| County | Buckinghamshire, South East |
|---|---|
| Postcode | MK19 7EW |
| Opened | 2007 |
| Post Office | Yes |
| Management | Privately managed |
| Legal | ViRSA IPS model rules |
| Premises | New build |
View a map of where to find us
A village returns to life with new heart
Ricard Dyson, Mail on Sunday
13 August 2007
Thousands of post offices have already been closed. By the end of next year a further 2,500 will be gone. Residents of the towns and villages that have lost their branch know only too well the damage these closures inflict.
Ask anyone from the charming village of Castlethorpe in Buckinghamshire, where the only shop - with the post office inside it - shut in February 2005. For two years, villagers had to drive three miles to Hanslope. Those without cars could beg lifts or catch the bus that passes every 90 minutes on its way from Milton Keynes to Northampton.
With almost half of the village's 1,000 population aged over 60 - with many non-drivers among them - the life of the village 'shrank away', says parish councillor Bert Tapp, 82.
'You have to manage a small community to keep it healthy,' he says. 'And having a shop, a reason for people to walk about, socialise and do business together is vital.'
With its beautiful church, primary school, village hall, pub, and sports centre in place, the post office and shop were the vital missing parts. So a core of villagers formed a campaign group and spent the best part of two years battling to get them back.
The previous store had been sold and converted into flats, so the biggest hurdle was finding a building. Milton Keynes Council agreed to sell a portion of a little-used car park for a nominal £1 and work on the £100,000 project began this spring.
Milton Keynes Council stumped up £35,000, and the Post Office granted £20,000 from its Rural Re-Start fund. A further £20,000 came from Virsa, a charity working for businesses in rural communities, and there was a loan from Co-op Bank.
The shop opened on July 21, with a party in the town hall attended by 200 jubilant villagers.
The shop is being manned by village newcomers Dina and Udi Modhwadia and the post office counter is open again from nine until one, six days a week. The shop will also collect and hand out pharmacy prescriptions for regular customers.
Though the protagonists in this happy story are too modest to claim personal credit or point fingers of blame, the campaign to reinstate the shop and post office invoked village politics of the sort familiar to fans of Radio 4's The Archers.
Not all parish councillors were supportive and numerous difficulties had to be overcome.
Farmer Ian Markham, whose family have raised dairy and beef cattle around Castlethorpe since the Thirties, was closely involved from the start. 'This is not about individuals, it is about the village,' he says. 'You cannot say too much about the generous support of ordinary villagers, the big donations quietly made by people of modest means.
'All around, people did their bit. And when it opened, the pensioners were out, people were talking to each other who hadn't spoken for two years. It's a triumph for the whole village.'