Like a number of other old buildings in the village (including the Old Post Office), Close Cottage was once the home to Brimpton’s Postal Service. In fact, it was the very first – home to the Penny Post from 1847, run by villager Stephen Stair (a local shoemaker). According to the ‘Brimpton Story’, letters arrived from Newbury at 9am and were dispatched around the area at 4pm.

The Post Office continued to operate from Close Cottage for nearly 70 years – until 1916 when the remaining members of the Stair family gave the business up. These days it serves as a family home, and looks very similar to how it did almost 200 years ago. Due to the nature of the building, many photos of it survive, a few of which we can see below.