The Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Routes – and the People Who Walked Them

by Alan Cleaver

Seeing the hills, the crofts, villages and ruins only tells half the story. The people who worked, walked, lived and died here are the other half.

Postal paths span the length and breadth of Britain - from the furthermost corners of the Outer Hebrides to the isolated communities clinging to the cliffs of the Rame Peninsula in south-east Cornwall. As far back as the 1660s, postmen and women have been moulding and forging paths to deliver posts to homes across Britain, no matter how remote.

A chance remark by a farmer about a Postman's Path led Alan Cleaver on a quest to discover more about this network of lanes, short-cuts and footpaths in the British landscape. What he found, through his walks, conversations and painstaking research, was more than just beautiful scenery. It was an incredible, forgotten slice of social history - the remarkable tales and toil of rural postmen and women trudging down lanes, over fields, and even across rivers to make sure the post always came on time.

From women like Hannah Knowles, who began her job delivering letters in 1912 and would only miss three days through illness over the next 62 years of service, to WW1 veteran Matt Bendelow, who managed his 9-mile delivery route on one leg, Postal Paths paints a vivid picture of the people who not only served their communities but, more often than not, built them.

From the rolling fells of Cumbria to Kent's shingle coast, Postal Paths is a journey through Britain's past - and its future.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Walking, Travel, British Literature

295 pages, Hardcover

Published April 24, 2025

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true delight. The stories meander along these amazing paths, the writing is beautifully descriptive and peppered with the philosophy that the writer lives by. That of connecting with our fellow humans as well as nature and spaces.
I am not sure who recommended this title to me, but I say thank you, it truly is a delight that I recommend to any fellow reader.
I also feel inspired to take a little time and begin again a handwritten correspondence with some folk in my life and even with some others who may appreciate an envelope arriving in their letter box with the simple message past the written word of “you’re not forgotten”

[Suzanne Viney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this.

[T. Howser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard of this book through social media while searching for pages about vintage postcards, stamps, & the like.

It's an extensive tale illustrating the lost walking routes & bygone rural mail carriers of Britain. Cleaver takes us through his research methods that include speaking with locals, delving through troves of old documents, & attempting to decipher these routes by walking them himself.

There is a good mix of highly detailed route descriptions, in-depth cultural village characterizations, intetesting forgotten historical info, & studies concerning the lives of specific dedicated "posties" on a deeper personal level.

I enjoyed the varied nature of the research & the way it was laid out to the reader in a digestible manner to form a cohesive, visceral image of an integral part of everyday life way back when.

The author provided a nice peek inside this niche world that he - out of a noticeable passion regarding the subject matter - immersed himself in over the course of several years.

I was, for a brief time, a mail carrier myself. This book provided several layers of insight into an era I knew little about, & thus gave me a further appreciation for the men & women chronicled within.

It only took me a few days to get through this book, which is usually (for me at least) a sign of a well written & engaging story.

Nice job. 👍

[Seonaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to on Audible, narrated beautifully by Mark Elstob.

A warm, charming and affectionate book, part social history, part walking guide, delving into an important but mostly forgotten aspect of Britain's past, the rural postie. And frankly, there need to be more histories like this, that record a past closer to our lives, ancestors we can recognise.

For example, I did not know that the post office had its own battalion in WWI, and then made a point of employing people who were disabled after the war: a man with one leg, another with one arm, a blind man who naturally did a more urban route, and who was occasionally assisted, if necessary, by someone on the street reading the address). Clearly, a fair few men who chose to walk routes of up to 25 miles a day, 6 days a week, would have been suffering from PTSD, and reported just liking being out in the countryside. The post office also regularly employed women, although not after they married, as was common then. Cleaver briefly explores the fight posties had to get better pay and working conditions, but mostly the book focuses on the resilience, good-heartedness and sheer bloody-mindedness of the rural postie, some of whom even died in their determination to get the post out.

But this is also a walking guide: Cleaver walks some of the postal routes, and I'm pleased to find out that we have already accidentally done one, the 434 stairs to South Stack Lighthouse on Holy Island. Just a few thousand more to do.

Cleaver is an engaging writer, humorous and self-effacing, with a clear regard for the men and women who created and ran the post office, and delivered mail to every single property in Britain. If you need a book to warm your heart in these dark days, you could not do much better than this one.

