Postman Pat is set for a comeback

Beast Banks Post Office, in Greenside, Kendal, will shut in June as part of the restructuring of 9,000 offices.

It was this post office where Postman Pat writer, John Cunliffe, got his ideas for the stories.

With many of them now on the brink of closure, he says it will be a sad loss.

Essential service

Mr Cunliffe said: "The post office is a very important part of the community. You can exchange gossip, get personal help there and often you can get everything you need if a shop is attached.

"It's a very essential thing that is going."

Mr Cunliffe lived in the same street as the Beast Banks post office 25 years ago.

He went there when he started writing to see how the postman did his job.

Now living in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, he believes this could be the end of post offices as Postman Pat knew them.

Pat will continue

However, it will not see the end of Pat himself.

Mr. Cunliffe said: "He's going over into the future, there's going to be a new series and I think he'll keep going."

Since his first series in 1981, the unassuming postman has become one of the BBC's most successful children's characters, endearing himself to two generations of children and appearing in more than 50 countries.

The closure forms part of a national programme to restructure and modernise the Royal Mail's network of urban post offices.