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Alan Cleaver Profile
Alan Cleaver

@thelonningsguy

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Author of various books on footpaths. Currently writing a book on Postal Paths.

Whitehaven, Cumbria
Joined March 2015
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
5 months
I tweet about Britain's postal paths (walked by rural postmen and women in the past) and other ancient paths, folklore, and the joy of handwritten letters. Follow me if you're of a like mind. Picture: Scottish postie Silver Beedie on her Highland route.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 years
Living next to a pub, I'm used to late-night revellers shouting but what really annoyed me was the chap who would imitate an owl hoot around 2.30am every night. Now pubs are shut I realise the hooting still goes on and it's not a drunk. It is actually an owl 😳
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Alan Cleaver
4 years
Art explained by a four-year-old...
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
This year, I will be mainly travelling Britain researching Postman's Paths walked by rural postmen and women until the 1970s. Follow me if you love writing letters, postal history and walking!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
My job is walking the paths and lanes walked by rural postmen and women in days gone by, taking a few pics and writing about my day out. God, it's a tough life!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
This is perhaps the last Postman's Hut surviving in #Wales . Posties rested here to have lunch over a pot-bellied stove. They also carved their intials inside. It's in beautiful Cwmystwyth and villagers are raising £4,700 to restore it. More pics to follow.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
The tasteful #Coronation display in one of my local shops. And not in the slightest bit scary 😳
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 years
The government says we can't afford to give nurses a pay increase. If only there was some way we could raise the money needed... #ResignBorisJohnson #nhspayrise
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
6 years
Please answer honestly... With visa applications questions like this, I am sure any terrorist trying to get into America will be thwarted immediately... #security
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Many rural postmen stopped for their lunch in a Postman's Hut (a corrugated iron shed with a pot-bellied stove). Something once as common as a phone box is now almost lost from the British landscape. This one is at Asterton, Shropshire. Pic: Jeremy Bolwell.
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
I attended a talk tonight on Cumbrian postman and artist Percy Kelly, who beautifully illustrated his letters to friends. He died in 1993 as the writing of letters was starting to die out, but his letters serve as a Requiem to the written word.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
8 years
Southerners urged not to travel unless necessary as snow, ice and blizzards approach. Northerners - you'll need your cap. #snow
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
6 months
JB Banks is a traditional ironmonger shop in Cockermouth #Cumbria that has been in business for nearly 200 years - and Ken is today celebrating working for the same shop for 60 years. Congratulations Ken!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Rural postmen often achieved success as poets, writers or artists. I'm grateful to @PenlanHeritage for bringing to my attention Idris Mathias, a Welsh postman who drew a 60ft-long map of his world. It names the Coracle fishermen and their trawls.
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
As it's #InternationalWomansDay here's a salute to the rural postwomen who served our communities on foot or bike (vans took over in 2014). This is La'al Hannah (Hannah Knowles) who delivered post to Eskdale #Cumbria for 62 years (La'al - dialect for small). Pic: Ratty Museum
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
Gosh. I didn't expect such a bumper reaction to yesterday's post about my project researching Postman's Paths. I will get round to responding to all the comments. In the meantime, here's an article from The Guardian a few weeks ago about my project..
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Alan Cleaver
5 years
I got halfway home from Tesco with heavy shopping bags and wished I had taken the car. Then I remembered I had taken the car - and had to go back to Tesco to get it #SignsYouNeedABreak
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
10 months
Spotted in #Cumbria this morning 😁
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
Today I am following in the footsteps of this remarkable postwoman: Jane Preston, who delivered post around Cockerham, Lancashire for 50 years until her death at 70 in 1945. Her 9-mile route included the coastal path and open salt marshes.
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
Rural postmen used whistles, horns etc to let villagers know they were arriving. This is the horn used by John Priestman, postman for Patterdale #Cumbria at the end of the 19thC. It's still treasured by his great granddaughter Sara Holliday. Anyone else have a postal heirloom?
