21924: Post Office, Keose

In 1885, a thrice-weekly mail service had begun from Stornoway to Tarbert with the mail for Lochs being delivered from Balallan. (The house at 67 Balallan was originally an important staging post for the mail, where the mail horses could be fed, watered or changed). In 1886, Laxay got its own post office, covering Laxay and Keose. This continued until 1901 when the village got its own Post Office.

In addition, the Post Office at Keose also got a telegraph system which allowed telegrams and messages to be sent and received. It was a Wheatstone telegraph system which had a clock face with the letters of the alphabet printed on it. As the message was received, a hand would rest momentarily on the letter coming through and the operator would see this and jot it down. It was important that the operator concentrated as the message could be lost very easily.

During times of war and the First World War in particular, the telegraph took on a particular importance. Each day the news of the War was telegraphed to the Post Office and this was printed and displayed. In this way, the building became the focal point for people wanting to hear what was unforlding many miles away. It could bring bad news, as in a death or “missing in action”. It could also bring good news, “Coming home tonight, meet me at the boat”.

The delivery of telegrams was a profitable sideline for the youth of the village. They were paid a certain amount for delivering each telegram in its yellow envelope, based on the distance they had to go. Telegrams to Soval were both looked forward to and dreaded but this was mainly in summer when Mr Thorton, the estate owner was in residence. However, when Mr Thorton was involved in share dealing, this could mean many a weary trip backwards and forwards during the day.

Alexander Montgomery (An Caileach) of 11 Keose, was paid to collect the mail from the mail cart as it passed the Keose road end and to bring it to the Post Office. Luckily there was not too much mail in those days but pretty much anything could be sent by mail; meat, chickens and eggs were common. A number of local men, including William Smith, Seaview, Keose and John Macleod (Seocain), 7b Keose were responsible for delivering the mail in the village.

As the roads improved during the first part of the last Century, the Smiths acquired a vehicle. It was used to convey people to and from Stornoway and to take supplies back to the shop. People from the south side of Loch Erisort who did not get a road until the 1920s often used it. They would sail across Loch Erisort and then travel on to Stornoway. The bare engine/chassis of the vehicles would be driven up to the Island and coach builders up in Ness added a wooden bus body to it. It was mostly driven by William, Angus’s youngest son who also assisted his father in the shop and post office.

When William moved to 3 Keose Glebe, Isabella (Bella) his sister returned from Glasgow to look after the post office. She ran the post office while her father attended to the shop. In the mid 1930s the shop began to run down, due in part to Pairc now having its own road and bus services and other entrepreneurs setting up in competition and eventually only the post office remained. Bella married Neil Macleod from 2 Kershader in 1935 and continued to live at Seaview, Keose until 1939 when they moved to 1 Keose. The Post Office eventually moved to 1 Keose, probably when the first phone was installed.

Originally this was the only phone in the village but it seems a number of Post Offices shared the same line. When out working on the hay in the summer, the children would have to listen out for it ringing. If it rang once, it was a call for Crossbost Post Office; if it rang twice, it was a call for Gravir; if it rang three times, it was a call for Keose.

After Bella retired in 1975, her sister in law Alexina Smith took on the running of the Post Office at 3 Keose Glebe until her retirement in 1996 after a fire at the shop and Post Office.

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