This cache has been placed to highlight an often overlooked piece of 20th Century history, located in the market town of Highworth - The K8 Telephone Kiosk. This is one of two K8 Kiosks in Highworth, both of which Grade II listed.
You will need to visit the marked location in order to gain the information needed to locate the geocache's final location (under 5 minutes walk away)
Sadly the predecessor of this cache, One Short of a Robot Dog kept getting muggled due to it's placement location. This cache is it's replacement - which means previous finders of GC7TD1N will have this new cache to find due to it's predecessor having been archived.
A = How many shelves does the kiosk have?
B = On the white sign on the bus shelter: How many letters does the name of the bus stop have?
C = How many years did the design brief say the K8 kiosk should last?
N51° 3(B+1).1(C/10)(B+1)' W 1° 4A.6(B+1)0
Please do not park on Grove Hill itself, as it is an active bus route/busy road. Suitible on street parking has been marked very close by.
As per Geocaching HQ placement guidelines this cache is not in, on, or attached to the kiosk in any way.
Please be careful with the container and be sure to replace as found. You will also need to bring your own pen/pencil.
The K8 phone kiosk was built to a design by Bruce Martin following a competition held by the General Post Office (GPO) in 1965.
The main requirement within the GPO's design brief was that it should be easy to re-assemble on site and easy to maintain and/or repair in the future. This condition was met, and unlike the K6, the K8 was given interchangeable components.
The design brief also stated that the kiosk had to last for at least 50 years and that its design had to be recognised as the UKs next generation of red telephone boxes.
As a result, Bruce Martin analysed Scott's K6 meticulously and simplified and reduced its high number of components. Eventually, the K8 was given only 7 principal components with a choice of two types of roofs: a lozenge shape and a cast-line, of which this is the latter. The reasons for this are unknown, but both varieties were used.
Between 1968 and 1983 11,000 examples of the K8 were installed. There are currently 10 separate listings for the K8 kiosk with English Heritage only. Of the eight kiosk types introduced by the General Post Office, the K8 was the third most populous type introduced, and the third most populous type in terms of surviving kiosks. However, the percentage of surviving K8 kiosks, about 0.5% of all K8s, is very low.
This is primarally due to the fact that from 1984 onwards, BT started decommissioning many telephone boxes, with the K8 being the first style to be removed en mass.
Sadly only a handful remain accross the UK, with the K8 Telephone box on Grove Hill being described as "one finest looking survivors we've found".