Castlethorpe Village - Ben & Nancy Sawbridge


Ben	Ben as a boy	Ben & Nancy
	Click the invitation image to see Ben & Nancy's wedding
Ben in St. John's Ambulance uniform After leaving school Ben first worked at Cosgrove Gravel Pits. He left the Pits to work in the frame shop at Wolverton Carriage & Wagon Works, as a rivet carrier. It was at the Works he became an apprentice vehicle body builder. It was while he was employed at the Works that he joined the St. John's Ambulance. He left the Works to set up a business of his own, becoming Castlethorpe's local builder, carpenter and undertaker. Ben also delivered the mail in the locality.		Nancy Sherwood When Nancy left school she worked for Russel Smith at Hartwell village stores, walking the two miles from Hanslope each way, every day. Nancy married Ben in 1947 and came to live at Castlethorpe in the cottage just below the house where Ben had been brought up, in The Gardens. Ben and Nancy moved to 1, New Road in the early fifties. Nancy helped out at the post office. Later taking over from Lizzie Gobbey and moving the post office to 1, New Road in 1961.
	The Gardens. Ben & Nancy's first home & the house where their son Charles was born.



Ben in the doorway of a London North Western Railway carriage that used to stand in his yard	Ben & Joe Gobbey (Ben's uncle) Fete 1964 Click the image - then RUN to view the album


Charles Sawbridge	Ben & Joe Gobbey with Bob (the horse) in earlier days. Ben and Joe often worked together.

Mercury & Herald, Thursday, July 15, 1971

Postman, Nancy Sawbridge, Elizabeth Gobbey & Joe Gobbey

See Post Office

CASTLETHORPE

PROFILE OF A

VILLAGE

By L. W. Dickens

Post Office couple lead busy life

Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Sawbridge, of the Post Office, are busy people in Castlethorpe affairs. For a start, Castlethorpe Post Office, of which Mrs. Sawbridge has had charge for 15 years is an “old fashioned” Post Office – people go there for help, comfort and advice.
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.
Five years after Mrs. Nancy Sawbridge became postmistress her husband who is an agricultural builder and undertaker, built an extension adjoining their home in New Road to accommodate both the Post Office and general stores.

Mr. Ben Sawbridge has been vicar’s warden for 10 years; his wife was church secretary for nine years and has been church treasurer for the past two.

Ben & Charles Sawbridge

Church choir

Mr. Sawbridge has sung in the church choir since boy-hood and his 18 year-old-son Charles who is now taking a course in agricultural engineering at Ryecotewood College, Thame, is also in the choir.

Mrs. Sawbridge is clerk to one of Castlethorpe’s two charities, the Charity of the Poor of Castlethorpe, which gives half of its net income to the Church and distributes the other half to Castlethorpe residents.

Mrs. Sawbridge is also secretary of the Evergreen Club