Published in Windlesora 03 (1984)
© WLHG
In 1837, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone were responsible for the invention of the electric telegraph. The first line was in 1838 from Paddington to West Drayton, reaching Slough in 1839. It did not reach Windsor until 1849, the reason for the delay being that the route for the lines was intended to follow the proposed extension of the Great Western Railway to Windsor. Readers of Raymond South’s book “Crown, College and Railways” will be aware of the opposition to the railway by Eton College, so that the branch to Windsor did not open until October 8th, 1849.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone of practical use; he visited England and Scotland in 1878 with the hope of developing a demand for his invention, but aroused little public interest. When it was his good fortune to be invited to give a demonstration to Queen Victoria, who became interested and asked to purchase the instrument, Bell, with great acumen, presented Her Majesty with two telephones in ivory.
Royal recognition soon aroused public interest and several telephone companies were formed; in 1879 the first telephone exchange was opened in London with eight subscribers. In 1880 the British courts held that a telegraph system was a government monopoly under the Postmaster General, so licences were issued on a royalty basis.
The National Telephone Company became responsible for the installation of telephones in the Thames Valley. In May 1894, Windsor had its first telephone directory, with just five subscribers:
- Rodgers and Denyers – Silk Mercer – High Street – Windsor
- Caley & Son – High Street – Windsor
- Willis & Son – Cycle Manufacturers – 124 High Street – Eton
- Brooks & Son – Stores – Peascod Street – Windsor
- CALL ROOM (Toomer & Son – High Street – Windsor)
A Call Room enabled the public to make calls, but at double the rate for subscribers, to whom a call within a radius of 25 miles would cost 3d. The Company’s Exchanges, except in some few exceptions at outlying centres, were kept continuously open day and night, including Sundays.
The instructions given in the directory for an outbreak of fire were “In case of FIRE call for FIRE BRIGADE. No number required.“
Opened in 1891, the Windsor telephone exchange was in Datchet Road, and part of the old premises is now occupied by D & M Dennis, Newsagent and Confectioner, one of whose upper rooms housed the batteries.
When on January 1st, 1912, the Post Office acquired all private telephone properties, many of the N.T.C men continued their employment with the Post Office. The Exchange continued in Datchet Road until 1922, when it was transferred to its present site on Batchelors Acre.
A relic of the commencement of the local telephone system can be seen on the frontage of No. 45 High Street, Eton. This consists of two National Telephone Company Insulators, one white, the other black. From the latter hangs some two feet of 70 lb. copper wire, so called because it was Insulators on a wire that weighed 70 lbs. to one mile.
Fred Fuzzens
Windsor Local History Group 