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Alan Cleaver
1 year
The growing (and welcome) trend of cemeteries having white postboxes where people can post letters to loved ones who have died. This one in Bourne End, #Bucks . Courtesy of @TheBeyonderUK #postboxsaturday
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
A gentleman in Caldbeck first mentioned Postman's Paths to me 3 or 4 years ago. He pointed out steps had to be added into the drystone wall the postman shortcut over to reach the next farm (see pic). So it was intriguing to also see this tweet yesterday...
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
It's a tough job but someone has to travel round Britain walking our postal paths. This was the stunning walk this morning on the Postman's Path at Yockenthwaite, #Yorkshire . Beautiful beyond words.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
7 years
When the NY Times pretends on its front page that our police normally look like those on the left. #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
The inside of the postman's hut at Cwmystwyth #Wales . On the right was a bench, on the left a pot-bellied stove. The postmen cooked lunch on the stove. Water was obtained from a well a few yards up the hill. There are plans to restore the hut, retaining much of the original.
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
I'd hoped to be walking a Postman's Path this morning but called it off due to the torrential rain. Which is pathetic really as the postmen and women of old would have walked it whatever the weather!
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Alan Cleaver
1 year
Meanwhile in a village in #Cumbria ... the first note said it was closed due to "wildlife infestation" 🙄. The second rather more nicely explained a bird is nesting in it. #postboxsaturday
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Alan Cleaver
11 months
It was an absolute honour to meet 87-year-old Silver Beedie (the only 'Silver' I have ever met!) who in the early 1960s was postie on a 14-mile round in the Scottish Highlands. She was also an accomplished marathon walker. She walked 10am to 3pm, six days a week. Wow!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
9 months
Take care people. The Blackpool Tower fire has spread to a drystone wall in Cumbria 😉
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
All you young pretenders move over. Here's the master postbox (from near Ambleside, #Cumbria ) #postboxsaturday
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
It can be a challenge pinning down the precise route rural postmen walked. Each had a route information card (see pic of Shap #Cumbria route) naming every farm and house but few of these survive. I'd love to hear from any local history archives that have their local route cards.
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Alan Cleaver
8 months
The Postman's Steps near Hebden, North Yorkshire - built so the postman could shortcut to neighbouring village, Thorpe. He first had to cross the River Wharfe over stepping stones. There are 55 steps.
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Alan Cleaver
1 year
I've been going through the letters kept by my late parents. This was the envelope of a letter my brother Martin sent to mum and dad in 1984 - so he would have been 26 at the time 😟
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
I met these 2 lovely people today: 90-year-old Mary (left), who lives near Flash, Staffordshire, and who delivered the post on bike in the 1940s; and @BethanW68512805 who delivers the same round today by van. Great stories shared over a cuppa!
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
I collect weird paths, lanes, alleys etc in Britain. One of the weirdest - and probably unique - is the main street of Clovelly in Devon which is called one name if you're going down it, and another if you're going up it (Down-a-long and Up-a-long). Wonderfully British!
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
It was a gorgeous day on Dent Postman's Path #Cumbria . The postman came down from the station with the mail. It's now done by van but those living on the path all know the postman by name - and one couple said he even leaves a handwritten note just to say he has no post for them!
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
Jean Brennand (nee Airey) was a postwoman at Ambleside #Cumbria in the 1940s, facing a tough climb each day from the town up the fellside to Kirkstone Pass Inn. @Niallsspence and I retraced her steps today. A stunning 7.5 mile walk despite the drizzle.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
6 years
This cottage in St Bees #Cumbria includes a 'landing place' for witches on their broomsticks in the hope that the witches then won't trouble the residents! Sometimes known as a 'boggle resting place', it's a feature seen in other parts of the UK too #folklorethursday
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
Post Office magazine 1934. Prepare to shed a tear 😢
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
This is the last (as far as I know) surviving Postman's hut in #Cumbria . Used until about 1930s for the postman in Patterdale to rest and have lunch. It was then bought by a farmer as a hen house! It would be nice to see it preserved. A real piece of history.
