I believe you've hit the nail on the head.
I'm (only) 63. What will I be like if I make it to 73?
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- Thread starter securespark
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I'm (only) 63. What will I be like if I make it to 73?
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JB... I'm sorry to tell you that you made it to 73, but obviously don't remember anything of it.
In fact, it's 2016 now.
In fact, it's 2016 now.
That was the old COLindale exchange as was when letters were used. It was one of about only a third of the total number of London prefixes which survived without change during the transition to All-Figure Numbering in the late 1960's.
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My Mum's number (a Stockport number) was one of the 061 exchanges that survived too. Think ARDwick did too (273).
Manchester was split into numerical regions where the first digit after the STD code related to a particular region of Manchester. As there was only one old exchange beginning "5", they incorporated it into region 8. The GPO have never allocated numbers beginning 0(1)61 5XX XXXX.
The STD codes for the regions were decided thus:
London: 01
Birmingham: 021
Edinburgh: 031
Glasgow: 041
Liverpool: 051
Manchester: 061
Tyne: 091
Interestingly, the birth of the telephone network happened (arguably!) in Manchester in July 1879 and the method of fixing wires to poles pioneered there too and adopted nationwide.
Manchester was split into numerical regions where the first digit after the STD code related to a particular region of Manchester. As there was only one old exchange beginning "5", they incorporated it into region 8. The GPO have never allocated numbers beginning 0(1)61 5XX XXXX.
The STD codes for the regions were decided thus:
London: 01
Birmingham: 021
Edinburgh: 031
Glasgow: 041
Liverpool: 051
Manchester: 061
Tyne: 091
Interestingly, the birth of the telephone network happened (arguably!) in Manchester in July 1879 and the method of fixing wires to poles pioneered there too and adopted nationwide.
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That was done as part of the sectorization plan in all the director areas except London. For London, the codes were rearranged into sectors based on the first two digits, with multiple ranges in each sector, e.g. all 36x & 44x numbers were in the northern sector, amongst many others.
While obviously allocated that way, the G.P.O. never actually published these in letter form: 0B1, 0E1, etc., unlike the STD codes elsewhere which were listed as alphanumeric for the first few years: 0BR2 (0272) Bristol, 0PE6 (0736) Penzance, 0CA3 (0223) Cambridge, etc.
091 didn't come into use until a good few years after letters were abandoned and the area moved to 7-digit numbering. Newcastle's original STD code was 0NE2 (0632). 091 absorbed that and a few others, which I couldn't tell you off the top of my head but would have to look up.
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Yeah, just spoken to someone, they reckon early 80's - 1 or 2 he thinks.
0632 was N-u-T
0385 was Durham
0894 was Tyneside
0783 was Sunderland
Amazing what someone's ancient STD dialling codes book will tell you!
0632 was N-u-T
0385 was Durham
0894 was Tyneside
0783 was Sunderland
Amazing what someone's ancient STD dialling codes book will tell you!
That would be about right, definitely during the 1980's, not before, then 071 & 081 were allocated to London when 01 was split in 1990.
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There must have been some forward planning there, leaving a gap for telephonic expansion.
Well, still going off subject from postcodes a little, but when the STD codes were originally assigned in the 1950's, the general plan of using two letters plus a figure after the zero access code meant that all the 0x1 codes (as well as 01) were available for these "special" uses for the six director areas, since the digit 1 had no letters assigned to it. There were only the six director areas at that time with 7-digit numbering, hence 071, 081 & 091 were left free for future use.
Also, it was the existing STD equipment which influenced the numbering changes for the sectorization plan for the director cities mentioned above. The STD registers accepted the three digits following the zero and translated those digits into whatever was necessary to reach the desired exchange. So when somebody elsewhere in the country dialed 0PL2 for Plymouth, it was the 752 which was translated into the appropriate routing digits and everything which followed was just repeated as is into Plymouth, including any of those local routing codes which were used at that time (and well into the 1980's) to reach the surrounding villages.
Since the STD equipment always translated on three digits, that made it easy for the equipment in other parts of the country to translate on not just the STD code but also the first local digit of numbers in the five relevant cities, e.g. if somebody dialed 061-2xx xxxx for a Manchester number, the STD equipment at the originating end would translate the 612 portion and could send the call directly to the appropriate sector of the city rather than just having to get it to some central point in Manchester and have the call sorted out from there.
With London and its short 01 STD code, obviously that meant that the STD registers in other parts of the country could register and translate the first two digits of the local number, hence the sectorization in London being done that way. So if somebody elsewhere dialed 01-364-xxxx the originating STD equipment translated on 136 and knew not only that the call was to be sent to London but specifically into the northern sector (all 36x numbers being in that sector).
Also, it was the existing STD equipment which influenced the numbering changes for the sectorization plan for the director cities mentioned above. The STD registers accepted the three digits following the zero and translated those digits into whatever was necessary to reach the desired exchange. So when somebody elsewhere in the country dialed 0PL2 for Plymouth, it was the 752 which was translated into the appropriate routing digits and everything which followed was just repeated as is into Plymouth, including any of those local routing codes which were used at that time (and well into the 1980's) to reach the surrounding villages.
Since the STD equipment always translated on three digits, that made it easy for the equipment in other parts of the country to translate on not just the STD code but also the first local digit of numbers in the five relevant cities, e.g. if somebody dialed 061-2xx xxxx for a Manchester number, the STD equipment at the originating end would translate the 612 portion and could send the call directly to the appropriate sector of the city rather than just having to get it to some central point in Manchester and have the call sorted out from there.
With London and its short 01 STD code, obviously that meant that the STD registers in other parts of the country could register and translate the first two digits of the local number, hence the sectorization in London being done that way. So if somebody elsewhere dialed 01-364-xxxx the originating STD equipment translated on 136 and knew not only that the call was to be sent to London but specifically into the northern sector (all 36x numbers being in that sector).
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