It's the cats you have to watch, says postie Bob

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HE HAS been chased by dogs, which is part of a postman’s lot, but Bob Clark has also faced a ferocious goose, angry sheep and even a vicious pet cat.

Mr Clark, of Netherton, Maryport, who will be 65 on Monday, is retiring today after 32 years as the local postman.

He has served several areas around Maryport, including Broughton Moor, Crosby and the town runs.

For the past five years he has been dedicated to Allonby and district, which includes Mawbray and Edderside, and he has no doubt that this has been his favourite area.

“The people are champion. I am always last back from my run because there is always time for a chat,” he said.

Mr Clark fell into postal delivery.

Born and bred in Maryport, Bob worked on a farm when he left school and then in shoe factories including Bata, before he became an engineer.

He was repairing and maintaining one armed bandits when he drove past an employment centre one day and stopped because he decided he would like to do something new.

“There was a job going for a postie so I took it. I thought it would only be temporary but it has lasted 32 years,” he said.

Dogs are often the postman’s worst enemy, but Bob disagrees.

He said: “I have been chased a couple of times but I don’t usually have any trouble. I am not afraid - and they can smell fear. Anyway, when you have been on the job as long as I have you grow up with the dogs and the children.”

He has been bitten, though – by a family cat.

He said: “I put my hand through a letter box and the cat latched on. I was bleeding quite badly, all over the mail too. The next day there was an envelope stuck to the letter box saying, ‘Sorry, postie.’ I opened it and inside was a bit of plaster! I’ve kept it.”

He has also been chased by a goose and, in Flimby, by a sheep.

“There was a tame sheep owned by a farmer at the bottom of Flimby Brow. It hated the postman and chased us every day,” he explained.

The Post Office is subject to strict regulations regarding deliveries and these must be adhered to. But, preparing his retirement, Mr Clark admitted that sometimes the rules were bent slightly.“When you really got to know your customers and you knew they were expecting a letter you wouldn’t always just take it back to the sorting office to make them have to come for it,” he said. “If you knew the sister lived next door, for instance, you might get her to sign for the letter.”

It has been a difficult week in some ways but Bob and his wife Eleanor have plenty to look forward to in retirement, including a visit to their daughter and grandchildren in Australia and spending even more time with their two other children and their grandchildren in Maryport.