The pongy police box which posed a problem for officers in Durham City

A mysterious smell had developed inside the police box which controlled the traffic in Durham Market Place.

The odour made the headlines in 1972 but it had gone on for years and plagued police officers and traffic wardens alike.

One tiny area of Durham was affected

Yet the little island’ was the only spot in the heart of the city that had fallen foul of the smell. There was room for only one person as they monitored the traffic through the narrow streets by closed circuit televisions.

They couldn’t sniff out the cause

Workmen were called in at intervals to probe the cause of the odour but without success.

One traffic warden said the smell was sometimes too much even with all of the windows and doors open, but no one seemed to know precisely what it was.

The police box remained in Durham until 1975.

Too much for one person to handle

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.

The powers-that-be decided that the operation was too much for one person to handle.

All replaced by CCTV

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.

That way, the traffic lights could be controlled in a way that allowed the flow to be much more regulated, the Sunderland Echo reported.

Tell us if you remember the little box which controlled so much of Durham’s traffic.

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