Last post for family’s 100-year link to Kilmore Post Office

Last post for family’s 100-year link to Kilmore Post Office

IT has been in his family for over a century but David Patterson is finally saying goodbye to Kilmore Post Office. At the helm for 17 years, David retired on Friday to the desolation of local school kids who make their regular trips to the post office’s shop for sweets, banter and tongue-in-cheek tellings-off.

With wife Ann at his side, the 62 year-old took over from his mother Peggy Patterson, who spent 51 years at the heart of Post Office life in Kilmore. Before Peggy there was David’s grandmother Elizabeth Patterson and before that his great-grandparents.

“We have asked but we are not sure how long it goes back,” said David, who was born in the house. His father had a dairy herd and when his dad died David took over, before going on to take over the shop.

With happy memories of stealing sweets from the shop floor in his childhood, the Post Office for David has always been a place of contentment.

“It was nice, my mother being round the shop, she was very happy here,” he said. “I used to take the groceries to people coming out for the summer. I took the milk down for them and got half a crown.”

Remembering how hands-on the service was, David recalls the weighing of the potatoes and the tea and the bacon slicer, and how his experienced mother knew exactly how much to cut without measuring. And amidst it all there was plenty of time for the local gossip.

As David put it: “People liked to get their local information.”

With so many rural post offices feeling the axe fall in recent years, the Pattersons weren’t sure at one stage what the future held. Clearly valued in the local community, they are glad the service they provided was retained.

“The Post Office would not close us because we were the only shop in the village,” said David. “We have to give the Post Office their dues for that.”

The Pattersons also had to move with the times in terms of technology.

Admitting they were “petrified” when a new computer system was introduced in 2000, they got stuck into the training and the new system was easier than expected.

“We would not go back to the paper way,” said David. “Doing the balance for the week used to take hours, now it is all through with the push of a few buttons.”

So as David and Ann prepare to hand over their keys to new proprietor Joanne Bell, from Crossgar, Kilmore Post Office is once again safe, and they are looking forward to spending more time with their family.

David said: “We want to see a bit more of the family, we have kids in London and it is so hard to get away. We never felt we could go away for more than a long weekend and we have two wee granddaughters, twins.”

Holding a party on Friday in the midst of moving out, Ann said she was looking forward to the new phase in their lives, but aware her husband would be missed.

“The people are saying it is the craic they are going to miss, the banter with the kids,” she said. “On Friday a lot of them come in to get their treats.

“They are so disappointed if it is only me here. It is him they want to see.”