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.

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.

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.