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Old 19th Mar 2020, 12:30 pm   #1
met24fly
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Location: Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK.
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Default Local dialling codes in Leatherhead / Ashtead area

Hi all,

Purely for nostalgia, I wonder if anybody here might happen to have lists of the local dialling codes in the Leatherhead / Ashtead (Surrey) area in the early to mid 80s? I lived in Ashtead when I was growing up and went to school in Leatherhead, at the time Ashtead numbers were 5 digits and if I remember correctly, I had to dial a 5 from the school payphone before dialling home. (037 22 7xxxx as it was formatted at the time.)

I remember not knowing why it was a 5 when the last digit of the "STD code" for Ashtead was 2, and I think as well that the number to reach Leatherhead from Ashtead wasn't 3 but something else. I also remember being at my mother's office in Haywards Heath one day and dialling 5 7xxxx and not understanding why it didn't work. Youth, eh!

I can't remember exactly when the STD code / local number boundary was moved to left and Ashtead numbers became 6 digits starting 2, but my father still answers the phone with the old 5 digit number.

So if any of you kind folk happen to have those local lists from the Ashtead and/or Leatherhead exchanges (and maybe even Esher, which I understand was the parent) that'd be much appreciated.

I bought some repaired GPO phones a couple of years back, my 746 has seen more use as a stage prop than an actual telephone unfortunately. I did have a Sangoma card for a while but never used it that much and could never get the FXO board to talk nicely to a BT landline. Have just bought a Grandstream HT802 though which can cope with mechanical pulse dialling so the 746 might see some more use in the future. Must teach my 4 year old about proper telephone dials!

Many thanks!

Martin
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Old 19th Mar 2020, 1:09 pm   #2
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Local dialling codes in Leatherhead / Ashtead area

I assume that your initial "5" was to make a call external to the school's private branch exchange (PBX). A "9" was more common for this purpose, but maybe the particular equipment at the school used "5".

Now that you have a Grandstream HT802, you could get your 746 connected to CNet, though there's no real reason not to plug it into the national network. Most providers still support loop disconnect (pulse) dialling, but if yours doesn't, you could buy a dialgizmo to connect between your 'phone and the line.
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Old 19th Mar 2020, 1:43 pm   #3
met24fly
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Default Re: Local dialling codes in Leatherhead / Ashtead area

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply. It was a payphone which I believe went straight onto BT. I remember dialling the operator at least once and (digging through long term memory here) I think it was just 100, I don't think I needed to dial any prefix to get an exchange line.

The school's main number was definitely a Leatherhead number (3something) and it was definitely only a single digit that I had to dial before my parents' number.

CNet -- yes, I'm tempted to do that. As for the 746, the house I'm in right now has FTTP (lovely) -- the ONT has the two PSTN ports but I had BT wake the "proper" line up and that does indeed support pulse. Plus it's exchange powered, just in case the power goes out and the UPS powering the ONT fails and all that! I think I tried the ONT's port when that was active but it didn't do pulse, not that surprising.

Memories coming back of ISDN into the first house I rented (BT took ages to fit ADSL on the Somersham exchange) and dodgy overhead power cables near trees that guaranteed a couple of seconds outage pretty much every week in the winter. Gosh, that's 20 years ago, and linked number schemes (that would have been what moved Ashtead onto 6 digit numbers, I presume) were only 15 years or less before that. Blimey.
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Old 20th Mar 2020, 10:46 pm   #4
Pellseinydd
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Default Re: Local dialling codes in Leatherhead / Ashtead area

Quote:
Originally Posted by met24fly View Post
Hi all,

Purely for nostalgia, I wonder if anybody here might happen to have lists of the local dialling codes in the Leatherhead / Ashtead (Surrey) area in the early to mid 80s? I lived in Ashtead when I was growing up and went to school in Leatherhead, at the time Ashtead numbers were 5 digits and if I remember correctly, I had to dial a 5 from the school payphone before dialling home. (037 22 7xxxx as it was formatted at the time.)

