A former post office in west Wales has been inundated with hundreds of letters hoping to receive its unique stamp for the first post of the new millennium.

Gwilym Richards of the Post Office in Bethlehem, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, often receives sackfuls of mail from around the world for Christmas franking with the village's Biblical name.

But the dawn of a new millennium means the flood of mailbags has not subsided even though Christmas has passed.

Anyone who owns the former post office building retains the right to frank mail with the special name.

To celebrate this year, Mr Richards is franking mail with a stamp which shows the last day of this millennium and the first day of the next.

He said he had received letters from all over Britain and the world - including Tasmania.

But this year will be Mr Richards's last doing the job he loves. He and his wife Hazel, who have run the business for 15 years, are retiring.

The house - and the right to frank mail - have just gone on the market for �125,000.

Each year, Mr Richards not only receives sackloads of letters to frank, but also about 5,000 visitors wanting to post mail in the village for themselves.

'Christmas card in Latin'

He said: "I would say I have more mail this year than any year in the past 10 years. I've got boxes piled up."

The most unusual piece of mail Mr Richards has ever franked was handed to him a few years ago by a US diplomat based in Britain.

"He wrote a Christmas card in Latin and I had to send it to the president of China in Beijing," said Mr Richards.

The same man sent Christmas greetings to the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.