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The provision of telephone service was originally under the control of Sectional Engineers who were organised in small groups. As demand grew, larger geographical Telephone Areas were established and the responsibility was transferred to a Telephone Manager. Research suggests that Bradford was the first Telephone Manager's Office (TMO) to be set up in 1936. |
Telephone Areas represented the local face of the business to the public in the form of vehicle fleet logos, telephone directories, sales literature and telephone bills. Over the years the 'corporate identities' have changed considerably, as well as the trading names, departments, divisions and job titles. This page attempts to identify the key dates and changes.
By 1950 there were 56 Telephone Areas, each controlled by a Telephone Manager who was responsible for all telephone service matters within his geographical area. Even then, some work overlapped with that of the Postmaster, such as staffing of switchboards in Post Offices. [Further background research needed.]
In 1954, Bradford TA covered 785 square miles and contained 61 telephone exchanges, with a total staff (including operators) of 1660.
Telephone Manager's Office (TMO)
Under the General Post Office (GPO), the Telephone Manager's Office (TMO) was responsible for all aspects of the Telephone Service. Sales literature invited would-be buyers to contact their local Telephone Manager for further details.
On 1st October 1969, the Post Office became a public corporation. The telecoms part of the business was still very much under Post Office control, but separate divisions of Post Office Telecommunications and Post Office services had their own headquarters, THQ and PHQ.
General Manager's Office (GMO)
When the Post Office HQ split into Postal and Telecommunications, the TMO became the GMO (General Manager's Office) since it was no longer necessary to differentiate between the Telephone and Postal managers as they were now separate businesses. However, as services were provided within a geographical area, the more familiar name of Telephone Area Office (TAO) was often used.
The Post Office Vehicle Club reports...
"The division of regional headquarters was both earlier and progressive. The first to split was London and the last were Scotland and Northern Ireland. I think the bulk of the regions were split in 1966 - certainly the 1965 split of Home Counties Region was to Eastern Region and South Eastern Region. Northern Ireland was effectively still one function well into the 1970s. HQ functions followed - we record the Motor Transport function splitting in 1968 and this meant the F registration blocks were exclusively either Royal Mail or Post Office Telephones." "We believe that the change of title from "TELEPHONE MANAGER" to "GENERAL MANAGER" took place in 1973/4. The 1974 contract year vehicles were delivered without the familiar TELEPHONE MANAGER lettering on the cab doors underneath POST OFFICE TELEPHONES. Earlier vehicles started to lose the lettering but without any consistency."
This is reiterated in telephone directory 'green pages' of the era, with earlier editions suggesting subscribers contact their Telephone Manager for more details. Editions circa 1974 advise contact to be made with the General Manager in the Telephone Area Office (TAO).
Exceptionally, sales leaflets from 1970 onwards refer to Telephone Sales Office. Like so many other reorganisations in the industry, the ideas are formed and preliminary work is carried out. Once the necessary legislation is passed, the complete solution is implemented. And because the organisation is so vast, the changes are often phased in over a period of several years.
Plymouth TAO
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As the demand for Telephone Service continued to increase, the Telephone Areas took on more staff, which in turn required additional accommodation. Some Areas rented floors in adjacent offices, while others took the opportunity to relocate to brand new buildings. These moves may also have been due to the separation of Posts and Telecommunications, as shared facilities were no longer an advantage. |
In the 1970s there were 56 Telephone Areas, 11 in London, 45 throughout the rest of the UK, plus Northern Ireland.
London Telecommunications Regions (LTR)
Telephone Head Quarters (THQ) was in Gresham Street, London.
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Regional Head Quarters (RHQ) in Colchester. Bedford, Cambridge, Norwich, Oxford, Southend.
South Eastern
RHQ in Brighton. Canterbury, Guildford, Portsmouth, Reading, Tunbridge Wells.
South Western
RHQ in Bristol. Bournemouth, Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth, Southampton, Taunton.
Midlands
RHQ in Birmingham. Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Peterborough, Stoke on Trent, West Midland.
Wales & The Marches
RHQ in Cardiff. Chester, Shrewsbury, Swansea.
