What Time Roughly Was The Bedroom Telephone Put In The Kitchen?

[The General]

Why would anyone — a telephone engineer or NB — fix a phone socket smack bag in the middle of a double bed making it hard to get to if it went wrong, or needed unplugging?🙄

All my sockets are, and always have been, in corners of the room by the skirting boards.

Thanks for the info. This is all new to me, extensions, sockets, etc, as it's all before my time.
I was thinking if an engineer didn't do it and it's an extension installed by Nevill perhaps, then he'd stick it equidistant between the two bedside cabinets.
But I bow to your superior knowledge and decades of experience with such arcane communication modes.

[The General]

ALL phones except walkabouts get the dialling tone when lifting the receiver, regardless of them being rotary or button.

How can you not know that?

Including the beige digital phone? No button to press for a tone? Are you sure? Again, I've never used these outmoded phones, so I'm relying on the many years of experience you bring to bear on the details.

[ISpyWithMyEye]

I didn't say the Statesman came in fawn.  I described it as fawn based on Jean B's description.

It is obvious Mr Pike was referring to the cream rotary dial phone, model 706, since this was GPO standard issue from 1959 until the business changed during the early 80's.

The cream version of the Statesman, model 9003R, was first manufactured in 1984 long after the GPO ceased to exist.  Moreover, contrary to CoA's assertion that the only phone at WHF with a recall facility was the cordless phone the Statesman also featured a recall facility.

Telephones 66. There were normally four telephones at White House Farm (although there was only one telephone line). A cream old-fashioned finger-dial telephone kept in the main bedroom (the bedroom telephone), a blue digital telephone in the first floor office (the office telephone), a cream cordless telephone kept in the kitchen but used around and outside the house (the cordless telephone) and a fawn digital telephone also kept in the kitchen (the kitchen telephone). The only telephone with a memory recall feature was the cordless telephone but this had been faulty and was collected for repair on the morning of 5 August 1985.

http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/pushbutton.php.html

You’re twisting it all again 🙄

You did say it was fawn

You don’t know how many years the Bamber’s’ had the Statesman. Considering they also had a walkabout which would've been fairly new, I can’t see why they’d bother to buy a new Statesman too. They ALWAYS had a phone in thta kitchen, and that cream GPO Statesman was the one they used.

The rotary one was, as the housekeeper said, ALWAYS plugged into the master bedroom

[ISpyWithMyEye]

Including the beige digital phone? No button to press for a tone? Are you sure? Again, I've never used these outmoded phones, so I'm relying on the many years of experience you bring to bear on the details.

Are you slow on the uptake?

I’ve already answered

Go to your optician and get a new monocle — you’re eyesight must be playing up

And her an ear horn while you’re at it — you probably have degenerative hearing loss

[APRIL]

Including the beige digital phone? No button to press for a tone? Are you sure? Again, I've never used these outmoded phones, so I'm relying on the many years of experience you bring to bear on the details.

I don't recall any phones having a "button to press for a tone". As far back as operator days, when the phone was lifted from it's cradle, the 'button' was released and an operator answered. When phones became automated, the act of lifting the receiver released the mechanism for a tone.............but I could be wrong.

[The General]

Are you slow on the uptake?

I’ve already answered

Go to your optician and get a new monocle — you’re eyesight must be playing up

And her an ear horn while you’re at it — you probably have degenerative hearing loss

So you don't know then - I get it.
The digital phone hidden under the pile of magazines - last chance - did you have to press a button to get a tone.

[The General]

I don't recall any phones having a "button to press for a tone". As far back as operator days, when the phone was lifted from it's cradle, the 'button' was released and an operator answered. When phones became automated, the act of lifting the receiver released the mechanism for a tone.............but I could be wrong.

Any idea which model was under the magazines? I don't, I'm a thick, misogynist, mute, deaf manual worker

[APRIL]

Any idea which model was under the magazines? I don't, I'm a thick, misogynist, mute, deaf manual worker

I don't, but given the dimensions of a magazine rack, I imagine it to have been a flatter, rather than bulkier model. Sorry I can't offer better.

[Holly Goodhead]

Any idea which model was under the magazines? I don't, I'm a thick, misogynist, mute, deaf manual worker

It seems it was the following:

This cream version of the Statesman is a model 9003 which included a recall button for use on private exchanges. It was manufactured by Plessey at their Beeston factory in Nottinghamshire (EET) in 1984.

http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/pushbutton.php.html

[Myster]

I don't recall any phones having a "button to press for a tone". As far back as operator days, when the phone was lifted from it's cradle, the 'button' was released and an operator answered. When phones became automated, the act of lifting the receiver released the mechanism for a tone.............but I could be wrong.

You're right... when the receiver is lifted off the cradle it releases a spring-loaded button which switches on the tone, such as the square black button on the Statesman below...

[The General]

I don't, but given the dimensions of a magazine rack, I imagine it to have been a flatter, rather than bulkier model. Sorry I can't offer better.

No probs. I think Myster's info looks most useful.
So if there's at least two phones that can keep the line open for a length of time simply by taking the receiver off the cradle, then why would Bamber need to manipulate the rotary phone at all? Why did he have to go to the lengths of ensuring that it was specifically the rotary phone that was found off the hook? Was there a functionality on the other phone (beige digital) in the kitchen that precluded it being able to be left off the hook?

[The General]

It seems it was the following:

This cream version of the Statesman is a model 9003 which included a recall button for use on private exchanges. It was manufactured by Plessey at their Beeston factory in Nottinghamshire (EET) in 1984.

http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/pushbutton.php.html

Interesting, so this one had recall functionality.

[Holly Goodhead]

Interesting, so this one had recall functionality.

Yes it seems so.

I'm trying to recall the difference between recall and redial?

[APRIL]

No probs. I think Myster's info looks most useful.
So if there's at least two phones that can keep the line open for a length of time simply by taking the receiver off the cradle, then why would Bamber need to manipulate the rotary phone at all? Why did he have to go to the lengths of ensuring that it was specifically the rotary phone that was found off the hook? Was there a functionality on the other phone (beige digital) in the kitchen that precluded it being able to be left off the hook?

I think there's nothing more sinister here than personal preference. Allegedly June had a preference for a particular model. I can't tell you where it was kept, but the kitchen would seem the most likely place for it.

[The General]

Yes it seems so.

I'm trying to recall the difference between recall and redial?

It's interesting that the most basic phone was 'off the hook' and last number redial / recall obviously wasn't possible.
In addition, this usually resided elsewhere. That's an awful lot of trouble to go to to ensure the last number couldn't be re-dialled.