Newcastle is a lot further than St John's from Worcester Cathedral. So why did a letter posted in College Street on Friday arrive on the banks of the Tyne the following Tuesday - while another posted at exactly the same time took until Thursday simply to cross the Severn?

That's just one of the intriguing questions thrown up by our survey into the Christmas post on page five.

We mailed 20 first-class letters outside the Faithful City's most famous landmark on December 15 to see how long it would take them to reach their destination.

Normally, you would expect a letter with a first-class stamp on it to get to its recipient the following day.

However, during the festive season, with 7.5 million items passing through Worcester's sorting office every week, you can forgive the hard-pressed posties if those Christmas cards take a while longer.

So given the time of year, it's just about acceptable that mail takes three clear days to make the long journey from the south Midlands to the north-east.

But the fact that a letter took the best part of a week to be delivered to an address in the same city implies that there are some inefficiencies in Worcester's postal system.

In fact, of the three letters addressed to destinations in Worcester, only one got there the next day. Letters arrived in Doncaster, London and Wigan more quickly than the other two.

Next year, perhaps you'd be better off saving yourself 32 pence and delivering your Worcester Christmas cards yourself.