Looking Back: St Helens and 150 years of telephone history

The annual celebration has added significance this year, as 2026 is the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell making the first telephone call.

It took until 1877 for news of his invention to filter through to this country and initially there was some scepticism.

Writing on April 21, 1877, the Liverpool Mail newspaper wondered whether the claims being made for this communication revolution were genuine, saying: "Is all that we hear about this ‘telephone’ true, or is the whole thing a hoax?"

Probably St Helens' greatest claim to the development of the telephone is that a local man chose the 999 emergency number.

That was St Helens-born Tom Fallon, who in 1919 joined the Metropolitan Police and rose to the rank of Chief Superintendent.

He was given the police number 999K and later, when brought to Scotland Yard to organise their emergency and information systems, Tom picked his own number for the emergency services.

These days when high-quality audio and video calls can be made for free on online platforms and via traditional telephones at little or no cost, telecommunications can be taken for granted.

But it was not so five decades ago in St Helens when the landline boom was underway.

You couldn’t get a telephone for love or money, as Pat Stoneking learned to her cost in August 1970.

The 18-year-old was the newly crowned St Helens Show Queen and was expecting to have a well-filled diary of social engagements during the coming year.

So she applied to the GPO for a telephone and was shocked to learn that 1,000 people were ahead of her in the queue!

Pat was told it would take twelve months for a phone to be installed in her Prescot Road home.

The 1970s was still a time when being able to talk to someone in a foreign country held a certain excitement.

Making such long-distance calls was expensive and so they tended to be kept brief.

And receiving an international phone call could even make the news!

In January 1970 the St Helens Reporter considered Kenneth Mousdell's New Year greeting to his Mum and Dad in St Helens from his home in Australia worthy of a splash on their front page.

The paper included two photos in their piece, which described how Fred and Bertha Mousdell had received the 5-minute call inside the Parr Labour Club in Park Road.

Then in April 1970, Anne Derbyshire's two birthday calls from her son and daughter-in-law in Australia became another big Reporter piece.

The 55-year-old from Pennine Drive in Parr had not seen the couple for eight years and described being able to talk to them as "the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."

And so appreciating the importance of such calls – especially at Christmastime – the Reporter in December 1972 teamed up with Helena House to hold a special contest.

The winner was allowed to make a free Christmas telephone call to a loved one anywhere in the world.

Alan Whalley, the Star's long-time wordsmith, was then employed by the Reporter and on December 8, 1970, his 'Whalley's World' column described the "big-hearted scheme."

To be in with a chance of winning, elderly readers had to write a letter explaining why they would like to make an overseas call at Christmas.

Already some entries had arrived at the Reporter offices, "all of them absorbing, some of them really touching", wrote Alan.

On December 22, 1972, under the headline "A Winning Call That Spells Pure Joy", the Reporter announced that Charlotte Furlong of College Street was the winner and the 70-year-old widow had already made her brief call to relatives in America.

"It has made my Christmas complete", declared Mrs Furlong.

But although Alexander Graham Bell's invention has proved a boon, we all know how it can also be a damned nuisance!

And for those manning the phones at Pilkington's security office in St Helens, those times arose on Saturday mornings from October 1976.

Then, Noel Edmonds' hugely-popular Multi-Coloured Swap Shop began its first 3-hour run on BBC1 and Pilks' office was plagued with phone calls from St Helens children offering them toys and games.

The youngsters thought they were calling the Swap Shop, as it had a similar telephone number.

But they had all forgotten to insert the 01 London code at the beginning!

Stephen Wainwright's books The Hidden History Of St Helens Vols 1 to 5 are available from the St Helens Book Stop and The World of Glass and online from Amazon and eBay with free delivery. Price £12 each.