The Battle of Flodden Field took place near the village of Branxton in Northumberland on Sept 9, 1513. It was the largest battle ever waged between armies from England and Scotland and, after a day of mass slaughter, ended in a decisive victory for England and the death of Scottish King James IV, the last reigning monarch to die in battle.

A trail extends around the edge of the battlefield, from the monument down to the mid-ground – which in 1513, was an undrained boggy morass where most of the killing took place – and then up to Branxton Hill where the Scottish forces were assembled at the start of the battle.

All around the battlefield are information boards explaining the different stages of the battle, the tactics employed, the different weaponry and so on.

The course of the battle has been written about extensively and if you are interested you can read about it on the Remembering Flodden website.

At the risk of over-simplification, the general understanding of the battle was that the Scots were brave and ardent as usual but their main weapon was a 5.5m pike which proved to be unwieldy in the boggy terrain compared with the English 2.4m billhook.

Similarly, the English artillery was lighter and more manoeuvrable than the Scottish heavy guns, which were hard to reposition when unexpectedly outflanked by the Earl of Surrey’s army. English longbows also played a decisive role.

St Paul’s Church in Branxton is where the dead of both sides were received after the Battle of Flodden. The Flodden Monument can be seen on the hilltop behind the church.

For 300 years, the engagement was known as the Battle of Branxton Moor and was only romanticised as the Battle of Flodden Field by Victorian authors and historians during the 19th Century.

A public phone booth in Branxton village was purchased from British Telecom for £1 and repurposed into a Battle of Flodden tourist information kiosk, complete with maps, brochures, a three-minute recorded audio guide and a donation box. It is said to be the world’s smallest visitor centre.

So, while Scotland commemorates its famous victory over England at Bannockburn with a multi-million-pound visitor centre, England’s equivalent fits in a phone booth.

The classic British design icon has been put to creative uses all over the world since they ceased to be used as telephone booths, for example as a coffee shop, a salad bar, a micro-library, an ATM booth, a colour therapy retreat, a cake shop, an art gallery, a bar, a defibrillator booth and even a beach shower.

However, they have always been used as urinals by desperate pub crawlers, even when they still had phones in them!

This article first appeared on Thrifty Traveller.