A disused red telephone kiosk in a north Pembrokeshire village is to be reborn as a museum celebrating the life of a local photographer who died nearly 70 years ago.

The new use for the kiosk, which stands just 50 metres from the old house where photographer Tom Mathias lived, has won the local heritage group a £1,000 award from BT.

The historic K6 kiosk at Cilgerran was bought from BT for £1 by the community council and handed over to Cilgerran language and heritage committee. The innovative idea is one of only eight around the UK to win a major BT Payphones award in a competition to find the best use of a kiosk adopted by the local community.

Emyr Phillips, chairman of the language and heritage committee, said: “Tom Mathias was a wonderful photographer who lived in our village, and the proximity of this kiosk to his family home made it perfect to set up a memorial and museum in his memory.

“We will be repainting the kiosk and then displaying his pictures in there for everyone to see, making it a unique landmark and focal point for the village once more.”

Tom Mathias, born in 1866, became a professional photographer in his twenties.

He photographed a wide range of subjects including quarries, coracles, farming, slate workers, the gentry and their servants, houses, public events, weddings and group outings. John Lumb, general manager of BT Payphones, said: “We were particularly impressed by this initiative and by the way it will link together a part of the heritage of Cilgerran with this kiosk, which has been saved for future generations by the local community.”

For more information on the Adopt a Kiosk scheme, visit www.payphones.bt.com.