Recommended Posts

How many others spent their childhood freedom to not only roam the streets but also dip in to each red phone box to press Button B to see if any coppers would come out?

For those not old enough to remember such Post Office phone boxes the system was that if you wanted to make a call you inserted 4 old pennies and then dialled the number. If they answered you pressed button A to make the connection and the coins went into the secure box. If there was no answer you pressed Button B to get your money back. Quite often people would forget to press Button B - so enterprising young boys like me would cash in on their forgetfulness!

A particularly lucrative box was the one near the Gregory Boulevard / Sherwood Rise / Mansfield Road roundabouts next to the entrance to the old Carrington Station. This meant I could then buy some chocolate in the sweet shop in the old station booking office before some trainspotting at Carrington.

  • Upvote 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

used to do the button B press in the box corner of Wigman Rd and Bracebridge drive, till a copper, (real one), caught me got something you cannot get today, clip round earole, never did it again, went to Lloyds bank on Bracebridge last month, turning corner into Bracebridge noticed phone box gone, nothing there, another little memory erased

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

There will be a lot of people around who would be confused looking at this photo. How do you take photos with it ? Where's the keyboard for texting ?

telephone_zps87rd4ob3.jpg

Couldn't you talk FOREVER for a couple of pence or is my memory playing tricks?

Have a look at the figures here Lizzie. http://www.retrowow.co.uk/telephones/700_series/60s_telephone_service.php

  • Upvote 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

I love these old Bakelite telephones. We had one when I was a child. They were so heavy, you couldn't possibility drag it off the table as is always happening with these modern, plastic jobs. I've never liked the modern keypads either. Much prefer the dial.

I did read somewhere that some company is making replicas of these. Won't be the same though.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

#1 there was a very lucrative phone box near the fire station on Tamworth Road in Long Eaton! As a Brownie we had to keep 4d in our uniform pocket for emergencies.(along with other items such as safety pin and piece of string) I expect cub scouts had to do the same? Then it went to a tanner I believe or was it a threepenny bit?

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

#6.

The first phone installed here was a replica of the old phone type !, only in...............Blue.

#3.

Blame that on the prolification of the mobile phone Terence !

Link to post
Share on other sites

In 1975 my ex, having got her degree at Nottm Uni, got a job near Braintree. She found a flat in Bradford St, wonderful 15th century place on the back of Andrew Philips house (remember him, lovely bloke, at the time Jimmy Youngs 'Legal Eagle').

She went to the call box at the end of his drive to ring me and was amazed to find it

was a press button A & B box, she had to keep feeding it 2p pieces. We think that Braintree was one of the last places in the country to go over to STD, does anyone know whether it was, have tried to find out but get nowhere. The phone box is still there as the street is classed as an important historic heritage site, unfortunately the phone equipment inside has been vandalised, but then when was the last time any of you used a phone box.

A couple of years ago I was doing a survey near Duxford, realised I was going to be all day, tried to ring madam but my mobile battery was dead. Went to the nearest railway station as they always have phones, no, it was vandalised and all the village phone boxes had gone (Affluent Cambridgeshire!!!) In the end I went up to the big service station on the A505. No phone, but I found a couple of lovely coppers in a police car, they didn't know of any local phone boxes either so they let me use their police phone. As far as I know there are only two working phone boxes in Braintree, one at the end of the road and one at the railway station and that's just been cleaned up and painted as well. What's the situation like in Nottingham with regard to working phone boxes.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The only one I ever saw was at Edale in Derbyshire, it was certainly still there in the early 70's as I rang my Mum from it whilst camping on a school trip in a field nearby.

Link to post
Share on other sites

In 1970 I had a holiday in Pitlochry in Scotland. Even then the telephones did not have any dials - you picked up the receiver and waited for the operator to answer and dial the number you wanted at the exchange! This applied in both private houses and in phone boxes - in the latter if you wanted to make an emergency call there was a button to press - as you could not dial 999

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...