The new “library” at Marton cum Grafton: a great idea

Three  reasons why I like living in this part of Yorkshire:

– It’s pretty.
– There is relatively little crime.
– People here are BIG on thrifty initiatives and nothing gets thrown away.

Here is an example drawn from Marton cum Grafton, a village close by.

Like many villages up and down the UK, the red telephone box in the centre of Marton cum Grafton has been taken out of service. The parish council bought the box from BT for the princely sum of £1.  Now the villagers have turned the telephone box (above) into what could be Britain’s smallest library!

The library is up and running: villagers are leaving books they have already read in the telephone box, and picking up books left by fellow library users.

According to the parish council clerk: “Residents are welcome to drop in books they think others will enjoy, or dip into those that have been put in the box.

“The door is a bit stiff – but it is open for use for anyone from Marton or Grafton.”

This is probably the first area in which I have lived, in which ideas such as this might just work. In other places, the box would get vandalised, or the books would get pinched, or the residents just wouldn’t be bothered.

With so many telephone boxes in the UK, and with BT whipping them out of commission at a whirlwind rate, perhaps the “village library” concept could catch on… Wouldn’t that be great?