Village phone box transformed into visitor centre

An old telephone box has been turned into a mini visitor centre by village volunteers.

Residents of Nettleham transformed the classic red kiosk on The Green which had not been used for more than 10 years into an information hub for visitors and villagers.

The red box, which retains its original telephone, has been repainted and now includes information about the history of the kiosk as well as leaflets and guides to local attractions.

Faye Pudney, visitor economy officer at West Lindsey District Council, said: "We aim to highlight the hidden gems beyond Lincoln, encouraging both visitors and locals to discover the rich offerings of Lincolnshire."

Parish councillor Andrew Simpson is a member of the Nettleham conservation area working group who have been working on the visitor centre for the past few years.

Mr Simpson said: “With the phone box being out of use and derelict, we wanted to do something with it to refurbish it and bring it back into use somehow."

When researching, he came across a village in Norfolk that had turned their phone box into a visitor centre.

“The original plan was to just do something to restore the phone box, so having seen it transformed into an information centre is a great outcome and we hope it will be used for many years to come," he added.

Pearl Wheatley, 97, who lives in the village, wrote a walking guide to be displayed in the reworked phone box.

"I’ve enjoyed working on the walk and I think the phone box looks really good and hopefully will get used and be of interest to more and more people," she said.

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