Wantage Road Post Office

The next time you are grumbling about having to walk down Oxford Road to access the nearest Post Office, think about how much easier life would have been when there was one on our street!

Wantage Road Post Office was housed at number 180 and was in operation until its closure in Spring 2008.

One of the early Sub-Postmasters was an Essex man with a French sounding name – William Buteux. Born in 1860, William found love in his early-forties and married Alice Maud Greenaway in Reading in 1903. Sadly, she would pass away in 1910 leaving William as a widower running the Post Office on Wantage Road. He was still there at the age of 60 in 1921 and continued to work up until shortly before his death in 1923, after which he was buried in London Road cemetery.

By 1939 the Sub-Postmaster was Ernest Cox, a local man who had been born in Reading in 1890. Ernest was living at the Post Office with his wife Nellie, whom he had married in 1924. After retiring from his job as Sub-Postmaster, Ernest and Nellie remained in the local area, moving the short distance up to live on Waverley Road. They lived their until they passed away, Ernest in 1971 and Nellie in 1979.

When passing 180 Wantage Road you can still see where the sign used to be above the bay window, and where the post box was on the right hand side where there is now a small fence.

Do you have any memories of the old Post Office or any of the Sub-Postmasters or Sub-Postmistresses that worked there?