Residents have seen red over a historic Victorian postbox that has been painted white by a mystery person.

The ‘hole in the wall’ postbox, which is part of a house on Highgate in Heaton, Bradford, at the corner of Paradise Road, was haphazardly splashed with paint last weekend.

A Royal Mail engineer re-painted it in traditional red on Wednesday, but less than two hours later it had been splashed white again.

The postbox is believed to date back as far as the 1850s. A Royal Mail spokesman said it was treating the incident as a crime.

A neighbour of the house where the postbox is, said: “It is a mystery. I went to put some post in it but wasn’t confident enough to go through with it.

“At first I thought Royal Mail was stopping use of it.”

Resident Tony Harney said the white paint was smeared on the wall around the postbox and dripped on the floor.

He said: “It is a real talking point in the village. It is a very well-used postbox.

“Locals are mystified by who has vandalised the box, which was painted in red Royal Mail livery.”

Sonja McNally, chairman of the Heaton Township Association, said she had driven past the postbox at 1pm on Wednesday and it was red. When she drove past at 3pm, it was white again.

She said: “It is not acceptable that anybody defaces a letterbox. As a result of this incident the people of Heaton have come together. They take a pride in Heaton and want others to do the same.”

Some residents in Heaton said the postbox saga was the talk of the village, with some claiming to know who was behind the crime.

One woman said: “I think it is a shame because it is a nice old Victorian postbox and there was paint dripped on the floor.”

Felicity MacFarlane, of Royal Mail, said: “We can confirm that the historic Victorian postbox at Heaton was reported to us on Monday as having been defaced with white paint.

"Our engineers intend to repaint it back to its original red as soon as possible.”