It’s been a busy old day today. My parents are off to the Isle of Wight for a week starting tomorrow, so I’ll be house / greenhouse / dog-sitting. It also means that before my stint of sitting begins, I’ve been busy today, dashing around trying to get a few outstanding jobs done. The first was to take a repaired old French telephone back to Heeley Bank so it could be reunited with it’s owner Sam. As well as returning one phone to her, she then produced a handful of others, a fairly varied collection, which I’ve now bought for restoration. Some of these will then go on sale at the centre but others may join the reference collection if there are any types that are not as yet represented.

After a quick hour at Heeley Bank, I soon found myself back in the car and heading for the North-Yorkshire town of Tadcaster to collect my latest purchase. This is a mid-60s wall phone, with the particularly desirable alpha-numeric dial surround. It’s thought to have been in the same house in Tadcaster all it’s life, only being removed now that the new young owners of the property are doing some major renovations. It’s always nice when there’s a historic story behind an item and this is the second phone to arrive this week where it’s story is known and has been passed on.

There are now quite a few projects stacking up in the workshop. Because repairs for customers are given priority, these restoration jobs sometimes don’t emerge for quite a while. But hopefully (doggy allowing) I should be able to get back in there at sometime this week and my furry assistant and myself will make a start!