Lover village gears up for Valentine's Day romance

Lovers are being invited to send Valentine's cards and gifts from a postbox in the village of Lover.

The romantically-named Wiltshire village has had its red postbox decorated with Cupids and hearts by Royal Mail, in time for 14 February.

Sweethearts looking for the Lover postmark for their cards, can drop into the village's pop-up post office.

The village said it was delighted Royal Mail was showing its "love".

Lover post office received up to 2,000 Valentine's cards a year from people wanting the romantic postmark, until it closed in 2008.

Four years ago, the Lover Valentine Post Service was set up by volunteers who have stamped more than 8,000 envelopes with "Sent from Lover" and raised £30,000 for the village.

As it is a leap year, the volunteers expect this St Valentine's Day to be "the most romantic yet".

"Nearly 50% of the people who live here get involved," said volunteer Dave Charles.

"We have what we call 'Cupids' every morning, stamping cards which go all around the world."

Nick Gibbs, from the Lover Community Trust, said it was looking forward to "processing a record number of orders this year".

"We are delighted to have the Royal Mail show their love for our campaign this year and help us deliver our romantic service," he said.

"We are proud to be famous again for this special Valentine service."