Whitehaven author Alan Cleaver will be talking about his new book, The Postal Paths, at an event next week.
Alan has spent five years researching the routes walked – and occasionally cycled – by rural postal workers to deliver mail to the most remote farms and houses in Britain.
Cumbrian routes featured in the book include Shap, Eskdale and Glenridding.
The Royal Mail phased out rural postmen and women in the early 1970s, to be replaced by van deliveries, but the routes remain as public footpaths.
Alan, 65, of Church Street, said: “Some of the daily walks were up to 20 miles long through beautiful but tough terrain. They walked them in all weathers, six days a week including – up until the early 1960s – on Christmas Day.
“The routes remain beautiful walks but I have also researched the lives of the men and women who served their communities so well for more than a century.”
Alan’s talk takes place at the Beacon Portal in Whitehaven on Tuesday, May 6, at 7.30pm. It has been organised by the Friends of the Beacon Museum and entry is £3.
