Stuart, why not port the number to a VOIP service? You would then still have a physical phone. There's now a sub forum on here for VOIP.
We did away with our landline years ago, wife wasn't overly keen, but she could see the logic, we all have our own mobiles, the transition was actually very easy. The only minor problem is that we can't use the ring back feature we had on the landline on the mobiles to get through to the doctor's, as it doesn't exist.