This week's newsletter is introduced by Alan Cleaver, author of the soon to be published The Postal Paths - rediscovering Britain's forgotten trails and the people who walked them, the research and writing of which he will be discussing on Tuesday 18 March at our next Walking Writers' Salon.

I thought I knew all about foopaths. If pushed, I may even have described myself as an 'expert' - at least of footpaths in my home county of Cumbria. But then I met Caldbeck resident Tony Vaux for a chat - actually about corpse roads, those paths used to carry the dead from remote parts of the parish to the mother church in days gone by. As I got up to leave, he suggested I take a short-cut back to the village via the Postman's Path.

Now, I had heard of lonnings, trods, drovers roads, meanderings, poor man's walks - and, yes, even corpse roads, but Postman's Path was a new one on me. Tony explained that the rural postman used to short-cut over the drystone wall and across the field to the next farm; this remained a public footpath and was known locally as the postman's path. He even pointed out the 'steps' the farmer had added into the drystone wall to stop the postman repeatedly damaging the wall.

I was intrigued. Was this something peculiar to Caldbeck or did postman's paths exist all over the country? On returning home - via the postman's path of course - I googled the term and quickly discovered they were indeed 'a thing'. All over the country were a number of footpaths known as postman's paths. Most websites were unable to explain the origin of the term but the explanation mooted by Tony seemed self-evident: short-cuts made, or at least well-used by rural posties.

I quickly realised that the short-cuts themselves were too short to promote as walks but the longer routes offered more promise. My research showed they weaved through some glorious if challenging countryside. But also of interest were the lives of the posties themselves: how they coped with these tough daily walks, how they kept their communities together by delivering not just mail but news, medicines, newspapers - and gossip!

The walking rural postal service was phased out in the 1960s/70s but I did manage to find a handful of retired posties who were still alive. They helped flesh out my archival research and I am looking forward to sharing all my findings in the Walking Writers' Salon.

Further details and to book tickets for the Salon with Alan, go here. Hachette Publishers are offering two e-books as prizes in our Salon multiple choice quiz.

Just launched is our new micro-flash fiction writing competition 39 steps - we invite you to write a story in 39 words that is inspired by John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps. Read our blog announcement and go here to find further details of the competition and how you can enter.

Free for supporting members, open to everyone

Latest podcast episodes

From our network

Stuff we found

Follow us on social media