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Alan Cleaver
7 months
Gosh, this is a game changer: A Postal Notebook. It's an envelope that opens into an 8-page notebook. Enough to write/sketch a walk or holiday to friends. The recipient detaches the flaps. Thanks to @RohanLisa for telling me/sending me a couple, so my first is being sent to her.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
"It is not down in any map; true places never are" - Herman Melville. (Well, actually it's Eskdale #Cumbria )
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Alan Cleaver
5 months
There are many footpaths known to locals as 'postman's paths' because they were regularly walked by the rural postman. This lovely one near Broughton in Furness #Cumbria is known as 'Postman's Trod' but I'm yet to discover who the postie was and his or her precise route.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 months
Eskdale postwoman La'al Hannah (La'al is Cumbrian dialect for little) retired in 1973 after 61 years service in which she only missed three days due to illness. She loved delivering mail but admitted on her retirement that she hated writing letters herself!
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
One from the Postman's Path at Dent, Cumbria for #PostboxSaturday . The postman serving here in the 19thC would blow a bugle to alert farmhouses of his imminent arrival!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
I chatted yesterday with Alan Craghill whose dad, Jim was postman for Irton #Cumbria , delivering on bike for 12 years from 1961. It was 40 miles a day on a bike with no gears. He always said every day was different depending on what wildlife he saw or what the weather was like.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
The 19th Century postman Thomas Dawson carved sayings such as "Be Kind to the Poor", "Do not stop long at the fair" and "Paddle your own canoe" (!) into Wreaks Causeway Bridge on the A595 #Cumbria while he waited for the mail. His work is still visible.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 years
I've lost track. Am I panic-buying for the second wave of coronavirus or for Brexit? #panicbuying
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 months
I'm just doing the rewrites on the first draft of my forthcoming book on Postal Paths (the paths walked by Britain's rural postmen and women). I've been walking the paths for three years so it has been a joy to 'revisit' them in my mind. Book due out late Spring next year.
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Alan Cleaver
1 year
Today I was following the postal route of Jimmy Calkeld who walked Ribblesdale in Yorkshire for 47 years from 1901 to 1948. He walked the 18-mile round for six days a week, delivering post to farms and rural cottages.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Dead-end paths: A legacy of our rural post... Notice reads: "No through route. This path goes across two fields, then you have to turn around & go back the way you came... it does not go to Teggs Nose or anywhere else. It is an old postman's walk that finishes at the next farm."
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
The rather dapper Dentdale #Cumbria postman in 1908 (note the bugle to let villagers know of his arrival) and the same spot today (Howgills House near Greenwell). De-commissioned postboxes like this one are painted black. Picture taken by a Mr Steel of Carlisle.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
I've tracked down a woman who, in 1961, was a rural postie walking a 14-mile route each day in the Scottish Highlands. She's now 86. I'll be sitting down with her for a long chat in a couple of weeks and I'm sure she'll have some grand tales to tell!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
I didn't think I'd ever get excited about a wooden shed but someone phoned me yesterday to tell me of a Postman's Hut that still exists in Cumbria so I'll be popping out to photograph it asap. Postman rested in the huts to have their lunch while on their rounds.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
7 years
Someone upset you today? Use this 1,000 word curse compiled by Glasgow Archbishop in 1525. Now carved on stone in Carlisle #folklorethursday
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Alan Cleaver
7 months
I've arrived on the Isle of Harris, Scotland, to walk the postman path to Rhenigidale. But first I am enjoying the vernacular architecture...
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
"Townspeople do not even know the name of their postman. To them he is merely a human machine, but in the country he is a family friend in all the cottages." - Northern Gazette 1930. Do you know the name of your postman or woman? 😉
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
I may be on ITV Border news tonight (Jan 12) as @HannahMcITV and I walk Shap postman's path in torrential rain. The postman would collect letters from this postbox. I posted two letters here - inc one to @letterappsoc - but I fear the chances of them surviving the rain are slim!
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Alan Cleaver
11 months
Autumn leaves, a red Victorian postbox and Durham Cathedral. The perfect picture! #PostboxSaturday
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
I've just come across a list of mine of curious #Cumbria footpaths. I thought my Twitter friends would enjoy some of the names: Billy Watson's Lonning, Donkey Trod, Fisher's Wife's Rake, Monks Trod, T'Crack (pictured), Widow's Crossing, Thief Street, The Dandy Walk, Slack Randy..
