'It brings so much joy to people' – Wolverhampton wool shop owner marks special occasions with postbox toppers
The owner of a Wolverhampton wool shop that will soon close its doors has revealed it took 45 weeks to complete a knitted postbox topper for Halloween.
Tracey Spilsbury, 49, from Wolverhampton, has created a long-running tradition of creating knitted postbox toppers, often marking occasions throughout the year with different designs.
After creating toppers such as one for Ukraine, Valentine's Day, Easter, The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, she has now revealed her Halloween design, and already has her next designs being finalised.
Sharing about why she does it and how, Tracey said: "It has become an event thing that we do.
"The next ones to go up will be a poppy appeal next week and then a Christmas one.
"We do three post boxes in the area. One outside the shop on Spring Hill Lane, then one on Church Hill outside St. Bartholomew's Church, and the third one is on Spring Hill Park.
"The reason I have continued doing it is because people kept coming into my store saying it made their day and saying how much they liked it.
"It brings so much joy to people - putting a smile people's faces when they post a letter.
"I know it is something so simple, but it can make a day."
Talking about the planning that does into the postbox toppers, she added: "The planning does take a while for each topper.
"This Halloween one took around 45 weeks to complete. Our Christmas one, we started on around 12 weeks ago, and so it is a long process.
"I will continue to do the postbox toppers, even after the shop closes because it can make people's day.
"The third topper that I have done on Spring Hill Park, I did that one because somebody said that an elderly lady lives near the post box and it puts a smile on her face when she opens her curtains each morning and sees it."
Tracey ran the shop from the city centre in Cleveland Street before moving to Springhill Lane, Penn in November 2021.
Staff at the shop quickly made friends with regular customers and became known for their postbox-toppers, which they places on boxes in Springhill Lane and Park and St Bartholomew's Church.
