PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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GENERAL POST OFFICE TELEPHONES DEPARTMENT As a result of the Telephone Transfer Act 1911, the Postmaster-General took over responsibility for the telephone service on January 1st 1912. This had such little impact upon Plymouth that the local newspapers only reported that telephone staff were now to become Civil Servants. The Central Exchange in Whimple Street remained in operation. A three minute call up to 25 miles from the exchange cost 3d. For numbers of 100 miles away it was one shilling. During 1925 the Button A/Button B pre-payment telephones were introduced but exactly when these were installed in Plymouth is not yet known. Work started in May 1933 on Plymouth's new automatic telephone exchange. As an interim measure a new trunk call system was introduced in January 1934. The Plymouth, Crownhill (Manadon), Plympton, and Plymstock telephone exchanges were transferred to automatic working at 2pm on Saturday July 6th 1935 and on Monday July 29th 1935 Lady Astor officially opened the new Plymouth exchange. The practice of dialling '999' for the emergency services was started in London on July 1st 1937 and was gradually extended throughout the country. Plymouth telephone numbers appeared in a South West Directory based on Bristol until about 1939. Also in 1939 the Crownhill Exchange was integrated with the Norley Place one and the combined one became known as Plymouth Central. Following the severe damage inflicted on Plymouth and Devonport during the Blitz of 1941 it was decided to erect a temporary exchange in Central Park. It is not known at the moment whether this plan was ever carried out. The Second World War also held up the integration of all the smaller local exchanges into the Plymouth Central one. The Devonport Automatic Exchange was brought into operation in June 1958 followed in August 1959 by the new St Budeaux Exchange. Plymstock disappeared as an exchange in 1961 when the new automatic exchange in Stentaway Road replaced the one in Church Road. Plymouth was linked to the Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) system at 11.30am on May 12th 1965. That year also saw the amalgamation of Plympton telephone exchange numbers in to Plymouth. The General Post Office became a public corporation on October 1st 1969.
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