Man makes 1,700-mile round journey to save rare phone box on Scottish island

He phoned people who chipped in to his Crowdfunder for the phone box project, as well as a few others to make up the numbers.

“It is really fun to go into a phone box on the chance you get someone phoning up who you have never met,” he said. “But for isolated places where there is no signal, you can call out if there is an emergency.

“This winter in Cornwall we had 100mph winds, which knocked out the power and water to several towns and villages for several days.

“Some of the villages had no normal mobile phone coverage, so having no internet as well meant the phone box was the only way of contacting the outside the world.”

Last year BT reviewed 47 phone boxes in the Western Isles, with 42 eventually marked for removal.

A spokesperson said about 9,000 public payphones remain operational in the UK – down from about 20,000 two years ago.

“Maintaining and operating a large estate of payphones costs millions of pounds each year, an obstacle that prevents more investment in full fibre broadband and mobile networks – which our customers tell us they want,” the spokesperson said.

But William believes it is important to keep some phone boxes in working order for public safety.

He said there have been various appeals to give phone boxes a listed status.

But for now, he hopes he can persuade local people to make the 52 calls required to keep the phone box in service themselves.