Churchtown's Maycroft Post Office, in The Green, Churchtown, near Preston, will become Lancashire's 57th and final post office to be closed under cost-cutting measures on Monday.

Residents there say it will be the first time in living memory the village – which is home to many pensioners – has not had its own post office.

Mary Lawson, 90, of The Green, has visited the post office – based at the home of Sub-Postmistress Teresa Chapman – every day for more than 60 years to collect her pension, post her letters and catch up with friends.

She will be forced to rely on friends and family members to drive her to the next nearest post office in Catterall – around two miles away.

She said: "It is awful when you think about it. I use it every day, now my niece will have to take me to Catterall.It has made a real mess of us, it is never going to come back now."

At 95, Josephine Patterson is the village's oldest resident.She said: "It is really sad, it has always been alright for me. People have got to know it and they go down there and have a little chat."

Tony Stephenson, 72, of The Green, Churchtown, said: "I think the same as everyone else thinks – for elderly people it is not sufficient to say there is another post office at Catterall. That assumes elderly people have the necessary transport to get them there."

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