AN exhibition of photographs of postmen on their rounds in decades gone by has received a boost, thanks to a report in The Northern Echo.

Readers have sent in a batch of other old pictures to add to the display in the delivery office at Barnard Castle.

Dave Charlesworth, the delivery office manager, is now having them copied, and he hopes other readers will send in more to make the exhibition even more fascinating.

Trevor Ireland, who lives in Startforth, has taken in a number of photographs featuring his late grandfather, Tommy Ireland, who was a popular postman in Upper Teesdale until he died in 1943 at the age of 48.

One shows him standing in snow beside a small Royal Mail van, registration number BLH 485, which was a familiar sight in the dale for many years.

Tommy Ireland had a reputation for getting through snowdrifts in it to make his deliveries while other vehicles were halted.