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STD Code for Sheffield


Henry Pond

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Over on the Sheffield forum, there's a thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=511369) about STD codes, and some dissent about whether there was an interim 01742 between 0742 and 0114.

Now I have a vague recollection about the interim form existing, but my memory isn't brilliant at the best of times. I've googled, and the evidence is inconclusive.

Anyone able to be definitive - that poor memory leads me to believe there are some telephone engineers around here.

Henry

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Over on the Sheffield forum, there's a thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=511369) about STD codes, and some dissent about whether there was an interim 01742 between 0742 and 0114.

Now I have a vague recollection about the interim form existing, but my memory isn't brilliant at the best of times. I've googled, and the evidence is inconclusive.

Anyone able to be definitive - that poor memory leads me to believe there are some telephone engineers around here.

Henry

Hi Henry

I have a similar problem ie Poor memory, however I am an Ex Post Office/BT Engineer.

As far as my little grey cells can remember it was 16/4/1995 when BT changed all the codes by prefixing them by 1, Sheffield became 0114 at the same time (Leeds 0113 etc).

Prior to change over day both new and old codes ran together for some time eg 0302 and 01302 for Doncaster etc, now this is where I am not to sure if 01742 was used at that time.

Further investigation needed

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Hi Henry

I have a similar problem ie Poor memory, however I am an Ex Post Office/BT Engineer.

As far as my little grey cells can remember it was 16/4/1995 when BT changed all the codes by prefixing them by 1, Sheffield became 0114 at the same time (Leeds 0113 etc).

Prior to change over day both new and old codes ran together for some time eg 0302 and 01302 for Doncaster etc, now this is where I am not to sure if 01742 was used at that time.

Further investigation needed

Had a think and a swift cuppa, no it never was 01742.

On this topic there was a 0741 Sheffield code until recently (1980's) anybody remember that

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Can anyone settle an argument please?

Sheffield dialling code used to be 0742

It is now 0114, but was there another code in between those two of 01742?

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NO, some cities had a second change as they were running short of numbers but Sheffield wasn't one of them. We went from 0742 to 0114 with numbers starting with 2. We have just had a new set of numbers released starting with 3.

The old code (0742) was originally assigned based on two letters of the respective place's name and the corresponding numbers on a telephone dial. Not sure what the 0 and 2 signified but the 74 were the keys that were assigned the letter S and H for SHeffield.

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Thanks, that seems to settle it once and for all.

Except ...

(It's like picking at a scab, you know you shouldn't,but can't stop yourself)

Googling "01742 sheffield" provides a rather large number of hits. What does the team think about these exhibits containing 01742 references (and appearing to be from the early to mid 90's)? ...

http://www.aof.mod.uk/aofcontent/tactical/...123BA_06-92.pdf

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgccz/Articles/practical0595.pdf

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file11274.pdf

http://www.foaotmad.org.uk/resources/OTN06.pdf

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/ihr/ih031.pdf

This one appears to be a 'scrape' of other - not terribly reliable - sources, but of passing interest to the transport people for mentioing what I presume are older coach companies

http://www.go-by-coach.co.uk/york01.php

As an aside - it's rather obvious that lots of material is just transferred from list to list over the years and never checked. There are fairly recent contact lists for dog breeders, and "Petrol Filling Stations – List of Contractors" (from the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service) still listing 01742! Virtual prize for the most recent offical document with a non-existant SD code?

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Except ...

(It's like picking at a scab, you know you shouldn't,but can't stop yourself)

Googling "01742 sheffield" provides a rather large number of hits. What does the team think about these exhibits containing 01742 references (and appearing to be from the early to mid 90's)? ...

http://www.aof.mod.uk/aofcontent/tactical/...123BA_06-92.pdf

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgccz/Articles/practical0595.pdf

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file11274.pdf

http://www.foaotmad.org.uk/resources/OTN06.pdf

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/ihr/ih031.pdf

This one appears to be a 'scrape' of other - not terribly reliable - sources, but of passing interest to the transport people for mentioing what I presume are older coach companies

http://www.go-by-coach.co.uk/york01.php

As an aside - it's rather obvious that lots of material is just transferred from list to list over the years and never checked. There are fairly recent contact lists for dog breeders, and "Petrol Filling Stations �" List of Contractors" (from the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service) still listing 01742! Virtual prize for the most recent offical document with a non-existant SD code?

I think a lot of people and organisations just assumed that the same rule would apply ie prefix the existing code with a 1, at the time 0742 to 0114 was quite a radical change.

The only other major change at the time had been the change from 01 in London to 071 & 081. These have since changed again.

