People all over Wales are joining a campaign to save an old Police box in the Somerton area of Newport.
The last surviving Police box in South East Wales and one of the only remaining examples in country, these structure were once a common place sight on the street’s of Britain before walkie-talkies made them obsolete.
They achieved iconic status in 1963 through the BBC series Dr Who with the Police Box being used as a disguise for the TARDIS, Dr Who’s time and space travelling machine. Due to a fault with the Dr’s Chameleon circuit, his ship was to forever appear as a 20th century Police box.
Now Somerton community group Rascals is attempting to raise enough funds to secure the box for future generations.
Rascals chair Pat Moore told the BBC: “It’s a real landmark. Older people like me like it but so do the children too.
“It would be a crying shame if it should disappear because we’re quite proud of it. I think if we don’t preserve it pretty soon, it would go.”
There is even a Facebook group dedicated to saving the structure – Save the Newport Tardis, its founder David Raybould told us:
“I love the box because it’s just one of those objects that brightens up my morning when I’m on the bus to work. It’s just so odd to see an iconic image on the way to work in the middle of a housing estate”.
