A FORMER postman was 'absolutely horrified' when he stumbled upon several bundles of undelivered old mail that had been dumped in his garden shed.

Mark Saunders (35), of Cedar Grove in Haydock, uncovered eight huge piles of letters which should have been delivered to Johns Avenue, Oak Avenue, Pimblett Road and Marian Road, when clearing out his shed a couple of weeks ago.

And when he studied the bundles, which had been concealed in red postbags, Mark was shocked to find that they dated back to September 2004!

Mark said: "Presumably someone got fed up with delivering the mail and just dumped it all here. I was totally gobsmacked when I found all those letters."

According to Mark, around 250 letters had been 'lost in the post' at the end of his garden.

And the only reason he hadn't discovered the secret stash earlier was that postmen always used his shed as a bag drop when he worked for the Royal Mail.

Mark, who worked as a postman between 1998 and January 2006, added: "I just feel sorry for the poor people living on those roads who have probably not been told why their mail went missing for so long. This is a serious issue. Everyone makes mistakes but this was an entire day's mail and I think it should be properly investigated."

A spokesperson for the Royal Mail said: "I can confirm that the letters have been recovered and were delivered recently along with a letter of explanation. An investigation into why the letters went missing has been launched."