Jenny has also been clerk of the parish for 13 years, as well as being joint editor, for over 20 years of the Parish News, which covered three villages.
Jenny, who likes to be busy, also found time to do Meals on Wheels, prison visiting in a local prison and to run a brownie group in a nearby village.
When Jenny and her husband Tony moved to Hellidon in 1966, the Post Office was located in a little room inside The Red Lion. They were told that at that time it was the only licensed premises with that facility. This worked until the Red Lion changed hands.
Hellidon Post Office then moved to the Village Hall, but the conditions for people working there were cold and basic, so the vacancy was advertised by the Parish Council. Jenny successfully applied to take on the Post Office at her home. Husband, Tony, made the necessary adaptations, and built a counter in their hallway. Hellidon Post Office has been at their home since 11 November 1974 - Armistice Day.
Postmistress, Jenny Fell, said: “I’d previously qualified and worked as a technician in the Pathological Laboratory at Coventry Hospital until I started a family. But when our second son started school, I applied for my old job, which I didn’t get it as I’d and asked for unpaid leave for school holidays. However, applying for the Post Office position was welcomed quickly and with enthusiasm, as the Post Office didn’t want to lose this service in Hellidon.
“On the day I started as Hellidon’s Postmistress, I then heard from the Path Lab that I could also start there. I chose to stick with the Post Office and I have not regretted my choice. For one thing, it meant that I was always at home if either of my children was ill and in school holidays, I could keep the service going too. I love serving my community.”
Hellidon’s first Post Office opened in 1841 in one of a row of three small cottages overlooking the village green. Today, her Post Office is in that same location, in her home which was converted from the three cottages to one house in the mid twentieth century. In the intervening years the Post Office has been situated in a few different homes and was the reason in one case for it to be the first home with a telephone in Hellidon.
At the time that Jenny started as a Postmistress a second-class stamp was 3p and a first class was 3½p. The tiny half pence coin was still currency and wasn’t phased out until 1984, which made accounting a lot easier.
Jenny said: “I have enjoyed the prominent role the village Post Office now has in the community, which extends beyond selling postage stamps to that of a general source of helpful information.
“I’ve seen lots of changes within the Post Office, probably the most significant was the introduction of the Horizon computer system instead of paper-based accounts. By that time, we’d relocated the Post Office to an annexe which my husband had built onto our home and the counter had to be enlarged to accommodate the computer.”
Post Office Area Manager, Karen McIlroy, said: “It’s impressive that Jenifer has been the postmistress for Hellidon for half-a-century. Jenny has been at the heart of Hellidon village for the past 50 years with her Post Office and the many other amazing roles that she’s held in her village. I want to sincerely thank Jenny for everything that she has done for her community – she really has gone above and beyond.”