Initially we had a 'party line' so if you needed the phone in an emergency you just hoped the other party wasn't making a call. Given the nature of my mother's business we were given the next private line that became avialable and were told it would never be a party line.

We had one of those too! Remember, you didn't get to choose your phone, you had to take what you were given ... what power the post office had then! (it was the post office, wasn't it?)

Yes, it was the GPO, until BT was formed in 1980.

We started with one of these

but it had a Fire/Ambulance/Police number 999 on the sticker in the middle (in case you forgot) and our own number 538,later 5538, then 65538, then 765538. I never did find out what that button in the middle did......

Sister never used that though - she would walk along to the VG to use the phone box there for a bit of privacy....and mam always used to make sure we had a clean hanky and a 2p piece before we left the house cos "you never know...."

Then to Esther Rantzens delight, along came the trimphone and we switched over, much to my Dads annoyance..."wrong shape, can't hear folk talk, can't hear when it rings, flipping birds copy it, call that progress? I'll give you progress", mutter mutter stomps off in disgust. That one went from 754 all the way to 634754 in single digit increments.

My gran was also not impressed with the trimphone - she used to have one of these on her old phone "in case anyone broke in to use the phone" and it wouldn't fit under the dial on the trimphone....more progress, eh?

(Green GPO classic phone)

My grandparents had that exact phone, same colour and everything (my others on my dad's side had the exact same as the white one at the end).

We had the trimphone in the first house I lived in, then when we moved the new house had a wall-hung version of the white phone in your post, until we replaced it with a touch tone BT offering (Vanguard, maybe? All I know is every phone on every UK TV show made in the early 90s had the same damn ring tone, drove us nuts).

We didn't have as much change in our numbers though, started off as 63983, then 363983 when NI numbers went to 6 digits in the early 90s, then finally 93363983 when NI was included in part of the new 02X set of regional numbers in 2000. The dialling code changed a bit more: originally it was 09603, then 0960 when the 3 moved over, then 01960 and finally 028 (though that was only outside NI, the 02X numbering meant that we no longer had to dial 'local codes' for numbers outside Carrickfergus as the 9X became the 'code').

For some reason, stuff like this is interesting to me

Did anyone else learn to answer the phone with your phone number?

"552-1575?!"

Can't quite recall why that was .

Yes

Though as I got older, I started to just say 'hello'.

Yes, I suspect in the early days of STD calls it was so the person at the other end knew they had got the correct number.
Here in Bournemouth we have to use the national code when dialing even local calls.

Another phrase that has sadly taken on an entirely new meaning in recent years

My brother built a telephone table for one of his woodwork exams. It was an all in one seat and table with a drawer to keep the phone book in. Oh, and a pull out extension so that you could write notes or take down phone numbers.

What is this "phone book" of which you speak?

Ooh a phone book.

I used to think our family name was a little unusual, I remember looking it up and seeing only a few numbers with the same family name. Nowadays you can ego search yourself on Google and it isn't until page ten that you find yourself.

"Let your fingers do the walking"

We still get them here...straight into the recycling.
An absolute total waste of time, money and resources....

That's what she said!