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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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21st Jul 2017, 10:15 am | #1 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
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Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
I thought the images below might be of some interest to telephony afficionados here. They show a small telephone exchange (as far as I know, still in use) in the village of Braithwaite on the outskirts of Keswick, Cumbria.
Obviously, it no longer contains the original Strowger equipment for which it was built, so the rear building (which appears to be the actual exchange building) probably just has a small piece of modern electronics connecting the village's telephones to the "main" exchange in Keswick. The front building appears to contain some sort of generator, judging by the exhaust pipe sticking out of the window. I wonder how many similar untis there are dotted around the country.
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21st Jul 2017, 10:41 am | #2 |
Dekatron
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Ther used to be a number in the far north of Scotland but I can't say I have noticed them lately.
When we first started going up there in the '70's their telephone system was very basic to say the least except for the mix of old and modern technology along the north coast. The main cable run in a ditch along the side of the road on the Wick - John O Groats road an periodically the cable run up a post to a junction, as you head west the cable ran across open fields and through culverts until it reached somewhere around Durness when there was a big loch where it entered a box with a microwave dish on top pointing to another one on the other side. Peter |
21st Jul 2017, 11:09 am | #3 |
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Lots of these buildings are still there. My wife and I have just returned from a three week tour of the far north-west including Tongue, Durness, Ullapool and Applecross, and I spotted several of them. Many are probably not in use but it would cost BT money to demolish them.
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21st Jul 2017, 2:29 pm | #4 |
Triode
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales, UK.
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
The smaller of the two buildings was probably to house the first automatic exchange- usually an UAX12. The second building looks as if it housed a SAX, but perhaps an UAX13.
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21st Jul 2017, 2:46 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
There's a similar-looking one on the A4 just East of Hungerford, though it's in a bit of a state of disrepair.
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21st Jul 2017, 3:05 pm | #6 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
I actually had a friend who managed to purchase a defunct telephone exchange up in Scotland a few years ago.
He wanted to convert it into a holiday home but couldn't get planning permission for some reason. |
21st Jul 2017, 5:12 pm | #7 |
Rest in Peace
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Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
The telephone exchange equipment we use at work now doesn't need much accommodation. Just two shelves about three U high in a little 19" rack. Granted they are "small" ones but they certainly don't need the large buildings of old. Standby gennies etc probably take up most space, although we tend to use a bank of batteries instead.
Alan. |
21st Jul 2017, 6:58 pm | #8 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Quote:
Braithwaite exchange opened on 8th April 1925 as a small manual exchange (Central Battery Signalling No 2 system) with about 15 lines on it, located in the Braithwaite village post office. In 1937 it went automatic with 45 lines on a UAX12 located in the smaller 'A' type building that now houses the generator. By 1955 the number lines was into the eighties and the UAX12 could only serve 90 lines (unless it was extended to a UAX12X (essentially two UAX12's in a Linked Numbering Scheme which could handle 165 lines). Thus by early 1956, it had been replaced by a UAX13 which in its initial form could handle 200 lines. As a UAX13, those who had been on the waiting list could be connected and we find 96 lines at the end of March1956. STD arrived in 1969 together with the 999 service! then sometime after 1985, it went digital with System Y concentrator. It is a typical story for many rural exchanges, particularly the smaller ones. The small rural buildings for automatic exchanges started in 1929 with the small flat topped 'A' type buildings which were later replaced with the pitched roof 'A' type as at Braithwaite. |
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21st Jul 2017, 7:12 pm | #9 |
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Fascinating. I have been through Braithwaite many a time but failed to notice this building. I will have to look harder next time. In our local area we have a few of the old repeater stations alongside the main roads and one has recently been converted to camping barn style accommodation alongside the "Military Road" (B6318) and Hadrian's Wall.
Alan. |
21st Jul 2017, 7:37 pm | #10 |
Dekatron
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Look out for the public toilets (though these are currently under threat of closure) near the main bus stop. As you face the toilet block, the exchange is on its right, set back from the road.
Thank you to Pellseinydd for the history of the exchange. I rather suspected you would know if anyone did!
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21st Jul 2017, 7:50 pm | #11 | |
Heptode
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Quote:
I assume that this is 'The Old Repeater Station' ? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.02...7i13312!8i6656 It's on the 1957 OS map but not the 1952 one. |
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21st Jul 2017, 8:37 pm | #12 |
Dekatron
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
I understand the former BT repeater station on the A6 at the top of Shap has been converted to a small music venue.
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21st Jul 2017, 11:44 pm | #13 |
Rest in Peace
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Yes, that's "The Old Repeater Station". It's just up the road from me. I drive past it regularly on my way to jobs in Cumbria.
Alan. |
21st Jul 2017, 11:55 pm | #14 |
Heptode
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
This is SPOFFORTH EXCHANGE, I do have an older picture of it, but cannot remember where it is at the mo.
SPOFFORTH, between Wetherby & Harrogate. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.95...-GB&authuser=0 |
22nd Jul 2017, 8:22 am | #15 |
Heptode
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
A typical setup ! See http://www.geograph.org.uk/of/telephone+exchange
for more. But there are some you're very unlikely to drive by ! See attached ones! To get back on subject - see the vintage equipment recovered. Old Canna exchange (a 10ft by 8ft garden shed) is in the Inner Hebrides and you can't get anymore remote than the exchange on Foula - BT's most remote exchange way out in the Atlantic to the west of the Shetland Islands. That took some bringing back - an eight day round trip! Last edited by Pellseinydd; 22nd Jul 2017 at 8:43 am. |
13th Aug 2017, 10:27 pm | #16 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2014
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Re: Rural telephone exchange - Braithwaite, Keswick
Few others you'd be hard pushed to walk to ( Soay springs to mind - something like a 6'x4 garden hut perched on a hillside ). But both UAX (5/12/13, 5 from memory had no dial tone ) and repeater buildings for CEL 6/6A were almost identical, although most repeaters had no need for generators as power for the equipment was fed over the coax.
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