Bundle of joy

When postman Ed Holton first noticed something wrapped in blankets on the ground near the end of his round in Hackney, East London, he didn’t immediately realise exactly what he’d seen.

‘I was delivering mail to a vicarage in Sandringham Road,’ said Ed. ‘I walked down the steps to the basement flat, delivered the letter and then saw a blanket on the ground, wrapped in a cocoon shape.

‘There was no noise or movement and I carried on delivering to the rest of the road, but this blanket on the ground was bugging me and playing on my mind more and more. I thought maybe it was kittens.’

When Ed met up with his delivery partner of four years, Paul Smith, he told him about his suspicions.

‘I told him “drop everything, we’re going straight back”,’ said Paul. ‘I could tell something was on his mind – I knew it wasn’t right.’

The pair raced back, and Paul investigated further. ‘I went to move the blanket and it stirred a bit – then I heard a little baby cry. Ed went white as a ghost.’

‘Paul immediately wrapped the baby back up again and took him into our van and turned up the heating to keep him warm, while I ran back up the steps and knocked on the door of the vicarage and the people inside called the emergency services,’ said Ed. ‘They arrived pretty quickly and took the baby into their care.’

Doctors confirmed the baby was only a few hours old as his umbilical cord was still attached.

Ed said that he ‘felt so relieved’ when police rang him later that day to tell him that the was healthy and doing well. ‘The officer also told me that hospital staff had asked for my name and that they had named the baby Edward after me – as the person who found him.

‘It’s amazing – I was quite proud when I heard that. But the important thing was that the baby was safe.’

Yet that wasn’t the end of their ordeal as Paul then went on leave for a week, leaving Ed at the centre of a media scrum over the discovery. The story of the abandoned baby made both local and national news, as police hoped to find the mother of the child.

She was sadly never found and the baby has now been safely placed in foster care. But Ed and Paul haven’t forgotten the lessons they learned from their experience.

‘Be vigilant,’ said Paul. ‘As a postie, you’re a vital part of the community.’