The Old Post Office - Adlestrop

My husband and I, as well as another couple stayed at the Old Post Office for a wedding near by. The accommodations are wonderful! The beds are large and the linens are lovely. Every morning we had a delightful breakfast. Our host were lovely and made our stay personal. This was one of our favorite places we stayed!

Anybody considering a vacation in Adlestrop for Edward Thomas may find that the notion is met with discouragement from friends. One acquaintance scoffed, "You do realise that there is nothing to see there? The railway station is long gone, and even if there is some sort of evidence of it, the nearest accommodation might be a mile and a half away!" Our acquaintance was evidently unaware of The Old Post Office, the lovely bed and breakfast beside an attractive wooden bus shelter (no longer in use) which sports the original Adlestrop station sign, the name that Edward Thomas saw. The bus shelter bearing the Adlestrop sign leans onto the garden hedge of The Old Post Office. One cannot sleep any closer than that to the name Adlestrop. When Edward Thomas draws you to Adlestrop, The Old Post Office is therefore the optimal place to stay. It is also nearer to the bridge overlooking the site of the old station than the mile and a half which our acquaintance imagined. If you walk to the church and then cut across Adlestrop Park, you will be on the bridge in fifteen minutes. Having seen Edward Thomas' sign (it's the original sign, not a replica) in the bus shelter by the gate of The Old Post Office, and walked through the pretty garden (on which more later), the visitor steps into the house for tea and cake and is lent two books relevant to his visit. One of the books, Adlestrop Revisited, is a wonderful anthology of writing mostly relevant to Edward Thomas' poem, edited by Anne Harvey. We had not come across that book before, and sadly our stay was not long enough to finish reading it. The Old Post Office is a very short walk (a couple of minutes) from the new post office, where your envelopes will be given an Adlestrop postmark provided you take them to the counter before posting. The new post office is only open twice a week, so make sure that your stay in Adlestrop coincides with a Monday or a Thursday if you desire the Adlestrop postmark. The new post office also sells a very impressive range of old photographs of Edward Thomas' station platform and of Adlestrop in general, and some relevant literature although Adlestrop Revisited was not on sale there at the time of our visit. The postmistress is a fount of knowledge of Adlestrop's history and is happy to answer questions. Adlestrop itself is an interesting place. Although our acquaintance who sought to dampen our enthusiasm would remind us that Edward Thomas never stepped off his train, have we not all had the experience of being on a train as it stopped at a small rural station and wondering what life is like in the settlement behind the name? Had Edward Thomas' life not been cut so short, might he eventually have taken the slow train and alighted at Adlestrop to indulge his curiosity? Perhaps we are doing that for him. The Old Post Office breakfasts are wonderful. We stayed for three breakfasts, and on our second morning were treated to the most handsome kippers. Breakfasts one and three were