“If you’re going to spend a third of your life doing something, you should enjoy it, shouldn’t you”
Malcolm Beedle, 65, has retired from delivering post to the same street in Bristol for some 45 years(Image: Paul Gillis/Reach Plc)
A Bristol postman has retired after more than 45 years of delivering mail to residents of the same street.
Malcolm Beedle, 65, has been working for Royal Mail six days a week, for 46 years (it would have been 47 in October) and for 45 of those he worked the same route day in and day out.
He’s so well-known and loved along Berkeley Road in Bishopston, that the entire street signed a huge card and hand delivered it to him on his last shift on Saturday (June 21), even celebrating with him at a street party in his honour.
Malcolm, who used to live in Horfield but now resides in Downend, was 18 when he first started working as a postman, and says that the old saying ‘a postman only knocks twice’ is very true as far as he’s concerned.
He tells BristolLive: “We used to go to the Speedway down in Eastville and I used to know a chap in the dugout who said to me one day ‘have you ever thought about being a postman’?
“At the time I was doing other things and the thought had never crossed my mind. I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing at the time, so I applied.
“The Post Office got in touch with me, I went down and had an interview and then before I knew it, I had a job there.
“Off I went and I thoroughly enjoyed the job. In fact it was probably one of the best things to ever happen to me.”
Two years into his role as a postman, Malcolm Beedle got his own route which he has worked for 45 years(Image: Paul Gillis/Reach Plc)
Malcolm says that two years later when he was successful in applying for his own ‘walk’, a route that is specific to each postal worker, he knew from his very first shift that he was in it for the long haul.
“I knew that day that I would stay there forever. Nothing else ever crossed my mind. I loved being out there – I’ve been on that same walk since 1980. I’ve hardly ever missed a day.
Over the years, Malcolm says he’s seen many changes including the buildings, how the area looks as well as the different people, many of whom he says he will continue speaking to even now he doesn’t deliver their post each day.
“I’ve promised a lot of them, especially the elderly, that I will go back and speak to them,” he says. “They’ll probably offer me a cuppa and I’ll go in and get to have a proper chat with them.
“During Covid I think it was at that point when I recognised how much people needed to see someone.
“I still have people telling me how important it was for them to even see me in the day during that time. I’d never realised how important our role was to people in that way to be honest.”
Malcolm describes how he’d even take it upon himself to go out and get things for the neighbours he delivered post to, during Covid, saying that he was “out already so may as well pick up a delivery or something someone needed”.
Malcolm is known and loved by residents of Berkeley Road in Bishopston(Image: Paul Gillis/Reach Plc)
Malcolm, who is also a well known DJ in the Northern Soul circuit, was reminded of a specific time during his street party this weekend, where in the pandemic every resident of Berkeley Road had been waiting in their upstairs windows for him to arrive.
He says: “I’d done all of the side streets and as I turned into Berkeley the next thing I knew all this music started playing and everyone was sitting in their windows cheering me as I went down and then back up the other side.
“It was the most emotional day. The kids were clapping for me, and they were playing Northern Soul, and it was just wonderful.”
Malcolm says he’ll be continuing his passion for DJing and Northern Soul well into retirement, in addition to the holidays and well earned relaxation he’ll be enjoying with his wife. His son also shares a love of music, following his dad into the world of DJing (he even took to the decks for his dad’s farewell street party at the weekend).
“I can travel round the country a bit more now. I had to tone things down towards the end of my career as changes in the business meant we were working until later in the day. But I never minded, the job was more important than that,” he adds.
“I’ve been blessed to have done something I’ve loved doing. If you’re going to spend a third of your life doing something, you should enjoy it, shouldn’t you.”