By Steve Turner
Lindfield switchboard’s ‘Hello girls’ sporting breast plate mouth pieces (1940s)
When you walk past the Limes Thai Kitchen at 67 High Street (or if you’re really lucky, and actually get to eat in there!) have a look around and see if you can spot anything of the building’s past history. It’s unlikely that you would ever guess that you are sitting in what was once Lindfield’s telephone exchange!
Opened by the GPO on Monday 18th March 1907, it was unusual for the exchange to be in a (then) private house, while for the rival NTC (National Telephone Company) this was the norm.
The GPO (or General Post Office), normally opened its exchanges in the local Post Office, so perhaps, as with Cuckfield, there was insufficient space. The single storey building on the corner of Lewes Road, that until relatively recently was the Post Office, simply didn’t exist, the PO being housed in a small two storey building to the left.
Haywards Heath exchange had opened five years previously, so Lindfield was keen to be connected to the world. It was customary to test the water and the local population would have been canvassed as to whether they would take up the service if offered. The GPO estimated that the cost of opening an exchange in Lindfield would be £385, ten people immediately signed up and the wheels were set in motion.
To place all the new lines underground would be very expensive (as it continues to be now), so in 1907 the new network was all overhead on poles and thin open copper wires on ceramic insulators. Look at any old photo of times gone by and the telephone poles are a dominant feature.
With the equipment and batteries downstairs, the switchboard was in an upstairs room overlooking the High Street and was a small single position. An operator would connect calls on request by plugging cords into circuits, and record the charge on manual dockets. Local calls were charged at 1d for unlimited duration – a trunk call to London in 1912 was three minutes for 3d. The annual line rental was £4.
Pick up a copy of May’s Lindfield Life magazine to learn about the original, local operators, how 999 calls still had to be through the board and so much more about Lindfield’s journey into the modern world.
Steve Turner also adds, “If you have enjoyed this and want more, I have written an 80 page book on the history of the Cuckfield and Haywards Heath exchanges – selling at a non-profit making £10 and hand delivered locally. You can arrange for one by email to: steve.c.turner60@gmail.com.”