Hello readers, my name is Richard Shelton, and I maintain the telephones at Willowbank.
The phones work via a redundant PABX system, where we have about 30 extns throughout the village. The phones vary in age, some are adapted, particularly the wooden ones you may see during your visit, but most are 70+ years old.
Most are English Ericssons, made of Bakelite, with the standard NZ dial, and were produced from the late 40s onwards. It is remarkable that they still work, and getting parts and maintaining them is getting, at times, difficult. Please be gentile with them, as its costs the village to replace the damaged parts.
My background is Telecommunications. I started out as a telephone installer with the NZPO, in the days you rented your landline phone. We were called Linesman, as old-fashioned term, reflecting an age when lines where predominantly run on poles, and the workmen would cycle to a job, with a ladder and their tools.
Thankfully, when I started, we had vans. I was at the Post Office, soon to be Telecom, for around 4 years, and then headed to the UK, for another 4 years, doing the same job, but for various other telco providers, namely British Telecom, Plessey, Reuters, Ericcson, to name a few.
My interest in phones continued, and as the age of the internet progressed, I found other collectors and restorers thought out NZ and the world.
How I got involved.
Christine purchased a phone off me some years ago, and during the collection, told me about Willowbank and its themes. So, one thing led to another, and many years later, I am still here, running wires and attempting to make the phones work, that hopefully will bring some joy, entertainment and education to the younger folk and some nostalgia to the not so young.
So, if you find an old phone, in the garage/shed attic etc, don’t throw it away, drop it off at the Kiosk during your visit, it can be reused here, and it will go to a good home.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your visit, and if interested, enquire how you can support the village.