A TELEPHONE box has been loving restored - and will reopen as a mini-museum. 

The telephone box, on St George's Road in Wallingford, will be used for pop-up exhibitions. 

It will be officially re-opened to the public on Wednesday where attendees can learn more about the history of the area. 

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The former British Telecom station is now looked after by Wallingford Museum.

Described as a 'great community team effort', a group of volunteers painstakingly restored the red telephone box ready for the Queen's Jubilee next year.

Dave Hawes and Lisa Haynes were among those who helped. Lisa, who is also a member of the Wallingford Museum Research Group, said: “I used to walk past by it, and it seem like such a shame, it was almost dilapidated. There were weeds everywhere and it was just rotting.

“Without having some conservation work on them, they would just get into a very bad state when we can use them in the community.”

Oxford Mail:

Ms Hayes explained that the adoption of the box took a long time.

The council was asked about the renovation of the box in 2018, but it was not until this year when it got adopted and the volunteers got to refurbish it.

She commented: “We were only able to adopt the phone box on behalf of The Wallingford Museum very recently.

“There are loads of people all over Britain renovating boxes for libraries, seed sharing or for storing defibrillators.”

“The group and I sanded the box down, painted it and cleaned out the inside. Now it is ready to hold exhibitions.”

In addition to this and in an effort to support biodiversity, the environmental group in Wallingford cleared the verge and planted wildflower seeds along it.

According to the volunteers, this phone box is one of five that can be found in the town, and the second to be restored.

Ms Hayes continued: “The one on the railway station was the first one to be renovated, this is the second one on behalf of the museum. Then the third one is outside St John’s school, the other two have not been adopted yet, but we hope they are in the future.”

The phone box project is led by Wallingford town councillor, Steve Holder.

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