This is the church of St Lawrence in Broughton, Milton Keynes.

I’ve already shown you the well known 15th Century wall paintings here on the NBW, (there’s a fine one of St George battling the dragon) but the rest of the church tends to get overlooked, so here’s a few of its other features.

The nave and chancel date from 1330, though some believe the core of the church might be older. The Reticulated style nave window to the left of the porch is original, but the tracery in the C. 1400 Perpendicular window on the right hand end was renewed in the 1880-1 restoration.

The Perpendicular window to its left is of different design; most likely these two windows replaced the original Reticulated ones at different times. What’s strange is that the one on the right is shorter than the original. I can’t see the Victorians doing this in their restoration, so I suspect it originally came from another church at a rather later date than the left one. The tower is also from about 1400.

The Monday Photo

This phone box library is in the small village of Chilton, on a bend opposite the entrance to Chilton House and the Gatehouse.

This phone box (or kiosk) is a type K6. Introduced in 1936, 60,000 had been installed by the time a new design, the K8, was introduced in 1968. About 11,700 K6 boxes are still in place.

The completed box weighs about three quarters of a ton, not surprising when you know that the sides and top are cast iron, and the door is made of teak. This one is a listed building, but many are not.

Communities or registered charities can adopt a phone box from British Telecom and it costs just £1. Over 5,000 have been adopted already, and there’s another 5,000 still available.

They are boxes that BT no longer wants to use on their network. Some are made into mini libraries like this one, some house defibrillators.

The only other phone box library in North Bucks, as far as I know, is in Gawcott. An original phone box for the village in a different spot had previously been removed, so the village bought a complete used phone box and had it installed in Main Street.

This cost them a lot more than £1. I don’t know how long it’s been there, but it wasn’t there last time Google Streetview toured the village. You’ll find it opposite Old Barn Close.

If you know of any more phone box libraries in North Bucks, please leave a comment.