Traditional red phone boxes are under threat – but Ben Bentley finds a number of enthusiasts are trying to save them.

Lester Smout in the red telephone box in his garden

Is there a telephone box afterlife – a small corner of heaven where traditional but decommissioned red phone kiosks talk to each other about the good old days (on the blower, of course)?

As British as fish and chips and Blackpool rock, scores of iconic phone boxes could be about to disappear from Shropshire’s rural roadsides this year following a consultation by British Telecom which found that, in an age of mobile phones and personal communication devices, people don’t use them any more.

It might mean the death of the phone box as we know it, but what happens to them all? Can they be found a function in the 21st Century?

Amy Walker, spokesperson for BT in the Midlands, says: “The short answer is that the kiosk, once removed, is the responsibility of our contractors. It is entirely their decision how they choose to dispose of them. 

However, they will not become available for public sale and will in all likelihood be recycled.”

To a certain extent, that recycling is already happening – and has been for a while. 

Down at Walcot near Wellington, builder Lester Smout has a beloved red phone box in his back garden.

In fact he’s got two, having bought them from the GPO at Trench Lock for just a few pounds ten or so years ago when they were selling them.

“I’m a bit of a collector and I love anything like that,” he says. “We are losing a lot of our heritage and we must try to keep it.” The boxes serve no practical purpose – but being landmark structures, treasure hunters might beg to disagree.

“Mine has been used quite a few times for treasure hunts, where a clue might be ‘A phone box that is not in use’,” Lester continues.

“I’ve had cars pull up and people saying ‘We are on a treasure hunt – is this where the phone box is?’”

Outside The Crown in Munslow there is a disused phone box – it’s been painted many different colours over the years. How did the popular Corvedale boozer come by it? Was it always there, or did it fly in like Dr Who’s Tardis?

Again the box has become a landmark and a talking point after its the pub’s previous proprietor Zoe Pocock went at it with a paintbrush and a tin of Dulux ten years ago.

It’s been red, it’s been blue and gold, it’s been purple and now it’s green and cream.

Zoe said she had chosen the original colour scheme ten years ago so that visitors to the pub would realise it was not a working box. “We used to have so many people coming and trying to use the phone, so we decided to paint it an unusual colour .” 

Current landlady Jane Arnold says: “We inherited it but it has become an attraction. People know the Crown as the pub with the colourful phone box outside. It’s a focal point for people on the way to Wales – through Craven Arms – and it is a landmark.”

People know they are on the right route when the see the famous green K6 box and Jane says that people often arrange meet up by it. Other towns such as Church Stretton which want to keep their boxes are considering taking on the option of ‘adopting’ a disused kiosk, under which scheme they will be responsible for its maintenance and upkeep. There are a total of 575 kiosks across Shropshire, including 189 which could be adopted under the scheme.

And there is another mooted use for our disused telephone boxes. The IMRG, a body which represents internet traders, has revealed that it is in talks with British Telecom to use the old K6 boxes as drop-off points for parcels.

With more people buying products online and with difficulties in subsequently getting packages delivered to homes at a time when someone is in, the the IMRG considers boxes to be ideal places to leave undeliverable items. This would clearly be an advantage in rural areas such as Shropshire where there are plenty of boxes but fewer post offices to leave undelivered parcels.

This comes amid news that one in ten parcels are not delivered because the buyer is not at home. This can often mean a long and laborious trip to the local delivery depot, slightly defeating the object of convenient online shopping.

But despite British Telecom’s insistence that boxes will not be sold off, they can be bought.

Eurocosm, a company based in Peterborough, restores and sells the K6 boxes online for around £2,500.

The first phone boxes were designed in 1925 but most of the red ones that remain outside of London today are the K6 models, designed in 1935 to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V.

Initially the red colour caused particular local difficulties and there were many requests for less visible colours. The red that is now much loved was then anything but, and the Post Office was forced into allowing a less strident grey with red glazing bars scheme for areas of natural and architectural beauty.

Ironically, some of these areas that have preserved their telephone boxes have now painted them red. In rural areas they were originally cream to fit into the landscape.