The Frenchman who saved a piece of English village history
THE last red telephone box in a Devon village has been rejuvenated by an altruistic Frenchman, after the local council bought it from British Telecom for £1 to stop it being demolished.
Jean-luc Bénard, a retired photographer, is refurbishing the “iconic” piece of history in leafy Capton, near Dartmouth, so future generations know how people used to communicate before mobile phones existed.
He began the challenging project after villagers teamed up with Dittisham parish council to buy it from BT as part of the company’s “adopt a kiosk” scheme operating across the UK.
The use of BT’S public telephones has dropped by 90 per cent in the last decade.
Locals can now buy phone boxes that are no longer fit for purpose for just £1 and transform them into something “inspirational” for the area. This one could be turned into a one-man disco, a bookshop or even a shower, according to the council. Mr Bénard told The Daily Telegraph: “BT don’t want to keep the phone box, because it’s too complicated to keep it and nobody really wants to look after it, so I restored it.
“I thought it would be very sad to get rid of it just because it can’t be looked after. It seems mad. It’s an antique and should be preserved, full stop.
“There was a vote and 52 versus 48 villagers opted to keep the phone box. We called the vote Box-it, like Brexit!”
So far Jean-luc has spent around £30 stripping the flaking red paint off, put a primer on and applied a light pink undercoat which has attracted attention from villagers.
“There were a few raised eyebrows when people saw it,” he said. “I think they were worried that some Frenchman who didn’t understand that phone boxes in Britain are red was painting them pink.”
He is now working on getting the interior up to scratch and installing a defibrillator – a common fixture in more modern UK phone boxes.