Strapetona
TelephonesIn the first Thrapston Telephone Directory there were only 70 numbers in use, and of these only 8 were private addresses, the remainder being businesses. (The manual exchange probably had a maximum capacity of 100 lines). Phone numbers were simply 1, 2, 3 ... up to 70. In these early days there was a very limited National network of lines. These were limited to one or two between principal towns or cities. As a result supposing a subscriber living in Woodford wished to talk to someone in Irthlingborough (a distance of under 4 miles), then his call would be carried via overhead lines to Thrapston exchange, who would then send it via their only 'outside line' to Peterborough. There, because they had no direct link to Northampton, it would be routed to Nottingham and then to London whence it would go to Northampton who actually had a line to Irthlingborough. (the round trip being well over 200 miles!) At that time there were no line amplifiers and so it was no wonder early users of the telephone tended to shout! One can well imagine that there were long delays in putting such a call through 5 exchanges as any one of the lines connecting exchanges could have been engaged. Later an improvement was made when the call was routed via Peterborough, Birmingham and Northampton. In 1931 Thrapston exchange, (still manually operated) was moved to the shop on the corner of Market Road and Midland Road. The switchboards and operators used the 'shop' part of the building, and the rear rooms for batteries and welfare. The night operator who worked from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. could usually go to bed around midnight with a warning hell beside the bed if a call was required. As demand increased, more links were installed, including I line to Lowick and 10 lines to Brigstock. In the early days a number of small village exchanges were set up, but as there was no mains electricity these were powered by lead acid batteries which were recharged by generators driven by small two stroke petrol engines. These gave a lot of trouble in starting them during cold weather. In the 1960's the exchange moved to its present purpose built premises in Grove Road. It was automated and enlarged, taking over the functions of several village exchanges such as Lowick, Bythorn and Clopton (the foundations of Lowick exchange now lie beneath the Lowick bypass). |