MORE than 100 villagers arrived outside Denbury post office and shop on Saturday to say a huge thank you to postmaster Alan Wood and bid him a happy retirement.

Mr Wood has run the post office and shop in North Street for justshort of 30 years and on its closure on Saturday it is becoming his retirement home with his wife Debbie.

‘I have really enjoyed my time here. It has been amazing. I was going to be here for five years and we actually had a five-year plan. It just shows what we think of the village because we are still here and we are going to stay,’ he said.

The PO and shop was closed on Sundays and it was half day closing on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Mr Wood used to get up at 7am daily to do the papers, open the shop at 8am and the post office an hour later.

There will now be work to do on converting the front of the building back to a house and there will also be plenty of time to indulge in fly-fishing and golf.

Villagers raised £600 to give Mr Wood retirement gifts – a fish and meat smoker, a day’s gliding experience and a trip to a vineyard.

Resident Pauline Griffin said Mr Wood had been the hub of the village for almost 30 years.

‘If there were elderly who could not get to the shop he would deliver bits to them. It is the end of an era.

‘He and his wife have always been very popular and taken part in village life,’ she added.

Mr Wood said the number of villagers turning up and the gifts had been ‘an unbelievable surprise’.

He said: ‘I thought I would be able to go out quietly, but that was not the case. The people here are just amazing and I could not believe the send-off they gave me.

‘I owe a big thank you to everyone for supporting me for almost 30 years. They have been fantastic,’ he said.

The shop has moved to the village’s Union Inn and it is intended that the post office will open there in January.