The Post Office

Tyneham's Post Office was the second building from the left in Post Office Row — a terrace of four stone cottages known simply as "The Row".

These cottages originally had thatched roofs until 1881, when they were replaced with more durable stone tiles. The Post Office itself was the second building from the left.

The building began life as a village shop in 1880, run by William Mores who sold provisions to the community. A decade later, in 1890, it also took on the duties of a Post Office — and a succession of shopkeepers and sub-postmasters kept it going right up until the evacuation of 1943:

• 1880–1890 — William Mores (shop only)
• 1890–c.1905 — Mrs Anne Mores (shop and post office from 1890)
• c.1905–1910 — Mrs Jane Pitman (née Tizzard)
• 1910–1915 — Harry Barnes
• 1915–1938 — Mrs Edith Barnes (later Mrs Edith Herd after remarrying in 1920)
• 1938–1942 — Mrs Gwendoline Driscoll

Three customers at a time produced a traffic jam, and when the counter was piled high with parcels waiting for collection, the postmistress was barely visible behind them. The shop had a wonderful blend of smells — bacon and cheese above all, with undertones of tea, liquorice, and peppermint. A cardboard box on the counter displayed needles and thimbles, cotton reels, buttons, and mending wool, all priced at a copper or two.

A telephone was installed in the back room of the Post Office — the only phone in the entire village, used at first chiefly for sending and receiving telegrams. This made the Post Office even more vital, acting as the community's lifeline to the outside world.

In the winter of 1929, a public telephone kiosk was erected right outside the Post Office — number Kimmeridge 221 — giving villagers easier access to calls without needing to visit the building itself.

The original kiosk was a distinctive white concrete design — a K1 model, one of Britain's first standard telephone kiosks. Only four or five survive anywhere in the UK still in their original positions. It was severely damaged during filming of the 1984 film Comrades, a drama about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The film company installed a replacement, which was then fully restored to its 1943 appearance with the help of a retired GPO engineer, Ian Jolly. The box is locked, but peering through the window you can still see the original A and B button telephone and, taped inside, a wartime notice: "I am on war work. If you must use me, be brief."

The phone box has gathered its share of ghost stories over the years. More than one visitor has reported hearing it ring — despite the fact that it is locked, disconnected, and has been without power since 1943.

The ruins of Post Office Row are still standing. The phone box is still in its original position on the village street, still with the wartime notice inside. Visitors walk past it on the way to the church, often without knowing they are looking at one of fewer than five K1 telephone kiosks still in situ anywhere in the United Kingdom.

A short walk up the lane stands the old Rectory — another of Tyneham's roofless ruins. Built in 1853, it was damaged by fire in 1966 and its shell remains, open to the sky, at the upper end of the village.