Leeds Telephone Services.

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 8:38 pm

chameleon wrote: Bet it's fun now we have Leeds numbers starting with a 3 as well as a 2! And 8 (Leeds Met Uni numbers are 0113 812 xxxx). The first Leeds numbers I came across being 0113 3xx xxxx were the LgI's.I can't believe how much new stationery and the side of newish vans still has 01132 xxx xxx on it/them. It really makes me cringe.

simong · Post by **simong** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 8:58 pm

chameleon wrote: The code change was just a little later simon, April 95. We changed all 600 of our office phone numbers at the same time - then did it all again a few years later - wonderful weekends of reprogramming the pbx they were!You know that extra '2' still causes problems when people add it to the dialling code and then dial the local number.Dial 0113 228xxxx for example, and thats what you'll get but someone wanting (Leeds) 283xxxx using 01132 gets - 228xxxx instead.Bet it's fun now we have Leeds numbers starting with a 3 as well as a 2! My memory is shot I was in London then and was trying to remember when 0171 and 0181 were introduced and then when we changed to 0207/8. Was the code 01532 for a while? I said at the time that someone senior should have been not so much sacked, as tarred and feathered for that.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 9:06 pm

tyke bhoy wrote: I can't believe how much new stationery and the side of newish vans still has 01132 xxx xxx on it/them. It really makes me cringe. I know what you mean and it bugs me too.Lots of interesting snippetts already on this thread so here are a few of my own.The Crossgates exchange is hidden away behind Coes fish and chip shop and as a consequence has always suffered access problems as hungry drivers abandon their cars blocking the access road in their rush for chips.Seacroft numbers mainly used to be 73xxxx - although I had friends who lived off Dib Lane and also in Crossgates whose numbers both started 65xxxx which I would have thought were different exchanges? Certainly when I moved to Crossgates in the mid-90's my number started 65xxxx.As a kid in the 70's I can remember Alstan Garage on the way into town (New York Street?) simply painting a '4' on their sign in front of their phone number when the extra digit was added - it didn't quite match and was like that for years.At middle school a friends dad worked for British Telecom as they'd just become and would bring his yellow Bedford HA van home, or occasionally turn up in one of those fantastic looking Comma (or Dodge) Space Vans - both vans that pretty much only BT were running by that time. He was based at Mabgate, but transferred up to the BT place off the Ring Road at Seacroft later when Mabgate closed, I think.

Brunel · Post by **Brunel** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 9:33 pm

Oakwood Exchange.. was where Lloyds bank is now, used to have the 65 numbers, now on Seacroft.Anybody have a pic. of the old Oakwood Ex. building?

Bramley4woods · Post by **Bramley4woods** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 9:45 pm

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that at one time you could route calls free of charge to nearby exchanges by tapping their codes out on the switch hooks (Receiver rest) in a public call box, and could in fact go quite a distance from exchange to exchange to exchange in the same way.Although, the slow and irregular tapping could attract attention in the exchange if it was quiet and the call lost half it's volume every exchange it went through.Still it could provide a bit of entertainment on the way home from school.So I've heard !

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 10:06 pm

tyke bhoy wrote: chameleon wrote: Bet it's fun now we have Leeds numbers starting with a 3 as well as a 2! And 8 (Leeds Met Uni numbers are 0113 812 xxxx). The first Leeds numbers I came across being 0113 3xx xxxx were the LgI's.I can't believe how much new stationery and the side of newish vans still has 01132 xxx xxx on it/them. It really makes me cringe. Oh good, not just me! An as infuriating bit of ignorance as the people who drive in the outside lane 2 mph under the speed limit so they can turn right in 2 miles time - and equally oblivious to the requirement that they must move over if someno wishes to passThe standard notation set down by Ofcom for seven digit numbers is as you clearly know (code) xxx xxxx. If peoplwe can't even get their phone number right after all this time, makes you wonder how well they might perform what ever service it is they are offering too.

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 10:08 pm

Bramley4woods wrote: I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that at one time you could route calls free of charge to nearby exchanges by tapping their codes out on the switch hooks (Receiver rest) in a public call box, and could in fact go quite a distance from exchange to exchange to exchange in the same way.Although, the slow and irregular tapping could attract attention in the exchange if it was quiet and the call lost half it's volume every exchange it went through.Still it could provide a bit of entertainment on the way home from school.So I've heard ! One of the 'advantages' of the old pulse dialing signaling system Bramley, you could mimic the switching action of the dial returning to rest as you say - with the same effect. Wonderfully effective!

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 10:13 pm

simong wrote: chameleon wrote: The code change was just a little later simon, April 95. We changed all 600 of our office phone numbers at the same time - then did it all again a few years later - wonderful weekends of reprogramming the pbx they were!You know that extra '2' still causes problems when people add it to the dialling code and then dial the local number.Dial 0113 228xxxx for example, and thats what you'll get but someone wanting (Leeds) 283xxxx using 01132 gets - 228xxxx instead.Bet it's fun now we have Leeds numbers starting with a 3 as well as a 2! My memory is shot I was in London then and was trying to remember when 0171 and 0181 were introduced and then when we changed to 0207/8. Was the code 01532 for a while? I said at the time that someone senior should have been not so much sacked, as tarred and feathered for that. Nah not at all - what's a few years between friends? I had to think hard about it.You are right though, Phone Day I think that one was called, was supposed to provide sufficient new numbers for many years to come. Well, it did, if many years was around 3 when major cities began to run out and they were all changed again. Costapacket for businesses.

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 10:16 pm

Again, mostly due to consolidating excahnges into others I think davey, though now of course you can take almost any number anywhere.My number is (2)73 but when I opted for BT's call sign (a second ringing tone) the additional number was (2)65 out of Seacroft.

drapesy · Post by **drapesy** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 10:40 pm

simong wrote: chameleon wrote: The code change was just a little later simon, April 95. We changed all 600 of our office phone numbers at the same time - then did it all again a few years later - wonderful weekends of reprogramming the pbx they were!You know that extra '2' still causes problems when people add it to the dialling code and then dial the local number.Dial 0113 228xxxx for example, and thats what you'll get but someone wanting (Leeds) 283xxxx using 01132 gets - 228xxxx instead.Bet it's fun now we have Leeds numbers starting with a 3 as well as a 2! My memory is shot I was in London then and was trying to remember when 0171 and 0181 were introduced and then when we changed to 0207/8. Was the code 01532 for a while? I said at the time that someone senior should have been not so much sacked, as tarred and feathered for that. No, the Leeds code was never 01532.