Oldest native is 93-year-old Mrs. Elizabeth Gobbey, who had been village postmistress for 35 years when she retired at the age of 78.
The village Post Office had then been in her family for 114 years and Mrs. Nancy Sawbridge who took over in October, 1956 was a relative by marriage, her husband Mr. Benjamin Sawbridge being Mr. Joe Gobbey’s nephew.
John Rainbow died within months of his appointment as postmaster at Castlethorpe in 1844 but his widow carried on in Rainbow’s Yard. When Rebecca’s son William George Rainbow moved into 16 North Street, his mother went with him and there the post office stayed for 80 years, William succeeded his mother in 1893. His daughter Elizabeth, who married the auxiliary postman Joe Gobbey, became postmistress shortly after the first world war.