Like many villages, Rolvenden Layne had a phone box that was no longer used. A popular local landmark, it had become neglected and was at risk of becoming an eyesore. But with assistance from Ashford Borough Council, Rolvenden Parish Council, Kent County Council and Persimmon Homes, Skep Arts has transformed the phone box into Kent’s smallest museum. It was officially opened this month, with the ceremonial ribbon cut by the mayor of Ashford.
Inside the booth, where the phone apparatus used to be, there is a new box that contains an MP3 player. When visitors to the museum crank the handle on the side of the box, they will generate enough power to activate the sound files within.
The first exhibition, I Remember’, presents the voices of the oldest generation of village residents, describing village life in the 1930s and 40s. The incidents they narrate took place only yards from the phone box itself. Recorded by a local historian, they are moving and valuable records of a way of life that could very easily be forgotten.
Future exhibitions will celebrate other local voices, sound artists and poets. The Rolvenden Layne Sound Museum is physically tiny, but there is an almost infinite number of potential exhibits it can present, stored on the MP3 player at its heart. It is always open and there is no charge to visitors.