Telephone from Brisco’s Pharmacy

Brisco’s Pharmacy on High Street had Tarrow telephone number 7. Most houses had no phone, and the exchange shut at 10 pm, so when someone needed the doctor at night they knocked on the pharmacy door and a Brisco made the call.

The family kept a book of these night calls. It records 1,140 of them between 1932 and 1951, with the time, the caller’s street and one or two words: “croup”, “baby coming”, “cart overturned”. The book is in the archive and has been transcribed by volunteers. The telephone still has its original cord.