Last week’s confirmation of the closure of Elstree post office forms yet another chapter in the turbulent history of the service in the area.

As early as 1826 a facility was being offered in Elstree by a Mr J Worrall, from his home in the village. He would frank the letters and deliver them on horseback.

As the population grew, by 1845 a rival service had become established at the nearby Red Lion inn.

A thriving Elstree village saw the opening of its first dedicated sub-post office in around 1870, which quickly took on a central role.

When Ann Goddard, 74, moved to Elstree in 1963, the post office was situated in Maniton House, in Elstree High Road.

“Mr and Mrs Garland used to run it,” she said. “They were a prominent part of village life and knew everybody.”

Mrs Goddard remembers that it was not just post and telegrams that were exchanged.

“It was also a centre where people exchanged news and gossip and met each other. It was a centre of communication in more ways than one.”

The post office moved to its current location in Elstree High Road in the late Nineties. But with the confirmation last week that it has been earmarked for closure under measures to tackle financial losses and falling customer numbers, it appears the story of this post office is to end abruptly and sadly.

Elstree’s residents will soon have to start making the 1.4-mile journey to the Borehamwood branch, which itself has had a somewhat turbulent history.

In 1895 a post office opened in Theobald Street to serve the increasing number of residents. Today the site is occupied by Plumbco Bathrooms.

But as commerce in the area began to centre around Shenley Road in the early 20th Century, a stationary shop called Bentleys became Borehamwood’s main post office.

It wasn’t until 1935 that this was replaced with another dedicated post office, on the site now occupied by Worknet, in Shenley Road.

Mrs Goddard remembers it fondly. She said: “It was wondrous to behold. You could buy everything in it, and it was very crowded.”

Borehamwood’s population grew rapidly after the Second World War and several smaller sub-post offices opened up in addition to the main one in Shenley Road.

This facility was then integrated with Safeway in the Boulevard in the late Eighties, where it remained until the supermarket closed in 1998.

Technological advances in communication and transportation have meant that over time the number of smaller sub-post offices in the area has reduced.

The decline became so severe that in 1999, after the closure of Safeway, Borehamwood’s main post office was moved to a temporary structure in the Boulevard.

This was intended as a short-term fix, but remained until late 2000 when a shop in Shenley Road agreed to integrate post office services. When this too closed a short while later, the facility moved to its present spot at 57-59 Shenley Road.

In light of this brief but eventful history, it seems the latest spate of closures represents the most recent casualties of an ongoing down-sizing of the postal network in the area that has been taking place steadily since the Fifties.

Mrs Goddard acknowledges that there has been a change in culture. She said: “Its role in the community has been downgraded. It is still important, but not as much as it was, because life itself has changed. Although elderly people rely on it, younger people do not.

“A process of organic change is happening, and I suppose it is inevitable.”