At some point in the early 1950’s, my grandfather moved to Birmingham where he trained to become a telephone engineer with the General Post Office (later British Telecom), presumably putting to use the skills he learned as a Telegrapher in the Navy during WWII. Does anyone know where he'd have done his training? Was there a GPO technical school in the area? My gran worked at the Botanical Gardens and they lodged at Francis Road on the boundary of Ladywood and Edgbaston, near Five Ways. Thanks.
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GPO Telecom Engineer training
- Thread starter Paulo76
- Start date
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
The General Post Office (GPO) Engineering Department Central Training School opened in Yarnfield in 1946. It occupied buildings at Howard Hall, Duncan Hall and Beatty Hall, which had all acted as transit camps for United States Air Force personnel during the Second World War. These sites were adjacent to each other in the village of Yarnfield. Many teaching staff and their families were initially housed at Raleigh Hall, some miles away. The GPO became the Post Office Corporation in October 1969, and in October 1981 Post Office telephones became British Telecom. The training centre had a further change of name in 2002 when it became part of Accenture. It remained a British Telecom training centre until the summer of 2010, after which it became a commercial conference and training centre with over 40 event spaces and 338 bedrooms, making it one of the UK's largest centres. The centre is now privately owned and is known as Yarnfield Park Training & Conference Centre.
en.m.wikipedia.org
There were also regional training schools such as Shirley.
Yarnfield - Wikipedia
There were also regional training schools such as Shirley.
Radiorails
master brummie
Two threads about GPO telephones in Birmingham.
birminghamhistory.co.uk
birminghamhistory.co.uk
Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham
I am most interested in all aspects of the history of telecommunications in the Birmingham area. Everything from semaphore, telegraph, telex, telephone, the people, vehicles, tools and buildings and hope others share my interest and wish to contribute. To kick off here is a short video showing...
birminghamhistory.co.uk
Post Office Factory. Fordrough Lane
I worked at this Factory from the time I left school at the age of 14 years.Started in August 1940 and attended the in house Engineering School. Unfortunately this was cut short when the Blitz started in earnest, the factory was badly hit in November 19th and 21st. H Block was destroyed and so...
birminghamhistory.co.uk