Doctor Who's time travelling vehicle of choice has been given a new home by West Yorkshire Police.
The Grade II listed Police Box, on which the Tardis is modelled. has moved from its base at Bishopgarth in Wakefield, to West Yorkshire Police’s new Carr Gate training complex close to junction 41 of the M1 motorway.
But there’s good news for Huddersfield residents - a second Tardis is staying exactly where it is, on the main road in Almondbury.
The box there has been in use by the force for many decades and is still serving a purpose.
Patrol officers use it to make calls, write up reports - and to have a refreshment break.
And the force has no plans to change the situation.
A spokesman said: “The Almondbury box has always been used by local officers and they will continue to do that.
“It is a very useful contact point in the centre of the village”.
News of the Almondbury Tardis came as police shifted their other box to the new training bases.
Supt Dave Lunn, Head of Learning and Development, said the box has a mysterious past:
“It’s said to be from either the 1920s or 1930s, however, it’s unclear where it was used in the county before it materialised at Bishopgarth in 1982.
“Being a listed building, it is as timeless as The Doctor himself. Police boxes were used by officers on the beat to report to headquarters, and by the public to call for assistance in times of emergency.
“It’s believed to be a 1929 Mackenzie Trench design police box, made of timber, with a small door to a telephone cupboard on the inside and features a bell on the top.
“By bringing this icon of community policing to our new training facility, we hope it will instil the traditional values of protecting the public into the advancements of modern policing”.
Doctor Who’s TARDIS is short for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It is a time machine and spacecraft which made its debut in in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who in 1963.
