Church hosts new Post Office service

After losing the Post Office last March, the grand opening in All Saints Church saw 50 people through the door last week.

Spokesman Eileen Visser said: “We lost our post office in Long Marston last March and have been trying since to open an outreach Post Office in our local Church - All saints’ to serve the community.

“We opened today with a pop-up cafe and Post Office and it has been a huge success.”

The pop-up cafe will open every Tuesday with the Post Office from 1.30-3.30pm and a car lift system for people with mobility difficulties will be in operation.

Eileen added: “This is a good way to widen the use of our rural churches for the community.

“Over 50 people came through the door, we enjoyed good company and Karen Asquith, our Postmistress, went away with a bag full of letters/parcels and did a good business.”

“We knew that once our PO closed there was a gap in service - which included a social space for people to come together as well as using the Post Office - our nearest Post Office is a bus ride away with limited bus times.

“This coincided with our desire to open the church building to the wider local community and make it a communal space.”

Eileen, one of the coordinators, said church warden, John Visser, put in place all the required permissions from the Diocese, supported by Vicar Rev Roy Shaw.

The service will be run through Poppleton Post Office run by Christ Bolton.