VILLAGERS are celebrating the return of their treasured red telephone boxes after they mysteriously disappeared.

Sherfield-on-Loddon and Old Basing residents were shocked when they found their traditional red phone boxes had vanished.

The Sherfield box, on the corner of Breach Lane and Reading Road, was a listed structure in a conservation area. But that did not stop telephone company BT from removing it early one morning last December.

Sherfield-on-Loddon Parish Council clerk Lucy Marshall said: "It was a bit of a mystery because we had received no notification from BT. We weren't sure whether it had been stolen or whether it had been removed in error.

"But last week they returned it. We're just waiting now for the phone itself to be put back in.

"People wanted it back."

Parish council chairman Cllr Bruce Batting said he was delighted to see the return of the K6 phone box, designed by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V in 1935.

Sherfield-on-Loddon won the 2004 Hampshire Village of the Year award and was Calor Village of the Year for the South and South East, so Cllr Batting said the box was an important part of the village's street scene.

Cllr Batting added: "It's part of the history of the village and as it's a listed building in a conservation area, it must not be moved."

In Old Basing, BT consulted Old Basing Parish Council in June about removing the phone box at the corner of Hatch Lane and Belle Vue Road because of lack of use.

Parish clerk Julie Collins said: "We didn't agree with BT because we felt that it was well used and we wanted it kept."

Nevertheless, the phone box was suddenly taken away at the beginning of February only to reappear last Friday.

Mrs Collins said: "BT admitted very quickly that they had taken it away in error and gave us the option of having it put back."

After admitting the blunders, BT has apologised.

Media relations manager Jason Mann said: "It was a mistake on our part to remove the red kiosk in Sherfield because of its listed status, and as soon as we became aware of that we replaced it with a refurbished kiosk.

"The Old Basing kiosk was removed prematurely and we took the decision to restore it."

First published: Friday, March 4