Tag: phone box

#365daysofbiking Restoring a light in the darkness

Friday November 6th 2020 – The second lockdown is not so far as bad as I feared: With kids at school, people are going to work and there is life and people around.

I kept up my commitment to fresh air and exercise by riding to Lichfield on an important errand, coming back after darkness fell through the little village of Wall.

Wall phone box is an original Giles Gilbert Scott and had been under refurbishment for some time, but is now thankfully fully and beautifully restored and returned to it’s post-mobile era as a community library.

But the best thing about it? It still has a light. So many lost their illumination when transferred to community ownership, but this one has not. As a cyclist of a certain age, the night-time rural beacons that were isolated phone boxes were almost romantic and welcoming to me, and their disappearance makes me sad. To see one restored is a joy to the heart.

Well done, Wall. Well done.

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November 9th – Whilst at the war memorial, I spotted a bit of an anachronism outside the Post Office in Darlaston – this really reminded me of the heady days of the early internet revolution.

This red K6 phonebox has a banner sticker at the top pointing out you could once email and text from the phone there. I believe that was a late 90s/early 2000s thing and required a special phone to be installed in the phone booth with a qwerty keyboard – but I could be wrong. 

However it worked, I doubt theres a use for such things today with the rise of the smartphone – and I don’t know about you, but the very sight of someone using a phonebox these days looks a bit… shifty. 

How fast times have changed from ‘Press button A’!

September 21st – I’ve seen this before in other villages, but I’d not noticed it in Wall. I went back today to record the phone box library – a free book crossing project in a disused K6 telephone box. It’s a great idea. Not sure if they have any longevity, but a lovely thing to do.

Some of the books were pretty good, too.

May 10th – Yesterday was hard. I had to go to Telford, then attend a meeting in Birmingham, before returning to Walsall for another event. I got home late, tired and hungry. In Birmingham at 6pm, I enjoyed a spin around the city, and made time to call at my favourite coffee shop, The Urban Coffee Co., in Church Street. I love the place, despite it being a tad prone to be full of hipsters. I noticed when travelling around the evening city, these old red K6 phone boxes beside the Council House. I wonder why they remain, and why the curious spacing? I also noticed in Colmore Row that pavement cleaning is a serious business these days. I bet that guy goes home with wet legs…

November 13th – An afternoon ride into Warwickshire through Tamworth. Hints, then down the A5 and canal to Polesworth, through Seckington and back via Clifton Campville, Harlaston and Whittington. Unlike my recent rides over Cannock Chase, the scenery was more varied. The day was quite dull and misty, however, and photography wasn’t great. A nice fifty miler, though, and a reminder that I should head out this way more often. Haven’t been to Orton on the Hill or Austrey for ages.