I remember not knowing why it was a 5 when the last digit of the "STD code" for Ashtead was 2, and I think as well that the number to reach Leatherhead from Ashtead wasn't 3 but something else. I also remember being at my mother's office in Haywards Heath one day and dialling 5 7xxxx and not understanding why it didn't work. Youth, eh!

I can't remember exactly when the STD code / local number boundary was moved to left and Ashtead numbers became 6 digits starting 2, but my father still answers the phone with the old 5 digit number.

So if any of you kind folk happen to have those local lists from the Ashtead and/or Leatherhead exchanges (and maybe even Esher, which I understand was the parent) that'd be much appreciated.

I bought some repaired GPO phones a couple of years back, my 746 has seen more use as a stage prop than an actual telephone unfortunately. I did have a Sangoma card for a while but never used it that much and could never get the FXO board to talk nicely to a BT landline. Have just bought a Grandstream HT802 though which can cope with mechanical pulse dialling so the 746 might see some more use in the future. Must teach my 4 year old about proper telephone dials!

Many thanks!

Martin
Ashstead, Esher and Leatherhead were all in the 'charge group' with Esher as the 'Group Switching Centre' The charge group was allocated the STD code 0ES2 which was in use to reach Esher only by 1962. Esher was a Non-Director exchange with four digit numbers in the range 2xxx to 5xxx .

0ES2 was also listed as the local code at that time from exchanges in the local charge area.

Leatherhead was 'Non-Director' exchanges but up until late 1965, Ashstead was still a manual exchange - a large CB10. By early 1966 it had become a Non-Director auto with four digit numbers in the range 2xxx-5xxx.

Exchanges parented on Esher would dial '9' to reach the GSC. In late 1963, the numbers on Esher were converted to five digit numbers by prefixing the existing range with a '6' to give 6[2-5]xxx. This threw levels 2 to 5 free at Esher and '2' was then allocated as the code for Ashstead and '3' as the code for Leatherhead. As soon as Ashstead went 'auto' its STD code 0372 2 could appear in codebooks and Leatherhead as 0372 3. At this time they could dial 92 from Ashstead to Leatherhead and 93 in the reverse direction. However as the distance between the exchange at Ashstead and Leatherhead was only about a mile, I'm sure there would have been a local code between them as the amount of traffic would have justified it. Plus the cable route from Ahstead to Esher was probably via Leatherhead?

Then in about 1970 the four difit Ashstead numbers were prefixed by '7' to become five digit numbers with Leatherhead following in around 1971(by 1972) - also prefixed with a '7'.

In late 1981 Leatherhead went 'digital' as a TXE4 and became part of the 0372 Linked Numbering Scheme by prefixing the existing five digit numbers with a '3' (i.e. the last digit of the previous Leatherhead STD code which meant long distance caller still dialled 0372 37xxxx !) In late 1986, Ashstead - whilst still a Non-Director - was also moved into the 0372 LNS by moving the second '2' of the STD code to become the first digit of the six digit number i.e, 27xxxx.

CNet is set up with the first STD codes and Esher with 6xxxx numbers and Ashstead/Leatherhead with 7xxxx numbers.

Leatherhad had a direct route from Weybridge - 81 from Weybridge but I don't know the code from Leatherhead. Ashstead also had a direct route from Weybridge when Ashstead was still manual probably carried on ito 'auto' days but no evidence as yet.

London Director Area exchanges had the following Local codes -
Esher (four digit numbers) ES 6
Esher (five digit numbers) 70 later 78
Ashstead (four digit numbers) 298
Ashstead (five digit number) 27
Leatherhead (four digit numbers) 537
Leatherhead (five digit numbers) 53
Leatherhead (six digit numbers) 0372

All info from old STD codebooks. May have more on earlier dialling code cards but that would be before the period of your interest.

Ian J
CNet 0352 2979
MR ETD 053-6278
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