Surprise topping

A mystery yarn bomber has brightened up a road in New Eltham, south-east London, by fitting a rainbow-coloured woollen hat to one of our postboxes.

The crochet enthusiast topped their topper with a very smiley uniformed postbear, complete with a delivery trolley and bulging mailbag.

The cosy first appeared overnight sitting pretty atop a postbox on Thaxted Road last week and was spotted by postman Glen Rapley from Royal Mail Pensbury Place.

‘I spotted this postbox on my way home and have never seen anything like it,' said Glen. ‘As I approached it, a customer came out from No.2 Thaxted Road and explained that it was his partner, who had knitted it.

‘I told him how great it was and explained that I was a postman. He said it was a thank you for the service we have been providing. He said that he had put photos up on Facebook and had received dozens of compliments and likes from all over the world.

‘The photo really doesn't do it credit. It was a really windy day and the cosy stayed completely still. Judging by the size of the trolley and mail bag, it looks like the poor bear has a pretty tough delivery to do!’

The knitted and crocheted cosy also features a replica postbox and a ‘thank you’ message spelled out in splendid rainbow letters. It has been well received by local residents, who have described it as ‘brilliant.’ One customer wrote on Facebook: ‘A big thank you to the lovely lady who has made this for our local postbox to say thank you to our fab postmen and women.’

The crafty crocheter turned out to be a Mrs Wendy Power, who said: ‘I crocheted a postbox hat as a thank you to all the postal workers that have worked so diligently throughout the lockdown, and before, delivering letters and parcels, and even the odd bill!  

‘The project was done while on lockdown and took me about a week to do. I have also done one for a friend, who has put it on a postbox in Great Leigh in Chelmsford.’