Sheila Jenkins stamped her last parcel and sold her last book of stamps in July when she retired from her position of sub post mistress at the village post office. She has been an almost permanent fixture behind the counter for 40 years and in that time worked with 4 different postmasters, Messrs Annetts, Loud, Smith and Norton.

Sheila, who was born in the village and attended the village primary school and then Huish Secondary, has happy memories of her school days. She and her friends cycled to school in Huish all year round and she remembers an occasion when she was caught chatting to a young man (later to become her husband ) in Langport’s main street, this was considered to be inappropriate behaviour for which she was reprimanded and told that she must inform her parents and face the consequences! Social life in the late 1940s and early 50s was centred in the village, ballroom dancing classes and a weekly film showing in the village hall provided entertainment. Sheila’s father, Jim Barnard, was a church warden and Sheila was involved in church activities, attending church twice on a Sunday and later becoming a Sunday school teacher.

On leaving school at the age of fifteen Sheila had hoped to become a cashier but her parents had higher aspirations and wanted her to continue with her education and take a course in book keeping and finance. Not keen on this idea Sheila found herself a job in Chapman’s in Taunton (now Debenhams) then a classy department store. After 2½ years she left Chapman’s, having perfected the art of packing a dress which could be removed from the package looking exactly as it did on the hanger, and found work in the village drapers shop, owned by the Brooks family and situated opposite ‘The Bell Hotel’. At the age of 17 she passed her driving test and took to the road, driving the draper’s van around all the outlying villages selling the shop’s wares. The stock was varied and diverse and included material, wools, household linen, school uniform and dresses, all of which Sheila would load into the van and sell. There were regular customers on the farms and she remembers leaving one and noticing an odd noise coming from the van, she suspected that the lads on the farm had something to do with this, probably hoping to attract her attention and have a bit of fun at her expense, but she carried on regardless to the farm next door and when she left she noticed that the cans which had been tied onto the van had been removed by the disappointed pranksters and so she had the last laugh. She made a lot of friends during her time on the van and enjoyed the farming community’s hospitality, home made cakes, dinner and even a glass or two of home made wine! It was whilst having lunch in the Compass Inn in North Petherton that she first met the publicans Mr and Mrs Annetts who unbeknownst to her at the time would later take ownership of Curry Rivel post office.

After her marriage to Michael Jenkins, Sheila continued to work at the drapers shop until it closed in the late 60s. It was in 1970 that she walked into the post office to apply for the job and heard a voice from behind the counter say, ‘Is it meat pie with gravy for you today’? Bert Annetts had recognized the Brooks Drapers van driver! From then until now Sheila has been providing excellent service to the post office users of Curry Rivel. In that time she has embraced all the technological changes that have been introduced and with the advent of post office banking fulfilled her teenage ambition of becoming a cashier too!

Sheila admits she will miss her work, the company it provided and the many colourful characters she met over the years but she and Michael have two children and six grandchildren and will soon be presented with their first great grandchild who will no doubt stop her from getting bored with life after work. She looks forward to tackling all those little jobs that have been put off whilst working including a wealth of historical information relating to her house which was owned previously by her basket maker grandfather that needs her attention. Perhaps when she has done that we can look forward to her memoirs?

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