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Still
ringing.

A century of British telephone kiosks, exchanges and cable — kept working, kept on show, across museums the length of the country. None of it survives without people who chip in to keep it running.

Help us keep it going See the collections

Help keep it ringing

The Trust is run by volunteers. Everything — conservation, working demonstrations, new exhibitions — runs on people who chip in time, money or expertise.

01

Become a Friend

A yearly subscription that funds conservation and keeps the exchanges running — and keeps you posted on new exhibitions first.

Join today
02

Make a donation

One-off or regular gifts go straight toward keeping the collection safe and expanding what's on show

Donate
03

Volunteer or lend expertise

We're looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help restore, research and share our collection. Engineers and electronics enthusiasts are very welcome, but you don't need to be technical. We also need people with practical skills, vans for moving equipment, graphic design, photography, video, writing and promotion. Got a skill to share, or simply curious about telephone history? Come and get involved!

Get in touch

On show now

3 collections
01

Flowers to Fibre

A working Strowger exchange, prototype System X switching equipment and a 1990s dial-up modem trace the fifty-year rebuild of Britain's copper phone network into the fibre one replacing it — and the engineers, led by Tommy Flowers, who did it.

The National Museum of Computing
Bletchley Park · running from March 2023
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02

The National Telephone Kiosk Collection

Every public kiosk issued since 1912, kept working and connected through four working telephone exchanges.

Avoncroft Museum
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire · open March–November
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03

150 Years of the Telephone

From Bell's earliest instrument in 1875 through the Bakelite classics, the Trimphone, and the first mobiles, to the smartphone.

The Hive, Worcester
Running from March 2026
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Browse the wider archive

Documents, photos and catalogued items from the collection — some readable online, all searchable yourself.

The full collection
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None of it was built to be remembered.

Most of the equipment that carried Britain's calls was designed to be forgotten — hidden in exchanges, buried underground, replaced when something better came along. The Communications Museum Trust exists to make sure it isn't.

Rather than run a single building, the Trust works with museums that already hold the space and the visitors — lending expertise, objects and working equipment to exhibitions like Flowers to Fibre, and supporting collections like Avoncroft's telephone kiosks that would otherwise have no permanent home.

With the national switch from copper to fibre now under way, the everyday objects of the old network are becoming heritage faster than most people have noticed.

Where to find us

3 partner venues

The National Museum of Computing

Block H, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes MK3 6EB

Home to Flowers to Fibre, developed jointly with the Trust. Visitors can place a call through a working electro-mechanical exchange.

Plan a visit

Avoncroft Museum

Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire

Home to the National Telephone Kiosk Collection, serviced by four working exchanges.

Plan a visit

The Hive Worcester

Sawmill Cl, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD

150 years of the telephone in Britain: From Bell's earliest instrument in 1875 through the Bakelite classics, the Trimphone, and the first mobiles, to the smartphone.

Plan a visit