SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

My girlfriend works at a school in Pudsey and mentioned that some of the staff were reminiscing about being manual operators at Pudsey exchange. She reckons that they are in their mid-50s and that it seemed to be a first job, which would make their time there in the late 60s or early 70s, which seems quite late for a manual exchange. When was it converted to an automatic exchange?

Simon Funny that you should ask a question about Pudsey ATE as i am sat in the exchange at the moment.I dont think that Pudsey ever had operators in the Building that we are in now and this was built in 1957 ( at least part of it was) There were operators in other exchanges in Leeds ..Leeds Park ( no longer there) Leeds Basinghall ( building still there) Moortown Exchange also had a very large contingent also and they were still there in all these buildings until about 25 years ago.Some exchanges were converted later than others but i dont think Pudsey was one of these,but operators did not only put people through when they requested it but also did 999,directory enquiries both local and international,International operators and local operator calls where people could not get through and the like ....any more info if you need i will try to get            

I can supply just one fact if its any help - I started a new job in July 1963 and had occasion to ring my supervisor at his home in Pudsey - it was automatic by then, and the prefix from Leeds was 85 followed by the four digit phone number.

The Pudsey Telephone Exchange was certainly automatic in 1962. I went to Pudsey Tech. and had to phone the careers guidance officer in Morley, I turned up at the phone boxes outside Pudsey Post Office with 4d. in my hot little hand, only to find that it only took 3d. and 6d. pieces. Didn't some Pudsey numbers used to appear in the Bradford book and others in the Leeds book, or have I imagined that?Morley went STD in 1963. If you wanted a number at and exchange that wasn't automatic (Ossett say - my girlfriend lived in Ossett) you had to dial a code and an operator would answer "Ossett" and you gave her the number

billy the buffalo wrote: Simon Funny that you should ask a question about Pudsey ATE as i am sat in the exchange at the moment.I dont think that Pudsey ever had operators in the Building that we are in now and this was built in 1957 ( at least part of it was) There were operators in other exchanges in Leeds ..Leeds Park ( no longer there) Leeds Basinghall ( building still there) Moortown Exchange also had a very large contingent also and they were still there in all these buildings until about 25 years ago.Some exchanges were converted later than others but i dont think Pudsey was one of these,but operators did not only put people through when they requested it but also did 999,directory enquiries both local and international,International operators and local operator calls where people could not get through and the like ....any more info if you need i will try to get             Thanks for that Billy. I don't suppose you know if any other exchanges in the area might have been manual late on? The school is Priesthorpe if that has any bearing. Its catchment area covers Farsley, Bramley, Rodley and the area up to the city boundary at Thornbury and most of the staff are local.

I don't ever remember Pudsey being a manual exchange, and I can go back to the mid-1950s when my godparents were Pudsey 3284. Theirs was a business line and rang frequently - I was terrified of having to answer it. But it was always a dial phone. My parents finally went "online" in 1960, a party-line with the next-door neighbours. By this time numbers had reached 5 digits - we were 77316. Many Calverley residents were within the Bradford telephone district and had Idle numbers, served by a manual exchange. I had a girlfriend whose number was Idle 52. Her phone had no dial, and to make a call one lifted the receiver and waited for the operator to answer. He/she would then connect the call manually. At peak periods it could be a long wait.

billy the buffalo wrote: Simon Funny that you should ask a question about Pudsey ATE as i am sat in the exchange at the moment.I dont think that Pudsey ever had operators in the Building that we are in now and this was built in 1957 ( at least part of it was) There were operators in other exchanges in Leeds ..Leeds Park ( no longer there) Leeds Basinghall ( building still there) Moortown Exchange also had a very large contingent also and they were still there in all these buildings until about 25 years ago.Some exchanges were converted later than others but i dont think Pudsey was one of these,but operators did not only put people through when they requested it but also did 999,directory enquiries both local and international,International operators and local operator calls where people could not get through and the like ....any more info if you need i will try to get             Thanks for that Billy. I don't suppose you know if any other exchanges in the area might have been manual late on? The school is Priesthorpe if that has any bearing. Its catchment area covers Farsley, bits of Bramley, Rodley and the area up to the city boundary at Thornbury and most of the staff are local.

Ossett already mentioned must have been aboutthe last one locally to be manual.I remember in the early 70's asking for the Ossett 994Healey Mills marshalling yard.

simon if they are Priesthorpe School That is served by Pudsey Exchange

Uno Hoo wrote: I don't ever remember Pudsey being a manual exchange, and I can go back to the mid-1950s when my godparents were Pudsey 3284. . Morley was a manual exchange up to 1963, when it became STD. However Drighlington (yes Drigh had its own exchange) was automatic - dials - but not STD.Wakefield and Hemsworth were also dial phones but not STD at this time.There was a separate exchange for parts of East Ardsley past Amblers Mill. The phone box outside Amblers was Morley, but after the mill they became Lofthouse Gate, which covered East Ardsley, Outwood, Lofthouse, Wrenthorpe, Thorpe and probably other areas adjacent to Wakefield. In those days there were two Wakefields - the city and the UDC. I'm not sure where Rothwell fell into all this at the time.