Hedgerley Historical Society

PICTURE (TOP):
The old market
cross at Aylesbury
before its
demolition.
  • The village Post Office
    – and daily shopping by horse brake

Hedgerley's Post Office in the 1950s (right) was the front room of a cottage on Hedgerley Hill. The plaque above the front door reads ‘Hedgerley Post Office’ and it was run by Dolly Hearn, who is also in the photograph. It is now gone, and, being just a cottage room, it had not always been there either.

An earlier Post Office in the older part of the village, and was remembered by Dorothy Glennerster, who was interviewed by Michael Rice, former Chairman of the Hedgerley Historical Society in 1979. That Post Office had been at one end of a row of cottages opposite Court Farm which had been demolished before the Second World War. It was run by a Mrs Jefferies, who retired in 1917, when the Post Office moved to Dean Cottages.

Dorothy recalled that Mrs Jefferies did not believe in sawing logs, so burnt long legths of wood by supporting one end on a chair. As the end of the wood burned away she would push the chair ever closer to the fire. The smell of wood smoke was, apparently, terrible!

What the Post Office sold was limited. So Dorothy's grandfather, Frederick Glennerster, ran a daily horse brake from the village, taking passengers to Slough and back. Its route started from the Brickmould pub in the centre of the village (now long gone), proceeded up the hill to the One Pin (also gone, but more recently), then to the Fox and Pheasant and down into Slough via Stoke Poges.

Mr Glennerster always wore a top hat and announced his arrival by blowing a bugle. The horses were left in the yard of the old Reindeer Inn at Slough until it was time for the return journey. On Saturdays there were two runs, with Dorothy's father, Walter, doing the second. The Glennersters also had a wagonette and a landau, in shich the Stevensons from Hedgerley Park mansion were conveyed to and from dances. Dorothy's mother, Ethel, had come to Hedgerley as a 15-year-old girl to be a housemaid at Hedgerley Park.

•  This information has been extracted from an article written by Michael Rice and published in the Buckinghamshire Advertiser in April 2013.
  • What we do:
  • The society's objects are to encourage the study of all branches of history and the preservation of historical records, buildings and objects – especially the collection, preservatoion and publications of material relating to the ancient, medieval and modern history of Hedgerley and its surroundings.
  • Our activities:
  • The society meets on the third Wednesday of the month from September to July, at 8pm at Hedgerley Memorial Hall, for talks on local history, plus special Saturday evening events, day schools and outings.
  • Contact:
  • For full details email John Lovelock on jdlovelock@btinternet.com.
  •  

Thanks to Michael Rice and John Lovelock for providing content for this page.