THE end of an era for traditional postal services in Backbarrow came 25 years ago with the retirement of Margaret Postlethwaite.
For 33 years she had sorted and hand delivered the post by walking around the village – six days a week in all weather.
Her role would have familiar to postmen and women who had taken out letters in South Cumbrian country districts a century and more before.
Miss Postlethwaite’s retirement was reported in the Evening Mail on October 14 in 1991 and provided the Post Office with the opportunity to introduce van deliveries.
Her postal career featured in displays at a meeting of the Cumbrian Postal History Society at Kendal on Saturday.
The Evening Mail report noted: “Her three-hour round covered a wide area from the edge of Haverthwaite in the east to Bigland Hall in the south.
“Royal Mail officials made a special presentation to Miss Postlethwaite in her home.
“Ulverston area manager Malcolm Gratton and delivery office manager Ian Taylor gave her some garden furniture.
“Miss Postlethwaite has lived in Backbarrow all her life.
“Before she started delivering letters and parcels in 1958 she kept poultry with her family in the village.
“Postal vans from Ulverston will now deliver the mail to Backbarrow and surrounding areas.”