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Old 6th Jun 2020, 11:29 pm   #21
Hermitcrab
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

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Originally Posted by Trifocaltrev View Post
Manual exchanges in some areas lated for a long time, Hastings and Newbury did not change until 1973/74 and I belive the very last one according to a television news article at the time, was Portree on the Isle of Skye. Also when Rainham exchange was converted I don't think the System X electronic exchanges existed.

Regards
Trevor.
Portree became automatic in 1976, which meant that all UK exchanges were automatic, although you still couldn't dial any UK telephone from any other (i.e. completion of STD) until 1979. The British Overseas Territory of St Helena in the South Atlantic was still manual until 16 April 1983.
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Old 7th Jun 2020, 1:47 pm   #22
Pellseinydd
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

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Originally Posted by Hermitcrab View Post
Portree became automatic in 1976, which meant that all UK exchanges were automatic, although you still couldn't dial any UK telephone from any other (i.e. completion of STD) until 1979. The British Overseas Territory of St Helena in the South Atlantic was still manual until 16 April 1983.
See attached from a 1980's telephone directory for another overseas location where they were still 'winding the handle' in the 1980's.

And you still couldn't dial all the UK telephones in the UK until 1990! I once gave a talk on 'Preserving Strowger' to the IBTE Section at Whittington House, Oswestry in the mid 1990's and one of the managers present tod me all about the hassle BT had had from rival companies who were able to claim 'BT was not fully automatic yet but we are'! BT went to great lengths to 'end the era' of manual telephones in 1990!
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Old 7th Jun 2020, 7:04 pm   #23
Pellseinydd
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

See attached from BT's 1989 North of Scotland Telephone Directory of a number it still wasn't able to dial. It was in a croft on the Isle of Harris with no road access until 1990. Only accessible by a five mile footpath over the hills. It was used as an 'attended call office' where you made the call, then the attendant collected the money from you once advised of the cost by the operator!.

There is an excerpt from a BBC programme 'The Secret Life of Telephone Numbers' (of about 2005) which is about the number which can be heard by dialling 01859 (Harris) 598 001 ( Rheinigidale 1 ) - a 'normal geographic number' so should be in your 'free calls' package.
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Old 9th Jun 2020, 10:38 pm   #24
Hermitcrab
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

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Originally Posted by Pellseinydd View Post
See attached from a 1980's telephone directory for another overseas location where they were still 'winding the handle' in the 1980's.

And you still couldn't dial all the UK telephones in the UK until 1990! I once gave a talk on 'Preserving Strowger' to the IBTE Section at Whittington House, Oswestry in the mid 1990's and one of the managers present tod me all about the hassle BT had had from rival companies who were able to claim 'BT was not fully automatic yet but we are'! BT went to great lengths to 'end the era' of manual telephones in 1990!
Is that telephone directory excerpt from the Falkland Islands? I am cleverer than I look! "Stanley" in one of the entries gave it away as that is the capital of the Falklands. And I do remember the Falklands having to be connected by the International Operator, likewise Ascension another British Overseas Territory, until fairly lateish in the automation of the world's telephones.

It was BT themselves who said that STD was completed in 1979, the vast majority of UK telephones were diallable from each other by then.
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Old 10th Jun 2020, 2:29 pm   #25
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

It is the Falklands Islands who were magneto working until after the Falklands War in the early 1980's.

Don't believe all you hear from BT. Rheinigidale 1 was still a manual phone as shown by the 1989 BT Telephone Directory. When BT's rivals found out about it in the late 1980's they apparently used it to say 'we are all digital but BT aren't yet'! Hence BT's great effort to replace the manual telephone with a 'dialable one.
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Old 15th Jul 2020, 2:11 pm   #26
Telephone Guy
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

As a matter of interest, I lived less than a mile away from that exchange and visited it as a child on two or three occasions. I vaguely remember the occasion of the switchover as being a time of some trepidation as to whether everything would go right or not!
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Old 16th Jul 2020, 10:40 am   #27
Peter.N.
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Default Re: Video of last manual exchange in London

They had a big site at Foots cray in Kent when I was in my youth. I had to go there with under guarantee KB TVs on occasion. The Brimar valve works was also situated there.

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