Elsie Rowson would walk this 11.5 mile route every day except Sunday in all weathers. After her death in 2013, her family decided to turn the trek into a memorial walk. You can learn more about Elsie's Walk including a map on the dedicated website.

This 16-mile route was created by the Cleobury Mortimer Footpath Association in memory of Simon Evans, a rural postman who also became a successful author and broadcaster. My thanks also to Mark Baldwin for his help in my research on this fascinating character. Simon suffered injuries in World War I and deliberately sought out a tough rural postal round as a form of physiotherapy.  Find out more on the CMFA website.

Scotland, through the wonderful organisation Scotways, was quick off the mark to realise that postman's paths were worth saving and celebrating. Scotways list several on its website including Rhenigidale on the Isle of Harris which was probably Britain's last surviving rural route simply because there was no road to Rhenigidale so the postman had to walk. Discover more here.

At the start of the 20th Century, the mail was brought into the Cumbrian valley of Eskdale on the steam train, La'al Ratty. The steam train still runs (as a tourist attraction) but today the post is delivered by van. Up until the 1960s, the post was delivered partly on bike and partly on foot by the postman Ben Vicars who started off from Boot Post Office. He delivered on bike along the bottom of the valley and then left his bike by a wall to deliver to the farms on the felltop. Find out more here.

This is a beautiful but tough 15-mile circular route - with the option of a 3-mile extension taking you to Mosedale bothy which the postman was required to visit for six weeks of each year. You may wish to justdo part of the route unless you are keen hikers and well prepared. You can park in Shap (just off J39 of the M6) which has cafes, pubs etc. You can download a pdf showing the route.

This was featured on a BBC TV programme when poet Lemn Sissay walked it but the programme did not offer any more information about the path. However, it runs from the station to the village of Dent and, as you'll see from this graphic, saved the postman much time and legwork by cutting through people's back gardens (!). It still does. It is a public footpath but please treat residents with respect - and thank them for saving this important piece of social history.

Edward McLoughlin was the hero who walked (and later cycled) this route around Ripon. He fought tirelessly for the rights of rural postmen, even after his retirement from the service. His original walk was 21 miles but he supplemented it with an additional six miles in the evening just for his own pleasure. The walk starts in Ripon and heads out to Bishop Monkton, Mains, Wormald Green, Riseley Hall and on to Burton Leonard; then back.. My thanks to Bishop Monkton Local History Group for their help with this path.

Matt Bendelow was a World War One veteran who only had one leg but it did not stop him walking this nine-mile route each day to deliver the mail. His life and walk were originally researched by Edward Nicholl and David Charlesworth. Park in the centre of Bowes for this figure-of-eight walk which takes in some breathtaking scenery along the route of the River Greta.

Charles Macintosh was the rural postman at the end of the 19th Century and while walking the route observed the natural world around him, particularly the fungi. He became a celebrated amateur (known as the Perthshire Naturalist), discovering several new species. His walk along the banks of the River Tay included a visit to Dalguise, the holiday home of Beatrix Potter with whom he struck up a friendship (she was a keen mycologist too). It is said her drawings of Peter Rabbit's arch enemy are based on the likeness of Charles Macintosh.