The Durham landmark which was almost as famous as the cathedral and castle
A city centre attraction once rivalled Durham’s big draws for attention.
It’s the police box which was in the Market Place and which was used to direct the traffic for decades.
‘A landmark which gained an almost similar reputation to the cathedral and castle’
Our nostalgic report in 1995, which took a 20-year anniversary look back on the days of the unusual attraction, called it “a landmark which gained an almost similar reputation” to the cathedral and castle.
The reason the box was there at all was so that it could “direct traffic through the cramped city centre”.
There to oversee it all would be a police officer, who would have control of the vehicles passing through Durham.
That officer would operate traffic lights to send vehicles on their way from Elvet, Claypath and Silver Street.
And one particular officer had particular reason to remember the police box when we interviewed him 30 years ago.
That was Pc Osborne, who was known as Ossie, and who would have been the man in the police box for 15 years.
Too much for one person
He made sure the whole operation ran smoothly and that the traffic kept on flowing through Durham’s narrow streets.
Not only that, he was the last officer to carry out the duty before it was all transferred over to traffic wardens when he retired.
The powers-that-be decided that the operation was too much for one person to handle.
Instead, authorities brought in closed circuit television so whoever was in charge of the police box could have a view of the traffic in all directions.
Durham was a CCTV pioneer
That way, the traffic lights could be controlled in a way that allowed the flow to be much more regulated.
In a certain way, Durham was achieving a little bit of history, as this was the first time that closed circuit television had been used for traffic management.
By 1995, Ossie was 82 and still very much involved in the city, as he lived there, and lived less than a mile from his former beat with a difference.
Speaking to the Sunderland Echo at the time, he said: “We were not given any specific training to operate the television in conjunction with the lights.
“But we soon got the hang of it, and it was a great help in getting traffic through the city centre.”
The need for a police box came to an end with the banning of traffic in Durham city centre during a time of change.
Send us your memories of 1995 and the police box by emailing [email protected]