It was. I've given up fuming about all the loose ends for fear of self-combusting. In any case, today I am mostly fuming about the weather and its effect on Scottish ferries.
Re Peggy: she moved to Ambridge something like 75 years ago, having married a member of one of the key farming families (Jack Archer, brother of Phil, uncle of Kenton, Shula, David and Elizabeth). They ran the pub, as already mentioned, so had a very central role in village life for a long time. Eventually Jack died of drink and Peggy stood back as landlady, appointing Sid Perks to be bar manager, but she kept the licence, or at any rate ownership, for a long time, so still had a big say in how things were run.
Peggy's Mum moved to Ambridge too to be, and was a vocal figure in village life for many years.
I think Peggy worked in the Estate Office for a time doing secretarial work or bookkeeping. The Estate was the predecessor of Borchester Land. It belonged to Lilian's second husband, Ralph Bellamy, and was the major landowner in the area. Grange Farm (Grundys) and Bridge Farm (Pat and Tony) rented their farms from the Estate. Shula worked in the office too as the Land Agent. As mother-in-law of the owner, Peggy was not treated in the same way as most office assistants. Susan did that job for a bit later on, probably taking over from Peggy.
Later, IIRC, she moved to Grey Gables to work for Jack Woolley, the owner, who had I believe arrived in Ambridge as a wealthy self-made man looking for a business to invest in and run in his twilight years. Not sure what her work entailed as Caroline Bone (later married to Oliver) was Jack's right-hand woman, aka hotel manager, but Jack had his eye on Peggy for years before she finally agreed to marry him, so regardless of her official job title and responsibilities she would have been able to influence what was going on up there too. Grey Gables used to be far more central to village life than it is now. Another sad change for the worse.
Jack bought the shop and owned various properties around the village which he rented out, so there's another sphere of influence. He also owned the Borchester Echo, so mixed with the great and the good of Borsetshire. When Peggy became Mrs Woolley, she did too. By that time, of course, both Jennifer and Lilian were married to very wealthy men, so the whole family (except of course for the Bridge Farm Archers, a good storytelling device) had moved many rungs up the ladder from living above the pub.