HARTLEBURY postmaster, Dan Chambers, has retired and his successor is a friend from schooldays in Stourport more than 40 years ago.

Mr Chambers, who has run the post office and village stores for the past seven years, is to spend more time with his family and is planning a caravanning tour of Britain.

Gordon Henderson, who was in the same class as Dan at the former Stourport County Secondary School, has been Mr Chambers’s assistant for six years and now takes over.

Mr Chambers, a 53-year-old father-of-three, said: "There will be continuity with Gordon in charge. We have been friends for at least 40 years and have never fallen out. He has drive and tremendous energy."

When the pair left school, Mr Chambers joined his family's business in Torquay before working as a civil servant for six years.

He later worked at Morgan Matroc in Stourport, ran a fish and chip shop in Pershore and was postmastmaster at Pinvin, Pershore, for six years before moving to Hartlebury.

He said: "The business was taking up too much of my time so I decided to retire but Hartlebury is an absolutely marvellous village to work in and most customers are on first-name terms."

Mr Henderson, who was a manager for WH Smith in the Birmingham area for 25 years before running a newsagents in the Shetlands. returned to the Midlands for family reasons.

He married in March and will be helped by his wife, Margaret.