Man who travels from pillar to post

Peter Willis, 67, from Worcester, whose mission is to photograph as many of Britain's post boxes as possible and has already snapped more than 2,500 post boxes. [Photo/IC]

LONDON -- They are as famous and iconic as Britain's traditional red telephone boxes, and now a rare Royal Mail letterbox in Liverpool has won pride of place on the cover of a national calendar for 2015.

The calendar is the work of retired postal worker Peter Willis, a leading member of the 600-strong voluntary organisation, the Letter Box Interest Group.

The group has set about cataloguing and recording details of every one of the 150,000 letter boxes across Britain. The most popular is the street corner, cylinder-shaped "pillar box".

One of those pillar-boxes, known as a "Liverpool Special", is still in daily use after more than 150 years. It was one of a handful made to cater for large volumes of post generated in Liverpool during the days of Queen Victoria.

Described as a "national treasure" the brilliant red box, is topped with a crown and is the only one of its kind surviving in public use, taking pride of place among the cobbled streets of Liverpool's historic Albert Dock area.

Willis has travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles photographing letter boxes of all shapes and sizes, and chose the Liverpool box as his favorite to grace the cover of his calendar.

Since his retirement, Willis has photographed more than 2,500 post boxes, earning the unfortunate and unwelcome title as "the dullest man in England".

His fellow members of the Letter Box Interest Group say the description is as unfair as it is undeserved.