Meet the Northampton posties who have been dressing up and putting a smile on people’s faces throughout lockdown

A team of post deliverers that have been working throughout lockdown have gone above and beyond for their customers.

Staff members from the Crown Lane Royal Mail office, in Billing, have been dressing up every Friday in order to make residents smile during their rounds.

Each week has been themed so the team has donned costumes for VE Day, Captain Tom Moore’s birthday, a sports day, and an anyone famous day and they have even completed their rounds as superheroes.

The staff have also been coordinating a food bank to help vulnerable residents and as lockdown eases all donated food that is left over will be given to the Hope Centre.

Alan Mistry, one of the organisers of the festivities at Crow Lane, said: “It all originally started once lockdown was introduced.

“We came up with the idea that we were still going out to every house every day so if we knew people were vulnerable we could help them.

“People then started leaving food on their doorsteps so we could take it to those who needed it.

“Then with the clapping for the NHS, we decided we would wear any colour of the rainbow, other than red because we always wear that.”

Since the initial change in clothes, ‘Dress up Friday’ has become a weekly event that is being supported by managers.

So far, between 30 and 40 postmen and women are involved and have dressed up for eight weeks. Alan says the team plans to dress up for four more weeks to reach a total of 12 weeks.

He added: “We have themed it every week to whatever is going on that week. So we dressed up for D-Day and Captain Tom Moore’s birthday. We’ve done a pyjama day and last week we did superheroes. This week we are doing cowboys and native Americans.

“So many people are getting involved and every week is getting better and better and our manager has been brilliant.

“We just make sure that it doesn’t jeopardise the deliveries.”

Dress up Fridays have been a hit with residents who see the costumes every week.

Alan recalls the pyjama week when he went out in his wife's dressing gown and how amazingly one customer reacted.

“He said to me: ‘That is the best thing I have seen and you have brightened my day’.

“And I’m getting told I’m ‘an absolute legend’ from everyone I see.

“People have been giving us rounds of applause and we’ve not had one complaint.

“We don’t want to offend anyone, it’s just a little bit of fun.”

While brightening local people’s days, the posties have also managed to raise a lot of money for Animals in Need and the food bank they were running with anything spare being donated to the Hope Centre.

Alan, has also set up a GoFundMe page, which can be found here.