IOM
Phoneboxes: Kirk Michael
The red phonebox is a
British landmark pre-dating WW2, found abundantly in both urban and
rural areas, and for several decades was the most effective means
of communication between the people of Great Britain, alongside
that of the Royal Mail Postage Service, which also used to be
operated by the General Post Office; encompassing both postal and
telephone communication. They have survived through some harsh
decades' worth of poor British weather, facing storm, snow,
torrential rain accompanied by blistering heat (though not as much
heat as the other weather variations!). The phonebox has been with
us almost as long as living human memory; however its downfall is
soon to come. They are too costly, too infrequently used, too much
a bother to the organizations which service them, to be of much
profitable value. Some have already been uprooted, taken away and
left for scrap, merely because of the small cost of electricity
required to power them, and with the era of the mobile phone
completely upon us, their demise can only be
hastened.
However, it is because of
their cultural, sentimental and heartening value that I have
decided to create a series of caches which will (hopefully)
eventually include every phonebox left standing on the Isle of Man.
I would also like to dedicate this series to my loving uncle, a
part-time historian, who has documented the progression of human
communication including, with great reference, the British phonebox
in one of his books, and has also expertly taken the pictures to
accompany each one, throughout all seasons of the
year.
The cache is in a pleasant
little park. A plastic srew-top container containing an England
World Cup disc, a frog (toy!), and rubber snail, a candle holder
and logbook+pencil.