North Eastern
RHQ in Leeds. Bradford, Lincoln, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sheffield, York.
North Western
RHQ in Manchester. Blackburn, Lancaster, Liverpool, Preston.
Scottish
RHQ in Edinburgh. Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow.
Northern Ireland
RHQ in Belfast.
Area Divisions
A General Manager would be typically be responsible for the following divisions:-
| AF | Finance | MS | Marketing and Sales | |
| EL | Engineering Lines | OCS | Operator and Customer Services | |
| EM | Engineering Maintenance | OP | Operational Planning | |
| EQ | Engineering Equipment | PA | Personnel | |
| ES | Engineering Installations |
British Telecom
In 1981, in preparation for Privatisation, the proper split of Posts and Telecommunications took place. On 1st October 1981, Post Office Telecommunications officially became British Telecom a separate corporation, but with the designation: 'British Telecom-part of the Post Office'.
During this time, sales leaflets advised customers to contact their 'British Telecom Sales Office'. Throughout the 1980s the work of the Telephone Areas was split into Business and Residential groups and the term Customer Service Areas (CSAs) was used as the functions within the offices were no longer managed locally and the use of the term 'Customer' became more prevalent.
After vesting day on 1st April 1984 British Telecom was the trading name for the privatised company British Telecommunications plc - entirely separate from the Post Office.
District Working
British Telecom began to re-organise the old established Areas into much larger Districts which in turn reported to just a few Territorial HQs. Within the District HQs, newly built local Computer Centres or DISUs (District Information Systems Units) were to provide all the computing capacity necessary for the rollout of the 'Front Office' concept, CSS. Historically, mainframe processing had been provided from whichever centre had the capacity, regardless of the geographical location.
Computerisation
Overview
Attempts at computerising the work of the Telephone Service centred around punched cards, keyforms, and batch processing from the early 1950s onwards.
The 1960s saw the development of remote, large mainframe centres, and the roll out of Telecommunications On-Line Data (TOLD) input from the early 1970s. Typically each team had a single terminal for data input.
By the mid-1980s, areas had local mini-computers, like Mechanisation of Order Handling (MOH) and Billing Enquiry System for TAG (BEST) where initially Visual Display Units (VDUs) were shared between two people on a team. The arrival of the Customer Service System (CSS) warranted a screen (dumb terminal) for every officer.
In the 1990s, some managers had 'small business computers' for spreadsheet applications and as Windows 3.1 became popular then team members had access to stand alone Personal Computers (PC) for letter writing.
With the advent of electronic mail (e-mail) everyone was issued with a PC with mainframe emulation for those whose work still required access to 'legacy systems', while new applications were predominantly web-based.
Workstyle 2000
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With accommodation for up to 1000 staff, the Workstyle 2000 buildings were both spacious and pleasant places in which to work. |
Telereal
In the early 2000s, with all of its telephone exchanges using digital switching and with an ever decreasing workforce, BT's vast property portfolio of aging buildings, no longer fit-for-purpose, was ideally placed to be sold off to release much needed capital.
"In December 2001, as part of a wider property outsourcing arrangement, BT completed the sale and leaseback of the majority of its UK properties to Telereal, a joint venture partnership formed by Land Securities Trillium and The William Pears Group. Around 6,700 properties were transferred totalling some 5.5 million square metres." [Quote from BT's Report 2002]
Of the sale, 220 properties were retained in direct ownership. Mondial House, for example was disposed of in 2005 for £51 million.
See also www.telerealtrillium.com/.
Regulations
TIs (Telecommunication Instructions)
Originally known Postal Instructions (PIs) and Engineering Instructions (EIs) these were the rule books and procedural tools for almost any work that needed to be done within the Post Office. For Post Office Telecommunications the Telecommunication Instructions (TIs) encapsulated all of the knowledge in a single set of books.
P18s
These were written discipline warnings and typically might have been issued to telephonists who were late for their duty.
All logos and trade marks are the property of their respective owners and are used on the Light Straw site(s) for review only. Students and researchers are recommended to make their own independent enquiries as to the accuracy of the information contained therein.