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
10 months
I came across this George V postbox on the postal path used by George 'the Post' Teasdale in the 1950s. He delivered in Glenridding, #Cumbria . The box has a metal flap over the slot. Was that to protect mail from rain or to stop birds nesting inside it? #PostboxSaturday
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Today I am mainly walking Elsie's Walk at Stiperstones Shropshire #PostmansPaths
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
5 months
There's remote.. and then there's Mosedale cottage. This was the last stop for the rural postman when a shepherd lived there. It is now a bothy (shelter) for walkers. Hear about postal paths on Open Country (Radio 4 at 3pm today or on BBC Sounds) #Cumbria
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
Hannah Knowles ("La'al Hannah"), postwoman for Eskdale Green #Cumbria . Started in 1912 aged 15, retired in 1973 after 61 years service during which she only took 3 days off ill. She died in 1974. Awarded BEM for her services to the community. #posties
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Jean is now 98 but kindly shared with me happy memories of walking in all weathers to the farms on the fellside where a welcoming cup of coffee was always on offer.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 years
Pandemic sweeping the planet, government in chaos, America going to the dogs. And don't even get me started on what's happening in Workington #Cumbria ...
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Alan Cleaver
7 months
Most walking postal routes in Britain ended in the 1970s (vans are now used), but because Rhenigidale on the Isle of Harris had no road until 1990, it was last walked on November 20 1989. The last postman was Steve McCombe, now 60. He's outside the island's Tarbert post office.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
11 months
A picture of the Old Post Office at East Pennard, Somerset, just to remind us what we have lost. I doubt the post office tucked in the back of WH Smith will look this good in a 100 years' time. 🥲
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
"Shall we say eight o'clock gentlemen?" #Endeavour #FarewellEndeavour
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
For #postboxsaturday , this is a Victorian one on the side of Penny Red Cottage, Ambleside #Cumbria . It is on the postal route taken by Jean Brennand in the 1940s. It rises up the fellside to the Kirkstone Inn; an eight-mile and very steep round trip but offering stunning views.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
And one more #Cumbria lonning. This is Lucy Gray lonning, near Threlkeld. Legend tells how little Lucy got lost in the lonning during a snowstorm and drowned in the river. (Lonning = dialect for 'lane')
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
10 months
A reminder of the racism Benjamin Zephaniah had to suffer during his lifetime. This example is from The Sun in 1987... #BenjaminZephaniah
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Many children don't 'do' #handwriting , and that means they also can't read it. Handwriting is sadly a dying art. I've kept diaries all my life but was it a mistake to handwrite them? Should I go back and type them all up for future generations? 😳
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
The other Boggle Lonning in #Cumbria . 'Lonning' - dialect for lane; 'boggle' dialect for "anything expected to appear where they have no business" (ie a ghost).This is actually Seacross Lonning at Wythop Mill but called Boggle Lonning because of its ghost.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 months
This postbox in Baker Street, London, is round the corner from 221B Baker Street (home to Sherlock Holmes) and is the hideout of Danger Mouse. The unofficial blue plaque has fallen off but the yarn bomber has paid tribute as you can see. I love the Big Ben too! #PostboxSaturday
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
I've no idea what Strawberry Cottage looks like but I'd buy it based on the name and the lane leading to it (near Ripon Yorkshire)
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
"He was a rapid walker and a great reader and as he went his rounds he very often had a book in his hand and read it as he paced along" - This description of 19thC Northumberland postman Willie Copeland shows walking with your head stuck in mobile device is nothing new!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
4 years
Can someone at BBC news please interview me. I'm no one important and have nothing to say but I'd just like to show off my bookcases to the rest of the world. Ta #BBC #Zoom #books
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Alan Cleaver
1 year
"Our pasts are filled with objects that build reassuring bridges back from the present to the past," - The Museum Makers by @MoMarcoPolo . My late Uncle Pat's shoes that he was wearing when adopted in 1908; his only link to his birth mother.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
I'm spending this week walking Britain's rural postal paths of old. The posties were not paid much but it strikes me that, with walks like this one at Zeal Monachorum in #Devon , they might have been tempted to do it for free!
