In 2018 the village adopted the telephone box
After the initial tidy up and paint it has been used for lots of different activities - scroll down to see a selection
Note: so much went on in the lockdown year of 2020 that a separate telephone box report was written! And here's a link to the June 2021 report.
In April 2020 it was used as a collection point for toiletries for the NHS, which were ultimately delivered to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
In December 2019 villagers braved the rain to watch the lights being switched on in the St Hilary telephone box. For the second year running Santa and his Elves dropped by to decorate the box for Christmas and the popular Santa’s Pantry and Elf Exchange were the main features. Santa’s Pantry was for the children and the Elf Exchange was for the little people. Each shelf contained a gift that visitors were welcome to take - but if they did they had to leave another gift in its place.
In November 2019 it was decorated as to mark Remembrance Day
In September 2019 it was used to celebrate the Rugby World Cup - and included an appearance from the future Welsh coach, Wayne Pivac
During the summer of 2019 a Globetrotters Gallery was in place
In May 2019 the children of the village hald a pop-up bakery
Also in May 2019 it was used for a plant exchange
The box was also decorated for Easter 2019
And it saw in New Year 2019 in style
In December 2018 it was the location for Santa's Pantry and Elf Exchange
The telephone box was used to commemorate Remembrance Day on 2 November 2018
The Dyeing to Paint group that meets in St Hilary Village Hall took time out the previous day to view the display, in the village telephone box, which some of them had had a hand in creating. The felt poppies cascading down the box had been made by members for the group’s WW1 quilt project. The quilts were displayed in Cowbridge shops in 2015 and 2016 and the Senedd in 2017.
There were lots of positive comments from both villagers and visitors:
- What a lovely job of using the Telephone Kiosk to mark the WW1 Centenary. I think that was a very inspired and brilliant idea!
- Thank you so much for turning the telephone box into such a thought provoking and evocative memorial. Beautifully done
- Wonderful that those who returned from the war have been acknowledged as well as those who lost their lives