Description

Admin History:

In 1898 a Select Committee of the House of Commons recommendation was accepted in favour of local telephone systems being operated by municipalities in competition with the National Telephone Company. The following year, the Telegraph Act 1899 was passed which empowered municipalities to use rates and to borrow for the establishment of local telephone systems under licence from the Postmaster General.

Thirteen bodies took out licences but only six actually set up telephone services and of those six, only Hull was in existence after 1913, despite an offer from the National Telephone Company to buy them out in 1906.

Description:

Agreements with the National Telephone Company and the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Kingston Upon Hull for telephone equipment in or over public streets or attached to Corporation property, and agreements for the supply of telephonic communications between various Corporation offices.