The East Anglian Film Archive, the first and largest Regional Film Archive in England, was established in 1976. Since 1984, EAFA has been owned and operated by the University of East Anglia, Norwich (UEA), to support research and work to preserve our moving image heritage. More than 250 hours are freely available online as examples of the wide range of film which attracts interest the world over.
This film is part of Free
Braintree Goes Automatic
The £1m automatic system replaces the manual telephone exchanges. It takes Braintree into the 21st century whilst meeting increased demand.
From the collection of:
Overview
The system goes live on 12th June 1975 and is heralded as a ‘technological space age’ development. The system started in 1899 with only 9 subscribers and demand has steadily increased. In 1975 there are 7000 users. This is the last manual telephone exchange in East Anglia. Planning for systems generally takes 14 years but Braintree’s has only taken nine years to complete. 4000 customers’ phones were tested prior to the changeover. The new system will be modern and fault free.
The film starts with a bird’s eye view of Braintree and the market place. There are scenes of the telephone exchanges including large numbers of female operators. The film shows the transition from the old system to the new system and there is an explanation of how the service has evolved including the introduction of mobile exchanges and a shot of the Three Rivers exchange. The film explains how the modern system will replace these developments. There are shots of male engineers working on the exchanges. Home and office telephones and coin boxes are checked. Behind the scenes work is shown including ‘an army of engineers’ checking the miles of underground cables and moving cables and poles where necessary.