This page is currently being edited... more information and 'tidying up' to come.
Most of Dad's, Rowland Bott, career was spent working in Stoke-on-Trent for the
PO, later GPO, later BT
At age 19, following his education, apprenticeship and the beginnings of his working life at 14, he began work at the 'Post Office Engineering Department' on 6th September 1937. He remained with the organisation, under its various guises, for the rest of his working life.
Click
Rowland Bott (1918-1993) for the earlier part of his story.
Usually known as Roly Bott at work, he worked his way up from the bottom to eventually be responsible for the telephone exchanges in the City of Stoke-on-Trent.*
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| Appointment Letter 1937 |
So, back to the beginnings of his telecommunications career and you can see his appointment letter above. The black and white photo below is of the
now listed, but defunct, 'Telephone Buildings' (later known as Trinity Telephone Exchange) in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
This is the 'Telephone Exchange' mentioned in the appointment letter. It was usually referred to simply as Trinity by those who worked there. In the early 1950s a new single storey exchange was built around the corner as an expansion of Trinity. This was the Vale Exchange simply known as the Vale (photo further down the page).
The brick and terracotta Art Nouveau telephone exchange was eventually obsolete. I saw the interior of the switchboard room before it was stripped out. I remember a lot of polished mahogany! The exchanges were always scrupulously clean. The desk for the 'all-powerful' switchboard Supervisor was on an imposing raised platform.
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| Mahogany clock, Trinity Telephone Exchange |
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| Grade I Telephony 'Second Class' 1938 |
The beginnings of a career in telecommunications can be seen in the first of his certificates in Telephony awarded in 1938 following study at the City School of Commerce (Evening Department) Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
Below are further certificates which track his learning.
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| Grade I Technical Electricity 1938 |
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| Grade I Telephony 'First Class' 1939 |
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| Grade I Telegraphy 'Second Class' 1940 |
In the
1939 Register he is listed as still living at the family home in Woodside Villas, Longton with his parents and sister Edith.
He is described as a 'Telecommunications Instrument Adjuster' and as serving with 'A.F.S. (Hanley PO Tele)' - A.F.S is the
Auxiliary Fire Service.
I don't know how he studied and did exams while serving in the army during World War II. You can see on my pages:
Egypt,
Palestine and
Home Guard that I don't know exactly the timeline of his service and locations.
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| Grade I Telegraphy 'First Class' 1941 |
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| Grade II Telephony 'Second Class' 1945 |
In 2017, David Hay, former Curator at
BT Archives, tweeted a photo of 'The Apparatus Room, New Telephone Exchange, Stoke-on-Trent' (above). This is Vale Exchange, Clough St, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. It was an extension to the Art Nouveau Trinity Exchange nearby.
Interested in BT history and following David Hay on Twitter I was absolutely astonished when I saw this randomly chosen photo... and recognised Dad, featured in the image! Here he is, after his time away in World War II, back in England and back in the job he loved, now aged 35.
Later he was responsible for looking after this and the other 6 exchanges in Stoke-on-Trent. I remember visiting various exchanges with him as a child in the 1960s and 1970s and loving the whirr and click of the equipment as calls came in, as well as the evocative smell of the wax polished floors in the scrupulously clean buildings.
In the photo above of Vale exchange you can see a bottle oven on the left. Once part of the familiar skyline of The Potteries you can find out more about bottle ovens by clicking
HERE>. In the background, between the bottle oven and the tall building, (right) you can see Trinity Exchange identified by its turrets and rectangular, roofed skylight.
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| Mathematics for Telecommunications I 1959 |
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| Mathematics for Telecommunication A 1960 |
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| Telecommunication Principles 1960 |
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| Trinity Exchange with new 1970s exchange behind |
In the above image you can see the replacement pale grey telephone exchange towering behind the brick and terracotta Trinity. It dates I believe from sometime in the early 1970s, definitely in existence by 1974. It operated alongside and then replaced the Art Nouveau building which eventually became obsolete.
Dad retired somewhere around 1979/1980. I was working briefly as a telephonist (tripling my usual museum wage!).I was given permission to attend his leaving do. However he said there wouldn't be a fuss, not many would go, it wasn't worth it.
Later I learnt that there had been a huge attendance from his staff and colleagues, old and new. Loads of gifts to him and to my mother were presented. Speeches were made. He was respected by his colleagues and staff. They presented him with mementos and fun items. Apparently there was another side to him as someone who took part in daft entertainment. Who knew? There was even mention of tutus! I think now that I should have gone but did as he suggested and didn't.
He was shy, modest, dedicated to his job, meticulous, a stickler for the rules but fair to his staff, well-respected... and also quite complicated. If ever I met a BT engineer over the year, perhaps repairing a line or our phone in the house I shyly asked if maybe they knew Roly Bott. They always did and the yes was usually accompanied by a smile.
OLD PHONE EQUIPMENT
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| Old Phone c1924 |
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| GPO Relay Switch probably mid-20th C |
*The City of Stoke-on-Trent, once a group of small villages, later towns, became famous for its manufacture of ceramics and was known as The Potteries. The city comprises 6 towns - Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.
Each town had its own telephone exchange. The main town Hanley grew rapidly and had 2 exchanges - Trinity and Vale. That meant eventually 7 exchanges in one city! Around the late 1960s (from memory) Dad told me that Longton was the fastest growing telephone exchange in the country. I think he was rather proud of that statistic.
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Thanks/Acknowledgements:
BT Digital Archives - this link goes to the BT Archives which has lots of really useful stuff including information sheets and digital archives database and some photographs.
