The dinosaur dropping through the door …… a lost clue to the past

Now I have to say that I thought the old-fashioned telephone directory had gone the way of the dinosaur, the dodo and the quaint custom of leaving a calling card to announce a future visit.

But not so, because today one such book of BT telephone subscribers dropped through our letter box with a clunk.

Back in the 1960s in Eltham we would receive four covering the whole of Greater London, and as late as the 1980s there would be two through the door for all of Manchester.

And then they stopped, and at much the same time I no longer phoned Directory Enquiries to find a number.

Instead the internet offered up a free and quick alternative, which also helped locate an address or post code, which was most useful when writing Christmas cards.

That said it only works if the person is a BT subscriber, which I suppose is why I longer appear in the newly arrived book or in the online directory.  We switched as part of a bigger switch to another provider over two decades ago.

But it never occurred to me that after 30 years our place in the list of all them wot had telephones would cease to be available to be perused.  At the time the entry read A. R. B. Simpson which I always thought was a tad pretentious but was how Kay thought it should read.

Not that this is a trivial or flippant story because the telephone directory is one of those very vital sources which help trace people from the past.

A Kabbaz, 1911

Of course, it only works from the 19th century and even into the next is limited by the small number of people who had a phone. But the upside is that as the lists were published annually you can track a person across the years, checking for changes to where they lived.

Added to which their appearance in the directory at the very dawn of the telephone, does offer up some interesting clues about their wealth, status, or just a progressive frame of mind.

 The first British book was issued in 1880 by the Telephone Company, and contained 248 names and addresses of individuals and businesses in London and that as they say was just the start.

K A Kabbaz, 1911

All self-respecting local studies centres should have old editions and the entire collection for the whole of the country dating back to 1880 can be accessed online.

So I know that Joe Scott who lived in our house from 1915 when it was built had a phone by the 1920s, while others in Chorlton who I have been following had theirs by 1901.

All of which challenges my title and makes me think I should retract the word dinosaur from the title.

Sadly we will no longer be able to be found.

Pictures; “BT’s 2022-23 Phone Book”, and entries fo the Kabbaz Brothers, 21 Cooper Street, from Manchester, Salford and Suburban Directory, 1911, Part two, page 487, The National Telephone Company, 1901