An Ayrshire postmistress delivered her very own way of keeping occupied during the Covid-19 lockdown – by researching her building’s history.
Joan Mackay used the website Ancestry.com to unlock the history of Monkton Post Office, in the village’s Main Street.
Joan has been Postmistress at Monkton Post Office since 1988 and, ever since she started, was intrigued by the building’s history.
So she decided that she’d chip away at unlocking its history during the lockdown – and came up with some startling information.
She told Ayrshire Live: “You ask questions and people tell you things, and I always meant to do something about it, but time was never on my side.
“But when you’re stuck in the house for two years with the pandemic – as we have been – and you think, ‘I should do something worthwhile.’ So, I started looking.”
Joan did all her research online.
She started on Ancestry.com where the Post Office holds records of historical employees, and used census and property records to fill in the gaps.
Joan found that Monkton’s first Postmaster, a Mr Smith, ran her branch 180 years ago, in 1842.
Joan said: “Mr Smith was a shoemaker, so the shop was a workshop. Obviously, they were looking for somewhere to put a Post Office and this was the most logical building to use at the time.”
Mr Smith and his daughter ran the Post Office until 1860, when it was bought by the Hutchison Family, who ran it for a staggering 85 years.
Then, in 1945, a Mr Anderson bought the shop off the Hutchison Family and ran it until he died in 1962.
It was then purchased by a Mrs Brown, who was Postmistress until 1981.
Joan said: “After that, there were a few people who didn’t stay very long and did a year or 18 months, then I took over in 1988.”
Joan hasn’t yet tracked down any relatives of the former Postmasters but has enjoyed tracing the branch’s history.
She revealed: “You start looking and you get caught up in it. When you start to realise that you’re standing in the same place that these people stood 180 years ago, you’ve got to feel that what you’re doing matters.”
Despite its rich history, Monkton is not the country’s longest-running Post Office.
Sanquhar Post Office has been serving customers since 1712.
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