A POPULAR long-time employee at a post office in Shipley is retiring after nearly 30 years of serving the community.

Lawrence Knowles, who turns 66 on Monday, spent his last day today at the Shipley Post Office, on Manor Lane.

Lawrence, of Wrose, has worked as a post office counter assistant at the Asda Superstore post office for the last 28 years.

"It's been amazing," said Lawrence. "We've had some quite good customers.

"Both the staff and customers have been quite pleasant and a few people said some nice things to me this morning."

His colleagues decorated his counter for his last day and had a buffet lunch, complete with a cake.

Lisa Lawrence, sub-postmaster of the Shipley Post Office, said: "It's going to be sad for people. Lawrence is such a massive personality and he has a cracking sense of humour as well."

"He's so supportive of people in the community, not just for what he does for the post office but they come for advice about other things too.

"We don't know what we're going to do without him."

"I've always tried to help people out as much as possible," said Lawrence. "If they ask, I will always point customers in the right direction.

Lawrence did say that things have changed drastically for the post office in the last 28 years.

"We've had to learn to adapt to things. There are so many things we didn't do over 20 years ago.

"And in the last year we've all had some of the biggest changes as a country. Covid has changed a lot of things.

"We've put screens up and had to wear face masks, but these were changes out of necessity and they've worked."

Lawrence plans to enjoy his retirement, and he has set his sights on trips up into the Yorkshire Dales and a scenic train ride on the Settle-Carlisle Line.