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The Post Office 18 Tilsworth Road Stanbridge

Post Office 18 Tilsworth Road June 2008
Post Office 18 Tilsworth Road June 2008

The first appearance of a post office in Stanbridge comes in Kelly's Directory of 1898. Successive directories list post masters/mistresses as follows: Levi Stevens in 1898, 1903 and 1910; Ann Stevens in 1914; Annie Willis in 1920 and 1924; David Giltrow in 1928, 2931, 1936 and 1940.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 ordered every piece of land and building in the country to be assessed to determine the rates to be paid on it. 18 Stanbridge was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting 18 Tilsworth Road [DV1/C97/139] noted that it was owned and occupied by David Giltrow and stood in 0.301 acres.

He described the building as brick and tile and detached. It comprised: a living room; a kitchen; a shop; three bedrooms; a brick and tile washhouse; and an earth closet. It was, he noted, a "post office and general shop". In a further 0.20 acres adjoining were a weather boarded and tiled open cart shed, a henhouse, a mealhouse, a stable used as piggery, two piggeries with a loft over and a weather boarded and corrugated iron loose box and hen house. There was also a 0.588 acre orchard.

The Post Office closed early in the 21st Century.