Dr. Who in Almonbury?
| Author | Howard M. Beck |
| Published date | 01 October 1984 |
| Date | 01 October 1984 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X8405700404 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
HOW
ARD
M. BECK
DR.
WHO
IN
ALMONBURV?
Passers-by travelling through the sleepy village of Almonbury, just
outside Huddersfield, could be excused for believing
that
the local
residents were having a visitation from the BBC's time-travelling
eccentric. For, standingat the corner
ofa
front garden in Northgate,
the main thoroughfare through the village, is what seems to be Dr.
Who's "Tardis". To all outward appearances acasualty of incorrectly
locked-in co-ordinates, it stands uncomfortablyjammed between the
garden and a high stone wall. However, things are not what they
seem, and with time travel a long way in the future, despite advances
in space flight, it ismerely one of the last remaining police boxes in
West Yorkshire.
The blue painted police boxes were once a familiar sight around
the country, indeed the whole country, but sadly few
ofthem
remain
today having become victims of progress. There is another example
in Wakefield, and apparently during the early 1970s a number of
disused police boxes were employed as attendants' huts on
temporarycar parks duringthe construction of H uddersfield central
ring road. In South Yorkshire, Sheffield sports an example of the
more unusual double type of box.
The Almonbury police box is thought to have been
commissioned circa 1930although it may indeed be much older. Mr.
Frank
Shaw, the proprietor of a hardware and ironmongery store
justdown the road from the box, remembers the box 60 years ago. It
is now the pride and joy of PC 2382 Michael Hield, a married man
originally from Dewsbury, but now livingin Dalton. He has become
quite attached to the box over the last six years and local residents,
too, have grown fond of the police box and would be sorry to lose it;
however, events overthe past few months willprobably guarantee its
preservation.
An article carried earlier in the year by the
Sun
newspaper, in
which the producer of the long running Dr. Who series expressed
concern that their "Tardis" was on its last legs, announced that the
production team wanted a new police box but
that
there was none to
be found anywhere in the country. The story was picked up by a
resident of Almonbury who brought it to the attention of his PC
(W)ho decided to take action. Aphone call to the BBC
"Look
North" team and Almonbury's friendly community bobby found
himself and his "Tardis" surrounded, not by Daleks, but by the
television cameras of the outside broadcasting unit.
Plans are now afoot to completely refurbish the Almonbury
police box,
both
inside and out, including the blue lamp located on
the
roof
which has not operated for many years. When this did work
it warned the constable, if within sight of the box, that an incoming
October /984 327
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