Installation of Woolaston's first phone box.

The Netherend Inn is the building on the left.

Jackie Johnson wrote (Novemeber 2008): "My mum grew up in Woolaston and won a scholarship to Lydney Grammar School. She was best friends with Norrie James and recalls that Norrie's father was a pit administrator in charge of paying the miners' wages. He had an office at the pit head and also was the man known as having 'the only car in the village', a baby Austin 8. He crammed kids into it giving them lifts on the way to school, sometimes the kids were sitting on each other there were so many of them in the car. Mum recalls he looked dismayed when seeing her as she used to place herself for a lift and he had to stop and pick her up, delaying him getting to work.
Norrie's mother organised all the pantomimes in the village and was good at doing so, she also played the piano well. The family lived at the top of Woolaston Common.
Mum went on to join the WAAFS during WW2, being posted to Dover where she worked in the telephone exchange. She met my father during the war and they were married in Woolaston Church."

John Tyrrell   added ( Mar 2009): "... the picture we see is when the phone box was moved to its present position. It was moved from its former position just
outside the Netherend Inn around 1952-3. We moved into Netherend Cres. in 1949. I can`t tell for definite but I think I am one of the lads pictured. One thing I will never forget is the day the men were digging the trench for the cables, one man collapsed and died instantly".

Frank Osborne added (January 2014) "... The phone box was further up the bend of the road, just past the Netherend Stores but before the post office. If i remember correctly, Raymond's house was just beyond. Looking at the picture again, opposite the Netherend Inn was 'Weekes' farm. I imagine Wyndam runs it now? and before Weekes was the butcher, where I can remember putting a bet on for the horses! You wont find many butchers like that now. Just to say Hello! to John Tyrell, and Terry. Hope you guys are well. Frank Osborne".

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