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
My thanks to Ian Smith for sending me a copy of this picture of Eskdale Green post office #Cumbria (circa 1910?) and showing the #postmen setting off with Christmas parcels. The post office is now the opposite side of the road. Adjacent road is Post Office Lane.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
7 months
A return today to the Postman's Path at Shap, #Cumbria so I had to post a letter to @letterappsoc in the cutest postbox at the village of Keld... #PostboxSaturday
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
I'm in #Shropshire at the moment and today walked the Simon Evans Way which recreates the 1930s route of a rural postman (and later nature writer). Hats off to Cleabury Mortimer Footpath Society for a charming tribute to Mr Evans.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
For #postboxsaturday , another picture from my trip last week to the Postman's Walk at Yockenthwaite #Yorkshire . The path along the side of the valley would have been a route the rural postie took to deliver mail to farms.
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
Gaining 10,000 new Twitter friends in 24 hours is lovely but forgive me if I'm slow in getting back to people with individual inquiries while I catch up! I've revived my blog with FAQs about Postman's Paths...
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Alan Cleaver
1 year
My book on UK postal walks will hopefully be out in 2025, but in the meantime, a few towns and villages have promoted their postal paths. One of my favourites is Elsie's Walk at Stiperstones #Shropshire , which you may wish to explore...
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Alan Cleaver
6 months
Ten minutes ago, I didn't know little windows with a tiny window inside them existed. And I've no idea why they exist. But now I definitely need one.
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Alan Cleaver
11 months
Spennymoor Town Council art gallery doesn't just have wonderful artwork by miner artists such as Norman Cornish. I also spotted the chairs had been carved by Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson. Lovely.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
I was back in Dentdale #Cumbria today on the Postman's Path that has several very narrow stiles ('squeezy guts' in the Cumbrian dialect). As Roald Dahl might say, this path is no good for anyone bordering on 'enormous' 😉
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
A path still known locally as a postman's path. It is near Featherstone, #Northumberland and is a typical 'short-cut' type of path that enabled the postman to cut across fields and finish his round quicker (in this case getting to Featherstone Park Station).
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
"Beside these singing streams and in these peaceful dales I have found beauty and quiet, unruffled and serene," - 1930s' rural postman Simon Evans of Cleobury Mortimer. This sunken lane was on his route. #Shropshire
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Alan Cleaver
7 years
I missed @RobGMacfarlane 's tweet saying corpse-road was word of the day - as I was out walking Irton corpse road in Cumbria!
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Alan Cleaver
9 months
The British tradition of wandering aimlessly around shops on Christmas Eve is still going strong. #Keswick #Cumbria
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 months
Some paths have a story to tell. Others are just good listeners.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
7 months
"Mr McLoughlin's name was known in almost every rural postman's house throughout the whole country". So wrote the Yorkshire Post in 1941 about this man who fought all his life for posties' rights. He's forgotten today, so on #PostboxSaturday here's the box outside his Ripon home.
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Alan Cleaver
2 years
One for #postboxsaturday ... This cute postbox is on the route of Elsie's Walk - an 11.5mile trek over Stiperstones #Shropshire created in memory of rural postwoman Elsie Rowson who walked the route six days a week from 1958 to 1970. Details here
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
6 months
Congratulations to all involved in #PostboxSaturday on the 200th anniversary. Here's the postbox at the end of the known world - well, Rhenigidale, Isle of Harris #Scotland . It's at the start of the 4-mile Postman's Path to Tarbert walked 3 times a week by the postman until 1989.
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
5 months
A painted letter to Royal Mail to support the #NoToCodes campaign calling for barcodes to be scrapped. The envelope reflects my home town of Whitehaven but the Victorian postbox is in Fourstones, Northumberland where I'm currently staying #PostboxSaturday
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
2 years
Elsie delivered post to remote miners cottages. Miners could build a cottage on common land as long as the house was built in one night with smoke coming out the chimney by morning. Had my lunch at this restored one
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@thelonningsguy
Alan Cleaver
1 year
Jimmy Calkeld served this former post office in Selside, Yorkshire through both world wars, walking 168,000 miles: "A hundred and sixty thousand of it has been in wet or snowy weather, the other eight thousand in fine" he once said. #postboxsaturday
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