The rural village of Sharrington, Norfolk has gone on line to save its historic, and only, red phone box, threatened with removal by British Telecom.
BT’s standards call for removing any phone box that generates fewer than 53 calls in a year, and Sharrington’s only logged nine last year. 89-year-old Derek Harris, perhaps not trusting success for requests to put the box on historic heritage lists, organized villagers to undertake a ‘mass calling’ campaign that boosted the box’s total to 146 calls by the barely 100 residents. They defeated a similar attempt in 2016.
Villagers argue that not only is it a lifeline for elderly villagers who may not have landlines or mobiles, as well as a resource for ramblers in the area, where reception is sometimes weak.
BT said it has now reversed its decision after the “significant number of calls made by villagers from the payphone highlighted its importance to the community.”
