THE old Post Office in Winsford has been found to be the scene of an extraordinary coincidence - two separately-raised senior London police officers had worked together on cases for years without realising they had shared not only the same home Exmoor village, but also the very same house.

Chief Supt Helen Isaac, a holder of the Queen’s Police Medal with the City of London Police, grew up in Winsford during the 1980s and 1990s when her parents, Tim and Jackie Kettle, ran the village Post Office and Stores.

Reading a recent Free Press article about the award of a Royal Victorian Order to Metropolitan Police Chief Insp Chris Conrad, she recognised both his name and his family in the accompanying photograph.

Helen knew that Chris’s parents, Liz and Peter Conrad, had owned the Post Office during the 1970s, before her own family took it on.

She contacted Chris to confirm the connection, and the pair met recently to reminisce.

Pictured years apart outside the same Exmoor Post Office are a young Chris Conrad and a youthful Helen Isaac before going on to serve the country in important London policing roles.
Pictured in the 1980s outside the old Winsford Post Office are Peter Conrad (left) and Liz Conrad, parents of Chris Conrad, who went on to serve the country in an important London policing role. (Contributed)

Helen said: “As soon as we met as Chris and Helen, not Chief Supt Isaac and Chief Insp Conrad, the years just fell away.”

Chris said: “I told her about climbing trees in the village, fishing from the bridge over the Exe, horse riding at Knaplock, and floating down the river on old tractor inner tubes.

“It was amazing to hear she had done exactly the same things.”

They compared memories of old friends, childhood adventures, and life in Winsford, which is also the birthplace of former British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin.

Both officers admitted it was hard to believe that one small house in an Exmoor village had produced two senior police officers, each later recognised for distinguished service to their country - one with the Queen’s Police Medal, the other with a Royal Victorian Order.