As an aside, I live in a rural village, and I know the names of our most regular postie and the Evri driver, and enjoy a reasonably regular chat on the doorstep with both, though they are both driving vans these days.

[Mark Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then, you find a book that encompasses so many things that you love – nature, walks, handwritten letters, poetry and ……. mail.

“The Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Routes and the People Who Walked Them” by Alan Cleaver is a love letter to the rural postal carriers of the Royal Mail. Their shortcuts between farms and villages became postal paths, some of which are still walkable today. Others require intensive research and dogged determination.

Thankfully, Mr. Cleaver knew how to conduct the research and is blessed with a determined manner. The book not only describes the paths, but the men and woman who used them to deliver mail – and more – to the intended recipients. The stories of these extraordinary, yet also ordinary, people are testaments to the need for a human connection.

While we can’t go backwards, we should pause and consider what we have given up in the name of progress. We should consider enlisting the men and woman who deliver mail as we seek solutions to reinforce the social contract. There may be other ways for our postal services to bind our nations together.

This book is in the lead for my favorite read of 2025.

Note: Just as Mr. Cleaver favors handwritten letters, I favor independent bookstores. This book was just published in the UK (April 2025) and isn’t available in US bookstores yet. I bought mine at Hatchards - https://www.hatchards.co.uk/.

[Chris Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an engaging book that moves forward at a gentle pace, and takes the reader on a fascinating exploration of the old rural routes of postmen and women. The author provides numerous endearing anecdotes, such as the barefoot postie who ran through the bogs, and Beatrix Potter running shyly away from the burly postman, who was possibly the inspiration for Mr McGregor! Fancy, postmen and women used to have to buy their own boots, when their wage was meagre. He also has an eye for natural details, like the bird who pretended to have a broken wing, so he pretended to believe her.

I was amazed that there used to be up to 1,000 postman's huts. I had no idea, and have never seen one, probably because I didn't know to look, or because there are very few remaining. The sense of loss is palpable, as simpler ways of living are superseded by post vans, and then the technology of the twenty-first century. I like the way in which the author combines nostalgia and pragmatism. He confesses to using google lens!

This is a book akin to Alfred Wainwright's walks; an absolute gem. We are taken to village shops, we are told about the public toilets. It is as if we actually park in the car parks and accompany the author on his leisurely rambles along the much-trodden-of-old postie's paths.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very likeable book. Chap's interest is piqued by summat and he follows it up - not obsession, not quest and I didn't even get the sense that 'getting a book out of it' was particularly on his mind.

It's faintly grumpy in places in a Bill Bryson-esque manner but he is not (at all) one of those 'don't really like people' people - in the right place. He does like to have most of his walks to himself.

His background in journalism, especially regional journalism shows, and in a good way. He inspired so many to make contact with information and set up meetings which I found touching.

Some aspects or points made are slightly repetitive in a way that an editor should have addressed (much as I agree with him about many, in particular about the lack of public monument to the individual postal workers) and I would have loved more photographs. Of course part of the thrust of the book is that there's so little record but sometimes he actually describes photos, so they could have been included. I loved those that were.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this a charming book about the incredible routes that postmen and women once walked to traverse rural landscapes in the past, it is an epic journal of the author's search for these routes, the people that walked them, and even the huts they sheltered in before making a return journey. It has moments of humour, nostalgia and awe. It was a great read, I learned a lot of interesting things. A lovely book to give to anyone interested in the postal service, or rural life in the UK. A fitting tribute to the postal staff who walked those postal paths.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw the title of this book, it instantly appealed to me: nature, walking, local history.

The book tells the stories of postal workers who’ve walked miles through the years delivering our mail to all kinds of distant parts of the UK, some barefoot, some carrying bikes over fells so they could cycle back home again after their round. Delighted to read about some postal paths I’ve (unknowingly) walked before and lovely to learn about history through the mouths of posties and their families. A new found appreciation to all that used to go into delivering mail.

[Mark Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating to think of Britain's rural and remote communities linked by secret paths created and used by postal workers.
Author is a bit stuck in the past though, and somewhat idealistic about halcyon days.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book to begin with and the author had a lot of interesting information to share. It was very written and informative. However it was rather repetitive telling a number of very similar stories of walk discovery. I felt it could have been edited to a much shorter book.

[Robbie Lunniss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A celebration of walking, postman and simpler times with all the self congratulations you expect from a travel book.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A celebration of an old way of life where people connected more with each other.
An enjoyable read!