The National Telephone Company (NTC) was a

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telephone company from 1881 until 1911 which brought together smaller local companies in the early years of the telephone. Under the

Telephone Transfer Act 1911 The Telephone Transfer Act 1911 was a United Kingdom statute, which nationalised the telephone companies. The National Telephone Company had become a monopoly and so the Liberal government decided to take it into public hands. See also * UK ent ...

it was taken over by the General Post Office (GPO) in 1912.

History

Three years after the first telephone company, The Telephone Company (Bells Patents) Ltd, appeared in

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(in fact it was the first in Europe), the National Telephone Company was formed on 10 March 1881, as a provincial subsidiary of the United Telephone Company Limited (UTC). The NTC was initially formed to develop and operate telephone services in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Ulster and parts of Scotland, taking over UTC operations in those places. The UTC developed other similar provincial companies throughout the British Isles between 1881 and 1885. The UTC then wished to create a new company for the amalgamation of all their associated companies. However, the government declined to issue the proposed new company with a licence to operate or to allow the transfer of an existing licence. The UTC then decided to use one of its provincial companies as a vehicle for their policy of amalgamation, starting in 1889 with the merger of the UTC with the Lancashire and Cheshire Telephone Company and the NTC. The 'National Telephone Company Limited' name being retained. In 1886 it built an ornate red brick and

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building 19, Newhall Street, now

grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

, for its Birmingham Central exchange, opened in 1887. In 1899 it commissioned Telephone House in London's Temple Lane. The building still bears the company's NT logo and some cherubs holding what appear to be old style telephone handsets. The amalgamation policy continued; in 1890 the NTC absorbed the Northern District Telephone Company and the South of England Telephone Company, in 1892 the Western Counties and South Wales Company and the Sheffield Telephone Exchange and Electric Light Company and in 1893 the Telephone Company of Ireland Limited. Throughout this period the NTC also took over smaller telephone companies. With the policy of amalgamation, the NTC, under the direction of William E L Gaine as general manager and Dane Sinclair as engineer in chief, set about creating a uniform organisation over eight districts; Metropolitan, Southern, Western, Midland, North-Western, Northern, Scotland and Ireland. Following the Telegraph Acts of 1892 and 1896, NTC trunk lines were acquired and transferred to the Post Office between 1896 and 1897. In 1901, the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

and the NTC signed an agreement to prevent unnecessary duplication of plant and wasteful competition in

. In 1905, the Postmaster General and the NTC signed a further agreement for the purchase of the NTC's system on the expiry of its licence on 31 December 1911, an option for the Post Office that formed a part of the original licence agreement of 1881. On 31 December 1911 the NTC ceased to formally trade. The Postmaster General took over the NTC and its telephone systems and the NTC passed into liquidation. National Telephone Company Ltd

The National Telephone Company also issued stamps in various values to enable the public to pre pay for telephone calls made from company premises. National Telephone Company Telegraph Pole from 1908

National Telephone Company Telegraph Pole from 1908

National Telephone Company Telegraph Pole Markings from 1908

Historical documents

* Records of the National Telephone Company (51 boxes, 8 volumes), c.1880s–c.1946 are held by

BT Archives The BT Archives is an archive preserving the documentary heritage of the British telecoms company BT and its public sector predecessors. It is designated an official place of deposit for Public Records, for those records created prior to BT's p ...

Sources

* ''Hold the Line Please - The Story of the Hello Girls'', Sally Southall, * Records of the National Telephone Company, BT Archives (reference TPF)

External links

BT Archives official site

BT Archives online catalogue

{{Telecommunications British companies established in 1881 Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Archives in the London Borough of Camden Business and industry archives Alexander Graham Bell British companies disestablished in 1911 Telecommunications companies established in 1881 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 1911 1881 establishments in England 1911 disestablishments in England