Phil Dolby and Karen Woodward have reached a major milestone running Crich Post Office for 40 years in the beautiful Derbyshire Peak District.
They have many great memories of their lovely villagers, of serving the community, and of Peak Practice being filmed in Crich, including their Post Office.
Their village became the small fictional town of Cardale for the drama series about a GP surgery and the doctors who worked there and the pretty stone exterior of Crich Post Office in Market Place often featured.
Phil and Karen and their children appeared in the drama series as extras. Phil appeared as a fireman not as a postmaster, as he was a retained fireman in Crich for 34 years, including 24 years as Officer in Charge of Crich Fire Station.
Phil met Karen in Cyprus when he was serving with the Royal Signals stationed on top of Mount Olympus. Karen was on holiday visiting family.
After Phil left the Army, they were trying to decide upon their next career. Karen worked in Doncaster main post office, initially on the counter then in payroll and her total service with the Post Office is 46 years. Phil’s Mum, who lived ten miles from Crich, spotted the vacancy for Crich Post Office and they successfully applied.
Phil’s first memory of Crich was doing a 20-mile sponsored walk as a schoolboy and the challenging hill that they had to climb to pass through Crich village.
Crich is a hilly place and the Post Office is 200 metres downhill from the fire station. When his firefighter bleeper went off, he would dash out the Post Office and run 200 metres uphill to reach the fire station, with Karen holding the fort in the shop.
Karen and Phil sadly divorced but remained friends and they both continue to run Crich Post Office. They are the longest serving owners of Crich Post Office or any of the shops in the village.
They have both won Outstanding Services to the Community Awards. These were in recognition for all they have done for the people of Crich including running Crich Post Office and voluntary roles including treasurers for many community organisations – the Luncheon Club, Community Centre and the Carnival and for their help with community events.
Postmaster Phil Dolby said: “The best thing about being a postmaster is about being at the centre of the community. The customers would come in to withdraw their pensions, then they would spend it at the local shops. Those shopkeepers would then do their banking here at the Post Office. The village bank and building society closed years ago. We are the place for people to do their personal and business banking and to get their free cash withdrawals.
“We’ve got really lovely customers. We know them very well. If we accidentally overpaid someone, they will come back to return it. We enjoy serving this community.”
Crich Post Office remained fully open throughout the pandemic to provide vital Post Office services to the community including banking, bill payments, sending parcels and letters to people that they could not see, home shopping returns and people selling goods on re-sale sites.
Post Office Area Manager, Rachel Bailey, said: “I want to sincerely thank Phil and Karen for running this branch for the past four decades and this is greatly appreciated by this rural community. They go above and beyond for the people of Crich.”