To find one postwoman these days is rare enough in this part of the world

– to find two in one small town is remarkable

While most women on Torridgeside will be busy in their kitchens immediately before Christmas preparing for the holiday, Miss Marjorie Bissett and Miss Becky Gamson will be building up to a crescendo of mail delivering at Torrington.

The hustle and bustle of Christmas deliveries are no strangers to Miss Bissett, who each day leaves her home at 7 Potacre Street, Torrington, in time to report for duty at the post office at 6.15am. She has been delivering letters at Torrington for 26 years, the last 14 of them as a full time employee.

Her colleague, Miss Gamson, drives in from her home at 1 Canns Terrace, Beaford, to reach the post office at about the same time.

Both women reckon they walk about 10 miles a day and it’s a six day a week job. They serve between them hundreds of houses with Miss Bissett having the perhaps unenviable job of delivering in Mill Street.

Miss Gamson who is 57, is a Londoner by birth and before coming to North Devon she worked as a driver for the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works.

The full Gazette article is dated 16 December 1977