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“I didn’t know that existed and what a good idea.”
That’s the reaction David Cott usually receives when he shows vehicles from his collection – which has certainly been turning heads around the country.
David has been collecting Royal Mail Post Buses since 1990, and has now amassed some 17.
Post buses were run by the Royal Mail to provide public transport in areas where a commercial service operator would not find it cost effective.
They were often the passenger’s only contact with the outside world and many also delivered papers, provisions and prescriptions in addition to mail.
David, from Bressingham, said: “The driver would go on a circular route and pick up people and drop them off along the way. That way they could get around.
“I now show the buses at shows and the most common reaction is that people didn’t know about this and always say what a good idea it was.”
David started collecting the buses in 1990. When the Royal Mail got wind of this, they asked if he would help publicise their current routes and David travelled all the routes in England, Scotland and Wales in a B449 Dodge 11-seater and a A971 LSH Ford Sierra estate -seat bus, in the early 1990s.
He also raised thousands of pounds for cancer research by doing so.
The former music teacher said: “I first started collecting vehicles with a 30-seater coach that was very like my old school bus. Then I got my first post bus in 1990 and it started from there.
“All of them work apart, apart from one. I have restored them and I recently won best preserved single-decker at a national Showbus gathering.”
David also met his wife, Gillian, because of the post buses.
“I would go into Diss Post Office and tax them all and I always seemed to get the same person, my future wife,” he said.
“We got to know each other as a result, and were married in 2011.”
David’s collection ranges from the early 1970s to 2017, when the services ended.
A post bus service used to run between Diss, Eye and Gislingham, between March 1974-June 1985.
“It was a great service and much missed,” added David.
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