Telephone Kiosk Tandragee Road Kilmonaghan Jerrettspass Newry Co. Armagh BT35 6LN

A red cast-iron telephone kiosk of the K6 type, dating from between 1955 and 1968, stands on the roadside to the east of Tandragee Road in Jerrettspass. This is likely a replacement for an earlier kiosk that occupied the site.

The K6 design was created by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935, originally commissioned by the Post Office to mark the jubilee of King George V. Scott adapted his earlier K2 design of 1926, drawing particular inspiration from the mausoleum of Regency architect Sir John Soane for the characteristic pendentive roof, often called the 'handkerchief dome'. The cast-iron body is painted in 'currant red' as defined by British Standard BS 381C-539. The kiosk features a front door that opens outward, fitted with a closer and finger-grip pull handle.

The crowning motif provides the basis for dating this particular kiosk. The K6 originally carried a Tudor crown from the Post Office crest. After Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne, this was changed to a St Edward's crown. From 1955 onwards, a slot was introduced in the crown so that the Queen's Crown of Scotland could be fitted to Scottish examples when necessary. As this kiosk bears the St Edward's crown with the slot, it can be securely dated to between 1955 and 1968, when K6 production ceased.

The kiosk was manufactured by the Carron Company of Falkirk in Stirlingshire, one of five foundries that produced the K6 type. Despite the replacement of the original glazed panels with perspex, the kiosk has retained much of its essential character. The interior remains largely intact, with the only modern addition being the installation of a new BT telephone system.

A small square red-brick building with a pitched roof stands to the rear of the kiosk. This may be the automatic telephone exchange that served the district, which opened in Jerrettspass in 1934 as the twenty-eighth automatic exchange to be established in Northern Ireland. However, this connection has not been established with certainty, as the building does not appear in valuation lists up to 1975. A replacement, slightly larger telephone exchange was constructed further along Tandragee Road to the north between 1955 and 1974, first appearing on the 1974 large-scale map.

A telephone call box is indicated on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1955. However, evidence suggests that a telephone kiosk existed at Jerrettspass for some years before this date, with kiosks mentioned in newspaper reports from 1942 and 1949. The kiosk shown on the 1955 map may therefore be an earlier model, and the current telephone box a later replacement.

These K6 kiosks were once common throughout Britain but are now increasingly rare. This rural roadside example remains a focal point of the hamlet, representing a distinctive piece of twentieth-century street furniture and cultural heritage.