Everthing seemed the same as usual on her walk into work at the Builder's Arms in Mobberley Road.

A few hours later she had finished her shift and headed back home to Woodlands Drive.

But this time there was something missing as she walked past the corner of Thorneyholme Drive.

The BT telephone box which had stood there for decades had vanished without trace.

"It had been there for as long as I can remember," said Mrs Scott, 60. "But all of a sudden it was gone." A few days later on her usual walk to work she noticed that a brick wall had been built near to where the phone box used to stand.

Mrs Scott contacted Clr Wilson Hamman.

"It has just vanished," he said on Monday. "I've spoken to a number of people but no-one seems to know where the heck it's gone to."

But this week the Knutsford Guardian solved the mystery.

After countless phone calls to BT it emerged that the telephone company had removed the box at the request of developers Egerton Estates. "They have paid for its removal because they need the space for their nearby development," said a BT spokesman. "This is not an unusual request and we are happy to help them out at their expense."

The developers are currently building homes in Thorneyholme Drive.

"The box needed to be removed to enable us to build the retaining wall because it was in the way," said a spokesman for Egerton Estates.

BT will now discuss an alternative site for the phone box with Knutsford Town Council.