Old 3 digit UK Telephone numbers.

[jess5athome]

Hi, does anyone know when we started and stopped using the 3 digit telephone numbers in the United Kingdom?
I have a small glass milk bottle with the words  "J.E & E. OATES Ltd Thorne Dairies, 3 NE Rd Tel.116"
embossed on the glass and I am trying to find out the age of it.
I believe the dairy ceased production in the 50's or 60's, I thought if I could get a date line for the telephone number 116, then I would have a date for the bottle.

Regards
Frank.

[Flattybasher9]

We had Skene 577 in the early 1980's.

Regards

Malky

[nanny jan]

We had a four figure number in the 1950s in Hayes, Middlesex; can still remember it  HAYes 7328. 

[LizzieW]

Perhaps it depended on the area.  We'd had the modern type of number for years, since at least 1960s I think in the Manchester area, then Derby in the 1970s, Surrey in the 1980s, but when we moved to Wiltshire in 1990, the telephone numbers there had only just changed and the locals still referred to their phone numbers as - "name of village" 123.

Nanny Jan - I can remember our 'phone number in the 1940s (my mum had a shop so was allowed a phone, but it was a party line) the number was ALTrincham 1072, then in the mid 1950s we moved to a house and the number there was RINgway 3080.  Strange I can't remember any other later 'phone numbers apart from where we live now.

[Little Nell]

Have you seen this:

http://www.shopping-advices.com/featured/vintage-milk-bottle-oates-dairies-thorne-near-doncaster.html

Nell

[BumbleB]

1962 telephone directory, on Ancestry, shows the telephone number as Thorne 3116

[jess5athome]

That was quick!! 

Thank you all for your replies, BumbleB I looked on Ancestry but could not find it  so presumably the 116 preceded the 3116, that narrows it down a bit, thank you.

Little Nell, Thank you for the link, can you believe that looks to be the same kind of bottle as the one I have 

Again thanks to all of you for your valued input 

Frank.

[AJ100]

I think it depended whereabouts in the country you lived as to when the numbers changed. Most small towns had their telephone exchanges but as these were amalgamated with bigger ones so the numbers in each town had to have an extra number added to avoid duplication of numbers.
In the corner of Kent where I live the change to four digits seemed to happen in early 1968 but before that the numbers would have been from 1 to 998 (not 999 for obvious reasons) right from the beginning of telephones with operators asking for 'number please?'
This does not help with dating your bottle as it could be any time from early 20th century to the 1960's.
Sorry can't be more help,
Regards

AJ

[BumbleB]

1938 = 116 = Oates, Grocer, Dairy, North Eastern Road (transcribed as G Oates)

1939 = 3116 = Oates, Grocer, Dairy, North Eastern Road (transcribed as G Oates)