With the hike in stamp prices coming into force on 30 April, most of us will have no option but to stump up the extra cash. But Graham Eccles of Bude in Cornwall has decided to offer his local community a cheaper, alternative postal service.
Launched on 1 April, the Penny Farthing Post is a mail service with a difference: letters around town are personally delivered by Eccles on his penny farthing bike. The stamps, designed and printed by the postman himself, cost 25p – a saving of 35p on the new first-class stamp price.
"When I heard about the rises, I realised that my idea, which was initially just aimed at tourists, had legs," says Eccles. "Three weeks in I deliver around 100 letters a day."
Eccles initially printed only 480 stamps. Within two days they had sold out and the local shops that act as his post offices, selling stamps and collecting items for delivery, were clamouring for more. "At the end of my first week, I was dropping to bits. I wasn't used to cycling 15 miles a day, and my penny farthing needed a new back wheel."
"The reaction has been nothing but positive," he says. "I'm now designing post boxes made from converted gas bottles – painted bright yellow to avoid confusion with the Royal Mail."
For the time being, Eccles sorts the letters in his kitchen ("hair-raising when the kids want to help") but his dream is to have his own post office in the centre of town with his partner, Jayne, as postmistress. "I want to encourage the younger generation to love the written word. Everyone's growing up with huge thumbs from texting but receiving a letter is special."
