A campaigner travelled 1,700 miles to make 52 calls from a rare telephone box on a remote Scottish island to stop it from going out of service. 

William Arnold, 43, embarked on the epic journey from Cornwall to the Isle of Lewis to visit the rural telephone box in Einacleit.

The artist and photographer was determined to make sure it wasn’t shut down as Ofcom guidelines state that a minimum of 52 calls have to be made from a phone box each year for it to remain operational.

He said: ‘The project is slightly ridiculous and comedic but there is also a serious point about how we communicate with each other and how these phone boxes are often vital rural lifelines.’

Mr Arnold has been working to save phone boxes since 2022.

He said: ‘It all started on the Isle of Lewis when I was working on a photographic project and I wanted to call my partner who was staying back at the house to say I was going to be back late.

‘My mobile phone battery was nearly dead and I came across this pristine looking phone box that had the old yellow British Telecom branding from the 1980s.

‘There was a phone in there and I was really excited because I hadn’t used a phone box for years but when I picked up the receiver, the line was dead and I was so disappointed.’

William Arnold, 43, completed the 1,700-mile round trip to stop the telephone box from being shut down

Ofcom guidelines state that a minimum of 52 calls have to be made from a phone box each year for it to remain operational

Mr Arnold complained to BT – but the experience also began his interest in preserving phone lines in more rural communities.

‘It’s mostly about the line and being able to communicate from these places that really fascinates me,’ he said. 

‘We still have really old school technology that is starting to die out, but BT are lumbered with this legal obligation to keep it going, which I think is quite special.’

The phone box in Einacleit – or Enaclete – particularly appealed to him because it is believed to be the last remaining connected double-door telephone kiosk in the UK.

It is understood to have been adapted locally to combat the strong winds and weather conditions on the Isle of Lewis, with a single door previously being seen as potentially dangerous.

But finding out which phone boxes were still operational proved difficult, meaning Mr Arnold often had to rely on local knowledge. 

Island residents helped him establish whether his chosen phone box was connected and accessible.

Before he arrived, however, it had been repainted, with the doors painted closed, while a sign declared ’emergency calls only’.

Undeterred, the photographer arrived armed with about £36 worth of 50p and 20p coins and managed to make his 52 calls to 52 different people.

‘It wasn’t just 20 second phone calls, some people phoned me back so I had a few longer conversations,’ he said. 

‘It took me just under two hours but the weather was rotten.

‘There were 45mph winds which people could hear on the phone and it was hammering it down, so there was about an inch and a half of water at the bottom and my feet were cold by the end.’

Mr Arnold phoned people who had chipped in to his Crowdfunder for the project, as well as a few others to make up the numbers.

He said: ‘It is really fun to go into a phone box on the chance you get someone phoning up who you have never met.

‘But for isolated places where there is no signal, you can call out if there is an emergency.

‘This winter in Cornwall we had 100mph winds, which knocked out the power and water to several towns and villages for several days.

‘Some of the villages had no normal mobile phone coverage, so having no internet as well meant the phone box was the only way of contacting the outside world.’

But the future of rural phone boxes remains uncertain. Last year BT reviewed 47 phone boxes in the Western Isles, with 42 eventually marked for removal.

A spokesman said around 9,000 public payphones remain operational in the UK – down from around 20,000 two years ago.

They added: ‘Maintaining and operating a large estate of payphones costs millions of pounds each year, an obstacle that prevents more investment in full fibre broadband and mobile networks – which our customers tell us they want.’

But Mr Arnold believes some phone boxes must remain operational for public safety. He said there have been various appeals to give phone boxes listed status.

For now, he hopes he can persuade local people to make the 52 calls required to keep the phone box in service themselves.