Brenda Horwood can still remember the first time she skipped up the street as a six-year-old to buy stamps at Grandpont Post Office in 1928.

Now 86, the Marlborough Road resident lives in the same house she set off from 80 years ago, and has no intention of letting her local branch close.

It is one of 22 sub post offices in Oxfordshire facing the axe in an attempt to reverse nationwide losses of up to £4m a week.

Five other branches in the county look set to be replaced with mobile 'outreach' services.

As protests grew against the move, Miss Horwood said: "I just do not know why they want to close it. It's so popular and they offer such a good service.

"It would be a terrible day if it closed."

Having settled just 200 metres from the post office in a house built by her great-grandfather, Miss Horwood has seen the area change.

She said: "I remember when there were 15 shops in Grandpont and a second post office in Marlborough Road, but they gradually closed one by one.

"It's all right having these out-of-town shops and big post offices if people can get to them, but the public transport has to be there.

"I can't walk very far so I can't get to the Post Office in town, and I think I speak for a lot of the residents when I say they don't want to go there either.

"It's all very good going by the mileage and saying it is only a mile away, but it is the service that is valued above anything else."

At Grandpont Post Office, Dharmaraj Prasad has been postmaster for more than 20 years.

Miss Horwood, who worked as a market researcher for AC Nielsen in London Road, Headington, for 25 years, said: "I think when the Post Office has got such a good man as him in charge they should try to keep it open because they won't find anyone better."

Mr Prasad said almost 600 people had signed an Oxford Mail petition against the proposed closure.

Najma Hafeez, the Midlands chairman of consumer watchdog Postwatch said: "Petitions are effective in demonstrating the strength of local feeling, however, we hope respondents will also take the time to set out, in detail, the local factors.

"For example, public transport arrangements or the accessibility of alternative post offices."

More details can be found at www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange