Alan Cleaver
@postalpathsguy.bsky.social
Author of books on UK footpaths. My book, Postal Paths, is due out April 2025 detailing the route used by rural postmen and women in the 19th and 20th Centuries. I live in Cumbria, UK. Follow me if you love walking footpaths. https://linktr.ee/postalpaths
My new short story Fox Wedding is now online on the @irishtimes.com website Hope you like it. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
Michael-Michael lived to be a 100. He died at a moment of his own choosing
Fox Wedding is a new short story by Leonard and Hungry Paul author Rónán Hession
irishtimes.com
It's a long-established principle that a UK footpath doesn't have to go anywhere. Most go from A to B, but they can also go from A to ...not A. Many, like this one, served an old quarry or mine. Gov inspectors have often declined requests to close a footpath simply because it doesn't go anywhere.
The 'Spittie Whol' in a wall in Caldbeck, Cumbria - spit in it saying "Once in the hole I spit to guard me safe from fascinating charms", then don't look back to ensure good fortune. It's possibly an old plague stone now set in a drystone wall. Coins are also left in it by villagers.
Sadly, The Postal Paths didn't win The Lakeland Book Of The Year last night but it was an honour to be shortlisted. Sarah Hall with her book Helm was the worthy winner. So I shall be standing in the Clacton by-election and we'll let the people decide who should really have won!
That's timely! I'm preparing my talk on handwritten letters for Tuesday (June 30) at Tullie House in Carlisle and Mozart's Letter Duet has just played on the radio! tullie.org.uk/events/cumbr...
On the hottest June day on record in the UK, we all need a walk down Boggle Lonning in Cumbria
Do join me!
Tullie Carlisle@tulliecarlisle.bsky.social · last mo.Cumbria's Postal Paths + Percy Kelly 📅 Tue 30 Jun Fascinating stories of the country's most beautiful yet challenging postal paths & the remarkable individuals that traversed them with @postalpathsguy.bsky.social Plus an exclusive display of one of Cumbria's most remarkable posties, Percy Kelly.
Oh my God! Did someone put Trump in charge of water quality at Whitehaven?!
"That which takes longer to arrive stays longer in the heart" - The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing by Juhee Mun
"Never, never, dear Madam (N.B. this remark is addressed to ladies only: no man would ever do such a thing), put “Wednesday”, simply, as the date! That way madness lies.” - Lewis Carroll, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing (1890).
(Nerd alert!): This is interesting - Royal Mail's special issue stamps (the ones with pretty pictures) featuring waterfalls have just been released and include 2nd Class stamps. Royal Mail stopped doing 2nd Class specials months ago, so I wonder why they have now reintroduced them?
My thanks to @bookendscarlisle.bsky.social for giving me a 'job' today as a bookseller as part of #IndieBookshopWeek. And which book did I recommend to customers (apart from my own)? It could only be... @ronanhession.bsky.social
I'm chuffed to say that my book, The Postal Paths, has been shortlisted for this year's Lakeland Book Of The Year award. The awards evening is July 7th - but I'm up against some tough and worthy opposition!
I'll be giving a talk on Cumbrian Postal Paths on June 30th (Tullie House, Carlisle), coinciding with an exhibition of the work of late artist Percy Kelly. Kelly is known for his 'painted letters/envelopes' and I'll be also talking about those. Do come along... tullie.org.uk/events/cumbr...
Cumbria's Postal Paths with Alan Cleaver + Percy Kelly Pop Up - Tullie - Museum & Art Gallery
Hear from local author Alan Cleaver about his book The Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Trails And The People Who Walked Them & see artwork by Cumbria's most famous postie Percy Kelly.
tullie.org.uk
"There is a charm in footing slow across a silent plain" - Keats
Just visiting this lovely pub in Rugby, Warwickshire. Guess what it's called? Go on, take a wild guess 😁
This delightful photo was taken in June 1970 by A.Michael Davies. He sent it me after reading my book, The Postal Paths, and reading about my walk along the 7-mile path on the Isle of Harris, Scotland. It's a rugged coastal path but postman Duncan MacInnes still wore with pride his uniform.
"To the dear memory of a little child" - the beautifully touching 1883 stained glass memorial by parents to the son they lost aged four months. Caldbeck church, Cumbria UK #StainedGlassSunday
The UK has many footpaths that were once used as 'corpse roads' to take the dead to the mother church for burial. Dales Countryside Museum in North Yorkshire still has a funeral bier apparently used to carry the corpse on the Keld to Grinton corpse road...
The golden age of mail delivery before we invented drones
Proof handwriting is beneficial for you...
Mike Sowden@mikeachim.bsky.social · 3mo agoIf you feel like you’re a better writer and student with a pen in your hand instead of a keyboard, you could be onto something. In 2024, a study at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology recruited 36 students in their early 20s - true digital natives at home with modern devices... 1/
On this day in 1840, the first letters with Penny Black stamps were posted. Today, the UK postal service is in a poor state, but let's keep posting letters - and making them special. #PennyBlackDay
"Illustration is art with a job to do" - Sir Quentin Blake
"Come, let us follow by the woodland way, Come, dearest, let us go a-violeting." You won't find violeting on Google, but it was a British custom a century ago of going for a walk to pick a few violets and display them in a small vase in your hallway.
Do you keep a diary? Are you doing anything interesting on May 12th? Are you doing anything mundane? Then send your diary for that day to the UK Mass Observation Project.. share.google/neq7MlL7G40v...
A printed envelope by 19thC artist Edward Burne-Jones. Note the clever use of an easel to display the stamp! #MailArt
Congratulations to Richard Collett on publication day of Along The Borders - a study of those boundaries that define us, divide us, and downright frustrate us.. www.penguin.co.uk/books/462381...
Along the Borders
This is a book about how our borders and boundaries are bridged, and how they bring us together. 'Thoroughly entertaining . . . Along The Borders shows us the borders of the British Isles with all th...
penguin.co.uk
My thanks to @fellranger.bsky.social for introducing me to artist Ronin Tanner (1904-1988). This is Wren and Primroses used in the book, Wiltshire Village.
It’s #PennyBlackDay on 6th May! Do join us in celebrating this incredible invention! More information via the link… 🥳🎩📮🎉 thehandwrittenletterappreciationsociety.org/help-celebra...
