wigan telephone exchange

telephone exchange dorning st. anyone out there who worked there between 1961 - 1968

I did.

It was more than a telephone exchange.

It was Wigan Group Switching Centre:
Automatic (Strowger) Tel Exchange
Manual Switchboards
Test Desk
Repeater Station
etc etc

The Ass Executive Engineer in charge was Harry Ridgeway, from Violet ST. A-in-M.

Higher Technical Officer in charge of the Test Desk was Joe Unsworth.

Names of the T.O.s who worked the test Desk are on the tip of my tounge, I'll add them if they come to me. (Arthur Ashhurst ?) (Rowland ...??)

I only worked there very briefly in 1965, to do my Test Desk Training. It was a pleasant, if too hot, place to work: I remember being taken out for lunch at the Grand on my first day. Very nice!

One peculiarity, which always stuck in my mind, was the canteen, upstairs, where the men all clung to one side, and the women to the other. Never saw that anywhere else.

I was a telephonist 1961 -1968, I married a telephone engineer,you are right about the canteen or kitchen upstairs.When I first started after I'd finished my training I was sent down to the test desk for a long stand!! being a naive little thing I did as I was told,then sent out for some sky hooks and hen party hens, the girls I worked with were a great bunch we had ball best working years of my life,still friends with some of the telephonist I worked with happy days

Hello Marky am I allowed to ask who you married? I was a telephone engineer from Aug.1966 to March 1995 I seem to have lost contact with everyone I knew from those years.

Hello John Partington, I am married to Frank Berry you will probably know him.John Pennington,Norman Connor,Ian Mawdesley,Dave Smith,Joe Healy to name but a few good old days

What about Dick Derbyshire,Arthur Brinkman,Alan Thomas,Cliff Rylance,Roy Smith,Les Kelly,John Cross,Joe Higham,and I also remember Pat Doherty who worked there,lovely girl

Anyone remember Carole?

was that carol barrow? she married Dave Rudd.
anyone remember anyone else?

Also meant to say i remember the canteen to, and staff going to the pub on fridays, good no.... great bunch of people when I worked there. which was much later. 1990

Walking down Dorning Street one day going back to work and on the pavement outside the Grand there was a half crown. Tried to pick it up to howls of laughter. The lads in the telephone exchange opposite had welded a nail to it and pushed it in the ground between the paving flags. Very funny, and no I didn't get it out.

Thanks Marky/Fossil A giant leap into nostalgia, all those names from the past,I never get to see any of them now what if we called a reunion? we could discuss it Bill over apint (or two) it would be very nice to renew old times not the same now that we are digital. by the way I think Pat rather fancied a lad from H/Ince Bill summut. Best wishes to all J.P.