Shepley Post office doubles up as Kirkwood Hospice shop

Oct 29 2009 By Emma Davison

Support charity at post office

IT’S not often you can post your letters while at the same time picking up gifts like toys and DVDs.

But one village post office is turning the novel idea into a right little money spinner, after its owners decided to combine existing services with a charity shop for Kirkwood Hospice.

John Gledhill, sub-postmaster of Shepley Post Office, said: “It is going very well and they’re really pleased at the hospice how much locals have taken to it.

“Everyone seems to think it is an excellent idea to combine the post office with the shop.”

The post office, at Station Road, has always proved popular with villagers, but the retail side struggled and John started looking for alternatives to help keep the business viable.

John – who runs the post office with wife Claire – said: “It’s a small village post office and from that side of things it’s always been busy, but the retail side was not doing well because of competition for the items we were selling from the local newsagents and Co-op.

“We were struggling from that point of view as on the shop side we had lost quite a bit of money.

“So we started thinking of what else we could do to make the space busy and keep people coming through the door.”

John then came up with the idea of combining charity goods with the postal counter after speaking to Maisie Weir, manager of Kirkwood Hospice’s Kirkburton shop.