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

[The General]

Of course there was room, on the shelf below the top one!  That type 746 was referred to in witness statements as being the one normally kept upstairs in the master bedroom, so even if not on the bedside cabinet it was somewhere in that room.

Where was the phone socket? Was it one of these ad hoc extensions?
(Jesus, look at what I've become - I'm wrangling with the finer details of 1980's domestic telecommunications on a Saturday morning, when I could be social distancing outside Aldi for 3 hours)

[Myster]

Again, this is a bit before my time, so could all 3 phones be plugged in and working off one line? So a doubler, then another doubler further down the line?

In short, yes.  But this is limited by the REN or Ring Equivalence Number of each phone...

https://www.britishtelephones.com/ren.htm

[The General]

In short, yes.  But this is limited by the REN or Ring Equivalence Number of each phone...

https://www.britishtelephones.com/ren.htm

OK, so Bamber had to faff about with the phones in advance, because if he entered through the window at 3 in the morning, there's every chance Nevill could reach for the phone if he heard someone downstairs, or heard the dog barking? (but more likely would have just got up and investigated).
I've got a Rob type question - was the phone call to Bamber's house verified as having been made and connected by the exchange?

[Myster]

Where was the phone socket? Was it one of these ad hoc extensions?
(Jesus, look at what I've become - I'm wrangling with the finer details of 1980's domestic telecommunications on a Saturday morning, when I could be social distancing outside Aldi for 3 hours)

No info available on where that was, but my guess is that it was a permanent fixture near the bedhead with its extension lead stapled to the skirting board, from the master kitchen socket and plugged into the doubler.

[Myster]

OK, so Bamber had to faff about with the phones in advance, because if he entered through the window at 3 in the morning, there's every chance Nevill could reach for the phone if he heard someone downstairs, or heard the dog barking? (but more likely would have just got up and investigated).
I've got a Rob type question - was the phone call to Bamber's house verified as having been made and connected by the exchange?

Not sure on that one, because there was no itemised billing at the time. Telephone expert Caroline will have more info on this for certain.

[G-Unit]

No info available on where that was, but my guess is that it was a permanent fixture near the bedhead with its extension lead stapled to the skirting board, from the master kitchen socket and plugged into the doubler.

We set up one extension in the 1980's as we lived in a fairly large house. We bought a double adaptor for the main socket and plugged the downstairs phone in one and an extension lead in the other. That was stapled to the skirting board as you said, and it finished on the first floor landing where the other extension was plugged in.

I couldn't see any wires stapled to the skirtings in WHF, but given the layout another route could have been used.

[The General]

We set up one extension in the 1980's as we lived in a fairly large house. We bought a double adaptor for the main socket and plugged the downstairs phone in one and an extension lead in the other. That was stapled to the skirting board as you said, and it finished on the first floor landing where the other extension was plugged in.

I couldn't see any wires stapled to the skirtings in WHF, but given the layout another route could have been used.

It had to be in proximity - maybe half way between the 2 bedside cabinets, so you could choose where to have it?

[G-Unit]

It had to be in proximity - maybe half way between the 2 bedside cabinets, so you could choose where to have it?

Yes, it just ended in another socket to plug the phone into.

[The General]

Yes, it just ended in another socket to plug the phone into.

So was the rotary phone the only one that could be 'off the hook' just by lifting the receiver from the cradle? The other two you had to press a button?

[Holly Goodhead]

We set up one extension in the 1980's as we lived in a fairly large house. We bought a double adaptor for the main socket and plugged the downstairs phone in one and an extension lead in the other. That was stapled to the skirting board as you said, and it finished on the first floor landing where the other extension was plugged in.

I couldn't see any wires stapled to the skirtings in WHF, but given the layout another route could have been used.

Thinking back to my parents and the GPO issued phone I don't think it was possible to unplug it.  Afaik a wire came in from a telegraph pole which run though a small box made of the same material as the phone and continued running into the phone itself.

Jean B said several points were added in the last year or so.  Maybe the lounge was the original point.  The bedroom point she has on the left of the bed but it I doesn't mean the phone was situated there.

If you look at the layout the main bedroom is above the lounge and drinks cupboard so would probably be easy to wire these up.  The other point was in the upstairs office.  The downstairs office was a recent addition so wonder why a point didn't go in there?

[The General]

Thinking back to my parents and the GPO issued phone I don't think it was possible to unplug it.  Afaik a wire came in from a telegraph pole which run though a small box made of the same material as the phone and continued running into the phone itself.

Jean B said several points were added in the last year or so.  Maybe the lounge was the original point.  The bedroom point she has on the left of the bed but it I doesn't mean the phone was situated there.

If you look at the layout the main bedroom is above the lounge and drinks cupboard so would probably be easy to wire these up.  The other point was in the upstairs office.  The downstairs office was a recent addition so wonder why a point didn't go in there?

One was portable?

[Holly Goodhead]

You still don’t get it, do you?

A double adaptor only accommodates IDENTICAL plugs

Furthermore, they didn’t do FAWN Statesman phones; they did cream ones, which Mr Pike referred to.

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

[ISpyWithMyEye]

Agree on that, because the double adapter or doubler as it was later to be called was manufactured from 1981 to enable the consumer to plug in an extra phone or an extension cord without having to call out an engineer to hardwire one in, as was previously the case. So the push-button Statesman, the rotary-dial type 746, and the broken cordless phone which Pike removed would all plug into a doubler like this one...

Thank you, Myster

[ISpyWithMyEye]

It had to be in proximity - maybe half way between the 2 bedside cabinets, so you could choose where to have it?

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.

[ISpyWithMyEye]

So was the rotary phone the only one that could be 'off the hook' just by lifting the receiver from the cradle? The other two you had to press a button?

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?