Club visit to a working telephone collection curated by Jason Workman, on Saturday 12 September, 2pm to 5pm, run as one of the open afternoons Jason holds in aid of St Christopher’s Hospice.

300+ telephones, mostly British and American but ranging as far as the former Eastern Bloc. The oldest is a wooden magneto set from 1911; the newest a BT videophone from 1991. Three switchboards and fifteen exchanges and PABXs, from small ten-line internal units up to GPO exchanges, including a demonstration of a London Director exchange showing how a call was routed across London.

Displays of memorabilia, tools, Buzby, and subscriber equipment. Best of all, it all works. You can make calls through the exchanges and switchboards, dial an emulation of the old Dial-A-Disc service, ring the UK and USA speaking clocks, try a 999 demonstration, and see the Cold War “4-minute warning” system that was installed to warn of attack. There’s an American phone box with its own American number, two working POA payphones complete with the "pips", and an older A/B box.

The garden holds around 60 comfortably, so hopefully should be able to accommodate all those who are interested in attending. Please register your interest early so we can give Jason a headcount for refreshments, by contacting me at dafydd.walters@gmail.com

Much of the collection lives in garden sheds, so in the event of truly awful weather we have Saturday 19 September as a backup.

There’s no charge to attend. There will be donation tins on the day, with everything going to St Christopher’s Hospice. Please do bring some cash for a good cause.