Telephone Box Book Exchange

The iconic red telephone kiosk on Church Street at the entrance to the KGV field, was purchased by the Parish Council in 2019 using a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.  The grant application included the fact that a few years ago, HBT was visited by a mobile library service provided by Hampshire County Council, which was cancelled due to lack of funding.  The inadequate bus service into Andover and Newbury also meant that residents without a car could no longer easily access library services as routinely as perhaps required.  With an increasingly ageing population, it didn’t seem right to leave isolated villagers without such an amenity.  With nowhere else which was accessible on a regular basis for this facility, the idea of the phone box library began!

County Councillor Kirsty North kindly gave some of her devolved budget for us to fit the phone box with painted shelves.

Books are free to borrow – the idea is that the books are there for residents, young and old, to take away, read, enjoy and return.  There is also a stock of ‘book review’ slips in the phone box, in case you fancy leaving a review, to guide future readers.  Just complete it and pop it inside the front cover.

BUT … please don’t use the telephone box as a dumping ground for bags and boxes of old unwanted books.  These should be donated appropriately to charity shops or similar, or recycled in book bins (such as Tesco’s in Andover or the main recycling centre).

If you have a book or collection of books which you feel the telephone box library would benefit from, please contact Councillor Louisa Russell either by email or telephone 07891 243488 to discuss.

But most of all … we hope you enjoy this new project in Hurstbourne Tarrant.