People of Brockenhurst – Hannah Judd (was Blizzard)

Hannah moved to Brockenhurst in 1982 aged 7 and had a very horsey childhood. She had dreamt of being a Maths teacher but after working at the Foresters pub she found a passion for catering and trained as a chef there and also worked at the Cloud, the Filly and for Colten Care. Her husband is a train driver and when she wanted to change to a slightly more easy-going job, Hannah applied to join him on the railway.

Hannah is one of the two station office staff at Brockenhurst station, and you might imagine disruptions and cancellations would make a stressful environment too, but having handled late night pub crowds and her warm friendly manner soon calms all but the most irate travellers.

Interviewing Hannah in between a constant stream of customers and queries, I could not help noticing just how far she goes to help everyone, taking immense pride in trying to resolve every issue and act as a tourist information office. Hannah told me that the job started with three months in Basingstoke training where she was told it takes at least 3 years to get to know nearly all she might need to know. She shares the ‘week on week off’ shifts of 5am to 1230 pm or 1215pm to 730pm with colleague Raj.

Fortunately for the neighbours Hannah lives close by and can go out to alarm calls in the night – she joked that is why she got the job, but I think it is more likely to be due to her customer service skills! Umbrellas are left in vast numbers on trains, but so far Hannah has not had to deal with any living lost property items.

Last year was the railway’s 200^th birthday and Hannah made the official birthday cake as she still does some catering – she is involved with the station Friends as far as shifts allow. People leaving the gates is the only downside to her role.

Hannah clearly loves her job. Pop in say hello if you have a minute of two before you get your next train….