Postman Pat on the move again

A MUCH-loved Postman Pat ride which has provided fun to bairns in Shetland for many decades has found a new home.

The coin-operated van ride was a popular fixture at the Toll Clock shopping centre in Lerwick for many years before it was donated to the Hame Fae Hame nursery in Scalloway in 2017.

The reason behind its move nearly a decade ago? It was unable to accept new £1 coins, which were jamming in the system.

But the ride no longer works properly and has now been deemed beyond repair by Hame Fae Hame, with a new owner sought.

After a call for interest on Facebook, Hame Fae Hame’s Kaye Sandison has now confirmed that Postman Pat and his black and white cat Jess are now headed west to the family-friendly Michaelswood in Aith.

The nursery, though, already has something of a connection to Michaelswood.

In recent years Hame Fae Hame received a £250 donation from the late Martin Jamieson, and the bairns at the nursery were keen for the money to be spent towards a pirate ship like the one at Michaelswood.

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The pirate ship which ended up being built at Hame Fae Hame was named by Jamieson as Scallywag.

“I also feel quite strongly that so many of the families at Hame Fae Hame benefit from going to Michaelswood, so I’m really chuffed that Postman Pat is going there,” she said.

“I’d like to see him loved and restored, and we can’t do that. But I’m hoping that Michaelswood, having the support they do…that somebody might be able to get it going again.”

Sandison added that she has told Hame Fae Hame staff upset by Pat’s impending departure that it is a “great excuse for a day out in the summer holidays – we’ll have to go and visit him”.