Telephones
From Historical Hastings
Early Days
The first telephone exchange in the town was situated in Claremont
Direct Dialling
Six Digit Numbers
In 1974 Hastings became automated and the 4 digit numbers had 42 put in front of them to make the required 6 digits.For example, Hastings 2345, so became 422345. 5 digit numbers began with 3 (eg 34191), and had 4 in front to make them 6 digits (434191).
On the whole the first two digits were based upon geography, so 42 was Hastings, 43 St Leonards
Area Code Change
In 1995 UK telecoms underwent a huge shake-up (the 'Big Number') where most provincial numbers became prefixed with '01' instead of the previous '0'. This made Hastings numbers change from 0424 123456 to 01424 123456.
