I did give them a quick google but didn't think to check that. Well that would imply it was installed in '62/63 then!
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Totally OTT (well, it is the weekend
) but I can beat that 'in spades'. From my Great-Grandfather's letterhead, indicating the phone numbers of the two branches of his business (around 1900) ... Kind Regards, John
Back in the days when you had to ask the operator to connect you to that number? And (s)he had to physically connect you? haha
Oh yes - I very much doubt that phones had dials in those days. I'm a little intrigued by the "Y" in the Hayling number - anyone know what its significance might have been?
Kind Regards, John
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Intersting. Most of the old numbers are 3 digits around here, the company I work for used to have a 3 digit phone number, then a 5 digit number now a 6 digit number! Here's a different one on a Wylex metalcald fuseboard with a wide flat lid designed for building into a wall. The knockouts are both metric and imperial. Imperial rubber grommets were used in this one.
There's still some 5 digit numbers in Devon! Cully i believe, still has some
Yes, that's where I am near. Most of my family have 5 digit numbers.
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Not 2 then?
The majority of houses in my village still effectively have the original 3-digit phone numbers - at some point "730" was put in front of all of them to turn them into 6-digit ones.
Given that there are only about 300 houses in the village, I'm not sure how they 'exhausted' the 999 potential numbers using that system but, for some reason, the exception to the above is that more recently allocated numbers have "738", rather than "730" at the start.
Kind Regards, John
Party line on a manual exchange.
Half
the subscribers bells were connected between one wire of the line and earth and the other half between the
other wire and earth. Those connected to one wire were known as the ‘X’ subscribers and those on the
other wire as the ‘Y’ subscribers. The operator on the manual switchboard would ring the ‘X. subscribers
with the normal ring key, and the ‘Y’ subscribers by reversing the ring key to call on the other wire.
http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/documents/Shared_Service.pdf
There aren't 999 potential usable numbers.
numbers starting 1 aren't available as these were used for special services
numbers starting 9 aren't available as these were used for level 9 access to the parent exchange (and 999 access)
numbers starting 0 aren't available as 0 was used for operator and later for STD access
numbers starting 7 and 8 were often used for group numbering schemes
That actually leaves about 500 numbers available on a 3-digit exchange.
Many villages in the past were served by a UAX (Unit Automatic Exchange) with a 3-digit numbering scheme, and a lot were converted to TXE2 (Telephone eXchange Electronic) from the 1970's onward, getting 6-digit numbers in the process and being put on a linked numbering scheme with the nearby town and other similarly converted villages in the area (i.e. you no longer had to dial the local routing codes, just the appropriate 4-, 5- or 6-digit number). The existing xxx numbers becoming yy0xxx (zero as the new third digit) was a common pattern during such renumbering, although not an absolute indicator. After System X came along in the 1980's (and System Y, a.k.a. AXE10), some 3-digit UAX areas went straight to digital with a similar change to 6-digit numbers.
When it was a 3-digit exchange yes, but after conversion to 6-digit numbering, the whole range of 730xxx numbers would have become available for allocation, less a handful for things like engineering test numbers, telephones in the exchange itself, etc.
However, keep in mind that although there might be only about 300 houses in the village itself, the exchange will serve places in the surrounding countryside as well, possibly for several miles in all directions. Sometimes an exchange in one village also serves all the homes in another nearby, smaller village too. Then there might be businesses with more than one number, even quite a few homes with two numbers, either as separate lines or for BT's "CallSign" service which allocates two numbers to the same line with a distinctive ringing cadence for each. So depending upon the particular area concerned, with 300 homes within the "main" village itself, it wouldn't be unusual to be at or near the 1000-line capacity of 730xxx.
And that presumes this is a BT/OpenReach-only village (regardless of who you pay as your service provider). If you have other companies serving the area (e.g. broadband cable, Virgin etc.) then the 738xxx numbers may belong to them.
Older folk in the villages around here still answer the phone with just the last three digits. When shops are resigned, you often see the old three digit numbers underneath.
Although the majority of smaller towns and villages outside of the larger urban areas (and Northern Ireland) are now on 6-digit numbers, there are still more places with 5-digit numbers around than many people seem to realize (U.K. web designers writing validation scripts for telephone numbers, please note well!).
It may have changed since I last checked, but certainly as of about 4 or 5 years ago Brampton, Cumberland still had some 4-digit numbers, the last such place in the U.K.
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