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I think a lot of people and organisations just assumed that the same rule would apply ie prefix the existing code with a 1, at the time 0742 to 0114 was quite a radical change.

The only other major change at the time had been the change from 01 in London to 071 & 081. These have since changed again.

Are you going to change your name to the mysterious Stuart01742 ?

Leave it as the good old Stuart0742 ?

Or go ultra modern as Stuart0114 ?

lol

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NO, some cities had a second change as they were running short of numbers but Sheffield wasn't one of them. We went from 0742 to 0114 with numbers starting with 2. We have just had a new set of numbers released starting with 3.

The old code (0742) was originally assigned based on two letters of the respective place's name and the corresponding numbers on a telephone dial. Not sure what the 0 and 2 signified but the 74 were the keys that were assigned the letter S and H for SHeffield.

Mike the "0" was purely an access code that that routed the call to the STD exchange. In old analogue telephone switching it was what we called a step by step system, each digit you dialled did something. So lets say you were sat at home in Broomhill and you dialled 0 on your telephone this would route your call from the local exchange (Peel St) into the main exchange in Sheffield.

As for the 2 in 0742, as you say the 74 represented the SH in Sheffield, right now we have a problem Shrewsbury is also SH ie 74 so to differentiate between Sheffield and Shrewsbury we had 0742 and 0743. With a few exceptions all codes were fixed at 3 digits in 1960's when STD was introduced. In theory you had a 1000 different codes, obviously not all were used. During the 60's, 70's and early 80's this was sufficient.

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I think a lot of people and organisations just assumed that the same rule would apply ie prefix the existing code with a 1, at the time 0742 to 0114 was quite a radical change.

The only other major change at the time had been the change from 01 in London to 071 & 081. These have since changed again.

I expect you're right, but it's sobering (or perhaps to be expected) that not even the govenment could get it right - the HSE helpline was published as 01742 all over the place (i have too much google time on my hands) , including the dti leaflet I pointed to, dated may 1995, so after the change had actually happened.

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Mike the "0" was purely an access code that that routed the call to the STD exchange. In old analogue telephone switching it was what we called a step by step system, each digit you dialled did something. So lets say you were sat at home in Broomhill and you dialled 0 on your telephone this would route your call from the local exchange (Peel St) into the main exchange in Sheffield.

As for the 2 in 0742, as you say the 74 represented the SH in Sheffield, right now we have a problem Shrewsbury is also SH ie 74 so to differentiate between Sheffield and Shrewsbury we had 0742 and 0743. With a few exceptions all codes were fixed at 3 digits in 1960's when STD was introduced. In theory you had a 1000 different codes, obviously not all were used. During the 60's, 70's and early 80's this was sufficient.

Thanks for that Stuart, you never know when stuff like that might come in useful in a pub quiz.
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Thanks for that Stuart, you never know when stuff like that might come in useful in a pub quiz.

I should try and record some of this BT history stuff before I forget it <_<

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Thanks for that Stuart, you never know when stuff like that might come in useful in a pub quiz.

We NEARLY won the pub quiz in the Foxwood on Wednesday night.

Needed only 2 more points to win outright.

One of the answers we knew we failed to write on the sheet, 1 down which would have forced a tiebreaker.

Other question we had down to 2 possibilities and chose the wrong one, although the other one was right, 2 down and blown it!

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Reviving this topic for a specific reason: someone on a (completely different) forum has asked when the 0742 STD code came in. Now, I have discovered that the very first STD codes were introduced as early as 1958, and that the very last oned didn't arrive until 1997; but when did Sheffielders get theirs?

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.As a lad starting out on life in an office I vaguely remember having to dial something like OSH2....Is that so or is my memory fading?

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STD was first made available in Sheffield in late October or early November 1966 with the opening of the new exchange on Charter Row. The STD availability was rolled out to the rest of the Sheffield exchanges over the course of the next few years. The last one was Woodseats in 1970. 0SH2 was indeed the Sheffield code initially but those sort of alphanumeric codes fell out of favour shortly afterwards. 

I don't think there was an interim code of 01742.

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Do you know if Millhouses was served by the Woodseats exchange?  Failing that, do you know when Millhouses (Sheffield 361xxx) went onto STD?  We moved back to Sheffield in 1965 and left again in 1971 by which time we were on STD.

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36xxxx numbers were/ are on Beauchief exchange. Beauchief was mixed Siemens 16 & "standard" equipment up until about September 1967 when the lines on the Siemens 16 part of the exchange were transferred to the extension to the "standard" exchange. Hope this makes some kind of sense!

Siemens 16 was an old & obsolete system that was incompatible with the metering used on STD calls.

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