Postal history will be delivered into the digital age at Haringey's Bruce Castle Museum thanks to a lottery grant.

The £49,800 Heritage Lottery Fund grant will pay for the Pistols, Packets and Postmen project, to catalogue and digitise the WV Morten Postal History Collection, which tells the story of the British postal service.

It includes items related specifically to the borough, such as pictures of infamous highwayman, Dick Turpin, jumping over Hornsey Gate.

At present, visitors can see the 30,000 pieces in the postal history collection by appointment only, because many items are in a fragile condition.

Digitisation will lead to an online catalogue, enabling the collection to be seen from anywhere in the world.

The museum is looking for volunteers, offering the prospect of acquiring new skills, like using digital cameras and scanners.

The project partners hope to involve Haringey schools and families by offering educational workshops that explore postal service history.

Children will do activities such as designing their own stamps, while older students will be able to use the collection to learn how British society was shaped by developments in the service.

A programme of public talks and reminiscence sessions is also being planned.

Deborah Hedgecock, curator at Bruce Castle Museum, said: "We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has helped to make this project possible.

"We will now be able to show off the importance of this remarkable and unusual collection to the world through the internet and also use the collection to be an inspiration for wonderful educational projects."

Bruce Castle Museum, in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, is itself a piece of British postal history.

The Grade One listed building was once home to the Victorian social reformer Sir Rowland Hill, the man credited with transforming the British postal service by introducing the postage stamp.

Pistols, Packets and Postmen is a partnership between the museum, the Communication Workers Union and the British Postal Museum and Archive. The partnership will soon appoint a project officer.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, or would like more information on the project, call Bruce Castle Museum on 020 8808 8772.