The following advert was in the "Reporter" newspaper on 3rd October 1958
I wish floor coverings were still this inexpensive !
The site of R.Deans shop - Now K&C Autofactors.
Thanks to Helen Hodkinson who kindly lent us the newspaper cuttings.....more to follow.
14 comments:
Excellent.... it was an excellent year 1958... especially around the beginning of July...
Unusual telephone number on the R Dean advert, I thought that Hyde telephone numbers were prefixed HYD followed by 4 numbers.
Well spotted JohnT....
Very interesting about the telephone number - you're right about the HYD, JohnT, as you can see from the Herald & Reporter cutting. I joined what was then GPO Telephones in 1961 at about the time STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) came in and the old exchange names were replaced by 3-digit numbers (HYDe became 368 of course). Mottram, Glossop, Saddleworth and Mossley weren't automatic exchanges at that time and the individual telephone numbers were more than 4-digits long, but you would obviously need to know to which exchange the number belonged in order to make a call. The only thing I can think of for the number in this advert is the South Lancs Radiophone service, which was an early, and not very successful attempt to introduce a phone service for car users. It was introduced at the end of the 1950s but I can't remember what the numbering range was - I only used it a couple of times and I remember it was like you see in wartime films of fighter pilots as you could only transmit in one direction at a time, there was a button to press when you wanted to talk and consequently each person had to say 'over' when they wanted the other party to respond. I don't think this is a likely explanation for this number, but perhaps there's an ex-GPO telephone engineer out there who knows what the real story is?
A very interesting read all the same Dave... when I had a phone put in... I assumed and expected a 368 number... but was given 882 instead.. Since then I receive many calls for Whalley Range High School and a very dodgy pub..
I don't know how telephone numbers are allocated now Tom, but there was a logic behind it at one time. The original STD exchanges were grouped together so that, for instance, all the codes beginning with 3 were in the same locality (368 Hyde, 336 Denton, 370 Droylsden, 330 Ashton, etc). In addition, many of the old exchange names translated into the new numbers in respect of the old dial (ABC - 2, DEF - 3, GHI - 4 etc). Denton and Droylsden are 2 such exchanges so that DEN corresponds to 336 and DRO to 370, thus making it easier for people to remember the new telephone codes for the exchanges after the changeover. Exchange codes beginning 2 and 8 were in the city centre (the old Central, Blackfriars and Deansgate exchanges etc), those beginning 4 were to the South-West of Manchester (Sale, Stockport and Didsbury etc). There weren't any beginning with 5 but the ones beginning with 6 were to the North-East (Oldham, Middleton, Failsworth etc) and the ones beginning with 7 were to the North and North-West (Prestwich, Radcliffe, Whitefield etc). Lastly the ones beginning with 9 were to the South (Wythenshawe etc). In addition the national dialling codes for the major cities were based on the number/letter arrangement on the old dial - hence 0121 is B for Birmingham, 0131 E for Edinburgh, 0141 G for Glasgow, 0151 L for Liverpool, and 0161 M for Manchester.
Hi Being another ex BT/GPO (God's poor orphans) engineer, I agree with Dave's comments completely. I have some old 60's street directories with many local adverts, everyone gives the telephone number with the HYD etc prefix, however some company's had a telex number which I think was a 6 digit number, but I think these all began with 6. The only other explanation is the obvious, that it was a printing error.
Paul
Hey Nancy & Tom, where did you find Dave Williams from??? What a wonderful font of knowledge he is. Love it! Paul Taylor is also a hero of mine from way back....have several of his booklets on Hyde pubs etc. Wish I could input more but alas, don't have any photos of Hyde really....except a couple of dodgy Greeny school ones where I look like a real dork. Still do!! If you ever need desert photos or pics of kangaroos....I'm your man. Love your work guys.
Ex-Hydonian... thank you for your comments I know Dave will be pleased... Dave is sure an asset to the team... and you mention Paul Taylor.... well great news. Paul IS joining the team... so expect to see more soon.
Thanks for your comments, Ex-Hydeonian. The piece about the telephone numbers doesn't indicate a font of knowledge, just a recall of what was engraved into my working memory some 40 years ago! Most of the other comments I make from time to time are taken from my library of books about Hyde and from searching various Google sites till I find what I'm looking for.
Disagree Dave....you come across as very informative and knowledgable and extremely interesting too. So there :P
Thanks, Ex-Hydeonian. I think I'll adopt the nickname that 'Spitting Image' created for Steve Davis - Dave 'Interesting' Williams!
Excellent humour Dave... I think it would make a great nickname... ha!
R.Dean's number in 1958 was Hyde 932295 - it is listed as such in the 1958 Manchester Telephone Directory as 'Dean, R, Crpt. Ftr. 12 Joel la Gee X HYD 932295' . The reason being that in 1958, Hyde exchange was still a manual exchange and upto around 1960, there were 'multi-party' party lines and the numbers always were prefixed with 93 so that they would end up on the switchboard positions that dealt with the multiparty lines. Hyde exchange went 'automatic' by the end of March 1959 when the number was listed as 'HYD 3018' at the same address in Joel Lane.
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