Gawsworth Post Office

Gawsworth is a pretty village in Cheshire, quite close to Macclesfield. It has BIG family history connections for my wife. And that includes the old village Post office.

This photo dates from around 1912 and shows the Post Office.  At this time Cyrus Fytton lived at the Post Office.

But soon, Cyrus passed house and job onto his son (also Cyrus) and wife.  His wife was Lois Annie Fisher and she was sister of my wife’s great grandfather.

We have a lovely wedding photo from 1903.

The man in the back row on the left is Cyrus Fytton senior – the postmaster at the time. The man on the right in that row is James Fisher who was my wife’s G G Grandfather

The middle row has Polly Fisher (Bride’s sister), Bridegroom Cyrus and bride always known as Annie and then the bride’s mother, Maria Fisher (née Mottershead). The final man is the groom’s brother.

The two children in the front row are another James Fisher (my wife’s grandfather) and his sister also Annie.

Fantastic photo indeed!

I’ve often commented that we are lucky to come from families of hoarders. When my parents in Law married in 1945, Annie and Cyrus sent them a wedding gift and the letter that came with it has been kept.

We can see that father in law noted the size of the cash gift and replied a few days later.

In the fullness of time, Cyrus and Annie ended their lives and joined the Fytton grave in Gawsworth church yard.

SACRED TO THE  MEMORY OF

MARIA FYTTON OF GAWSWORTH WHO DIED 25^TH MAY 1922 AGED 75 YEARS

CYRUS FYTTON HER HUSBAND WHO DIED 7^TH JANUARY 1937 AGED 80 YEARS

MARIA NINA FYTTON THEIR INFANT DAUGHTER WHO DIED 25^TH MAY 1889

AGED 1 year 5 month

LOIS ANNIE FYTTON DAUGHTER- IN- LAW OF ABOVE WHO DIED 12^TH MARCH1951 AGED 68 YEARS

ALSO HER BELOVED HUSBAND CYRUS NEWTON FYTTON WHO DIED 11^TH NOV 1963 AGED 84 YEARS

WILFRED NEWTON FYTTON WHO DIED 28^TH JANUARY 1986 AGED 82 YEARS

REST IN PEACE

But the Post Office was still in family hands for daughter Lois Audrey carried on the work until she died in 2000.

So sadly, when we visited in 2002 the old Post Office was a rather dejected looking building – unoccupied and unused.

We could peer in through a window. It looks like a carpenter was working – perhaps doing some renovations.

Gawsworth still has a Post Office elsewhere in the village.

Tags: Cheshire, family history, Fisher, Fytton, Gawsworth, Post Office