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I was a postwoman during the war. I was 20 in 1940 when I first started to sort and deliver the post in West Cornforth. I lived near Metal Bridge and had to travel to get there at 6.30am. I worked until about lunchtime. I travelled to work by bicycle and also delivered the post by bicycle. We had to deliver parcels as well as letters on the bicycle. We had lots of bad winters during the war, with very heavy snowfalls. But we were well equipped to deal with the cold and were given leggings made of surge material and they scrubbed your legs. My friend used to wear her Father’s long johns underneath. I used to wear my leggings out with riding the bicycle, and had to patch them often, as they didn’t replace them for you. But in the Summer we had a khaki jacket bound with red, which was nice. I loved working when the weather was fine, it was a great job.
We had to carry all shapes and sizes of parcels and had to load them onto the front of the bike. Once I even had to deliver dead rabbits (for food) which were a gift from someone in Northumberland! We used to make 2 deliveries in one day. I even had to deliver to farms. One particular farm had geese and I was scared to death to go past them, so had to shout for the farmer to collect his post at the gate.
I remember once I saw a letter in the sorting office which was from a POW who had been missing, and I went out of my way to deliver this letter to his family as soon as possible — first call.
Disclaimer: submitted by Christine Rome at Spennymoor Library on behalf of Freda Jobling

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