Flodden Visitor Centre

You could almost be forgiven for bypassing Branxton if you're curling your way around the corner to Coldstream, but you might want to think again! It's a sleepy village, teetering on the border with Scotland, but a big battle was fought here in Branxton, and a tiny telephone box records its history!

This is the teeniest tourist information centre in Northumberland and is found just North of Wooler.

I think it's claims of being 'The World's Smallest Visitor Centre' are perhaps a little unfounded.

Known as a Jubilee Box, designer Sir Giles Gilbert Scott put these into production in 1935 to mark George V's Silver Jubilee. Made of a heavy cast iron frame, a teak door, glass panes and a concrete base, these bright red beacons of communication were dotted around the land, and much criticised as a national eyesore! They were introduced by the post office to increase communication, but as mobile phones became the most dominant way to chat, the death of the phone box was imminent, and public usage dropped, rendering many obsolete.

In 2012, The Battlefields Trust Charity coughed up the quid required to purchase this classic K6 phone box and had the quirky idea of using it as a pint-sized place to inform people of Branxton's bloody past.

The Flodden Visitor Centre stands proud in the village, which boasts two wells; well, well; a water fountain, a gloriously positioned 12th century church, St Paul's, and is home to one of the bloodiest battles between the English and Scottish armies in 1513, in which the King of Scotland James IV was slain by the English at Flodden Fields. The battle is commemorated by a huge granite Celtic cross located on the site of the Battle of Flodden.

This bijoux little phone box tells the whole shebang on three walls. Fortunately, I had a handy husband to hold the heavy door ajar while I perused the panels of info.

A little pressy button helps the story unfold with three minutes of narration on the battle and maps and leaflets aplenty as well as suggestions for other places of interest.

Not bad for a redundant phone booth in the borders shining a light on a big and bloody battle, from a fact packed phone box.