Once a vital and necessary part of our high street, now virtually left discarded and forgotten in the face of technological advancement, the red phone box still holds a special place in the hearts of many.

Now the island’s remaining phone boxes have been recorded and photographed by Ian Pilbeam, with the results being turned into ’Phone Kiosks of the Isle of Man - A Pictorial Guide to Isle of Man Telephone Boxes’.

After seeing the numbers of phone boxes decline over a number of years, Ian took it upon himself to seek out and photograph each of the 80 surviving phone boxes over a period of years in whatever state they lie in, some maintained in bright vivid red, looking as new and vital as they would have done when they were first installed, and some showing the ravages of time and neglect, with broken windows, missing doors and damaged interiors.

The iconic phone box situated at Cregneash, once painted green for the filming of ’Waking Ned’, is captured, along with the famous box at Glencrutchery Road, which spends a lot of its life covered in protective hay bales.

He has also included the phone boxes that have been preserved in situ and put to a variety of other uses, including the boxes on Derby Road, Peel and at Maughold, which have been transformed into book swaps, and boxes , such as the one on Greeba Bridge, that now house defibrillators.

’I just wanted to document all the phone boxes before they disappeared,’ said Ian.

’There are around nine boxes than have been removed since I pictured them.

’They are an important part of our social history. When you think about, for example, the box outside the old nurses home on Westmoreland Road, that phone box must have used for thousands upon thousands of calls over the years.

’Of all the boxes, I think my favourite would be the one on Peel promenade, standing next to the sea wall.

’It would be a shame if that one was ever to be taken away.’

’Phone Kiosks of the Isle of Man’ is available from local book shops.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers