Hilda Gomme
From Lacey Green History
click Families for other local families
click Gomme for others n this family
Hilda Gomme born 1892 was the daughter of Kilburn & Julia Gomme. Hilda remained single and was a very well known postwoman.
1966. From the Bucks Free Press. Hilda Walks Into Town and Around. The BBC television camera team went to the sleepy old Chiltern Hills village of Loosley Row on Tuesday morning and that evening in the programme 'Town and Around' the locals saw their postwoman, Miss Hilda Gomme, on her daily six mile walk.
Not very exciting perhaps, but viewers heard that Hilda Gomme has been doing this job, summer and winter for fifty years. And she is 74.
She lives at Waddesden View, itself on the side of a very steep hill and to start her day's work she has a one-in-eight lane to walk up to get to the sub-post-office to get her mail.
The only dfference she has noticed in her fifty years of walking around the district is the steadily increasing number of letters addressed to the many little farms. "It must be all the red tape they go in for these days" she told the Free Press.
The caption to the photo below from the Bucks Free Press, taken on October 2nd 1970 read "When many people are quite happy to put their feet up, perhaps tend an allotment and generally take it easy after they retire, super postwoman 79 year-old Miss Hilda Gomme trudged five to six miles every day on her round in the Chilterns laden with a heavy postbag.
Perhaps today's younger people think the job is too much like hard work since there is still a shortage of postmen and women in this area. Miss gomme certainly puts them to shame.
It is ideal exercise with fresh air and a chance to meet people waiting in the country for their letters and parcels. It certainly keeps you fit but spare a thought for the posties out in the recent stormy weather".
1939 Register (census) Waddesdon View no 2, Loosley Row. Julia Gomme 82, Hilda Gomme 48 postwoman. click Kilburn & Julia Gomme for more of Julia.(Hilda's parents)
Hilda Gomme died at Waddesdon View no 2, Loosley Row in 1978
In Hallmark October 1974 an article reporting an interview with Madge and Hilda Gomme by Madeline Cleaver was published as follows :-
"The Misses Gomme lived in Loosley Row down by the Foundry, where there was a public well. Most houses relied on water they collected in a butt from the roof etc. for ordinary use, but came down to the well for drinking water. In fact in a dry spell they had to come from further afield, even from Lacey Green, i.e. at the top of Promised Land drive and then over the footpath known as The Grubbin, using a yoke and | two buckets. Miss Hiida remembers an elderly lady who used to go for water in an evening when there might be men there drawing water, as the well was deep and it was a heavy job. She was a widow and received 2/6d and a loaf of bread per week from the Parish and used to say that if she had a slice of bread and a potato for her supper she would think herself very lucky.
As children Hilda and Madge and their friends would take their hot cross buns and some fizzy lemonade to Lodge Hill and it was said that if they could run five times round the dell without drawing breath they would see the devil, but as no-one ever managed it, we cant say if he ever lurked there.
Before the first World War Miss Hilda became a postwoman, waiting outside for the post to arrive from Princes Risborough by pony and trap in the morning, before setting off, first on a bicycle and eventually walking all the time, quite long distances to deliver the mail - places like Saunderton Lee, Highwood Bottom, Green Hailey and even as far as Kop Hill, on the top of which there was an old cottage where an old lady lived who used to supply Hilda with eggs when things were difficult. There was no uniform or boots supplied in those days and one could not buy Wellington boots, ie. rubber, so leather boots were needed as the roads were mostly rough dirt and stone tracks and could be very muddy. She suffered a great deal with chilblains she recalls, and there was always the danger of dogs; once she was quite badly bitten on the shoulder, right through her clothes, by an Alsation who jumped over a gate and attacked her. There was no form of compensation either from the Post Office or the owner, just one of the hazards of the job, for which she was paid 5/- per week. This involved collecting post as well as delivering and Miss Gomme had a whistle to blow when emptying the box, then she had to wait a time to allow a chance for those who were late in posting to get to the box with their letters.
Hilda's sister Miss Madge Gomme worked as a between-maid at Loosley House, living in, and therefore subject to the discipline of the Cook.
The Misses Gomme have a scrapbook which includes letters and photographs from the time Hilda completed 50 years as a postwoman. A photograph was printed in a magazine called "Grit"! in the United States of America and brought forth a number of letters including an enquiry from a family named Gomme who originated in Oxfordshire, asking if there was a family connection. One letter was from a man who worked as a boy on the building of the railway from Princes Risborough to High Wycombe in 1902/3 and had lodged in Loosley Row. He had memories of the friendship shown to him by the Misses Gomme's father and brother before he emigrated to America to live in New York, At the time of Miss Hilda's retirement at the age of 79, after 54 years of delivering letters, it was estimated that she must have walked something like 84,000 miles in her job.
The Misses Gomme still cultivate their garden and get about, but Miss Hilda does not go out as much as she did.
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