Did anyone ever work at the BT Telephone exchange on Bowden Street (now demolished)? I have heard from two other people that it had strange things happen there, does anyone else know anything? (I know, I know, I'm on about ghosts and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night again!:rolleyes: )

Yes, the exchange on Bowden St. is called Eldon House and is still in existence. The building you refer to across the road from Eldon was Washington Works and was mainly offices for Planning, Works Control, Exchange Consruction staff etc. It was never an exchange building, just a T.E.C. . BT sold it about 10 years ago and as you say it was demolished to make way for more flats. I don't recall any stories of strange happenings though.

When I started on BT way back in 1972 it was on the EL&P dept. I don't recall any strange goings on at all, either there or in Eldon House. I have heard of stories in other exchanges up here in West Yorkshire though

Hi
My hubbie used to work in Washington Works but he never mentioned any ghostly goings on. I used to work in Hallam Exchange though and that had plenty of stories.

Ask about ghost stories in the Sharrow exchange, or Firvale hospital

I worked at Eldon and cant remember any ghost stories, there were several sightings of a ghost at the hillsborough exchange which was opened around 1990 and closed sometime around 2003

I garaged at Washington works too, and know of no ghostly goings on apart from some executive engineer who told us how he used to project his mind to the moon.

I had a spooky occurence in Beauchief exchange once when I was called out in the middle of the night!

I've heard of strange goings on in that, and other BT buildings. Apparently, and this is only rumour, on certain days of the year BT staff used to go into the buildings and..................work.
Now I'm not at all sure about this as I've never personally seen it. If anyone has any photos of this occurrence please let us all know.

Ask about ghost stories in the Sharrow exchange, or Firvale hospital
What about any ghost stories from the sharrow exchange, (or firvale hospital,if you like)?

Yes, the exchange on Bowden St. is called Eldon House and is still in existence. The building you refer to across the road from Eldon was Washington Works and was mainly offices for Planning, Works Control, Exchange Consruction staff etc. It was never an exchange building, just a T.E.C. . BT sold it about 10 years ago and as you say it was demolished to make way for more flats. I don't recall any stories of strange happenings though.
Thanks for correcting where exchange is and where the offices (Washington Works) were. We need to keep it to the facts!:cool:

Hi
My hubbie used to work in Washington Works but he never mentioned any ghostly goings on. I used to work in Hallam Exchange though and that had plenty of stories.
What! What! Tell! Tell!

What! What! Tell! Tell!
I've pm'd Harry but can't really remember anything specific just ghostly goosebump feelings when working alone. Mind you Harry most of the goings on there weren't of the ghostly variety. I'm saying no more.

I went into Sharrow exchange at 2 in the morning once and I was the only person in there. A chair about ten feet away from me turned (it was a swivell chair), stopped in a position as if the person sitting in it was looking at me then turned completley round and stopped as if to do some work at the desk. I watched it for a moment but it did not move again. It was not a draught that could have turned it as it was not near a door.

Thanks for correcting where exchange is and where the offices (Washington Works) were. We need to keep it to the facts!:cool:

Halfway up the stairs in the old Firvale main entrance a very cold spot on the first landing or just near

I worked on exchange construction on BT from 1968-96.
The only place I know which seemed to have odd things happening was the old Firth Park Exchange.
I have heard footsteps coming up right behind me whilst working nights (even though there was no-one else in the building at the time), and one night there were 3 of us working nights, 2 of us went down the road to the local chippy leaving one guy in on his own, and when we returned he was sat on the doorstep outside and wouldn't go back inside on his own. He looked white as a sheet, but wouldn't tell us what had occurred, even though we quizzed him several times.
Another incident occurred one Saturday night / Sunday morning about 2.30 am. Two of us were working that night doing a re-grade. We were behind different suites of racks so couldn't see each other. The door to the tea room opened (it was on a heavy spring) so I called out " If you're going to the loo, put the kettle on."
A voice from the other suite of racks said "It's not me"
"Well if it's not you, who the hell is it ?" said I.
We both came out from behind our particular racks and searched the building from top to toe and found nothing.
Damn scary place, that one.
:confused:

Lots of stuff regarding Sheffield Exchanges! Keep it coming, open to all ghostly tales in telephone exchanges in sheffield!

A lot of what people thought were footsteps late at night in the exchanges were the old type switches operating. But chairs don't move on their own.

Interesting point well made, about the switches. If prioryx isn't making it up (why would s/he), delusional (hope not) or wrong about atmospheric conditions, then chairs don't usually move by themselves without help, supernatural or otherwise.

What did move without help was hairs' on the back of my neck

And my quick exit from the area would have been without help too, if I had seen that! (I would go back with someone later to make sure it was safe!)

The comment about the switch equipment noises is that that wouldn't scare you 'cos that it what you would expect in a telephone exchange !!!
It's the other things that happen that worry you !!!!
:?

If you are looking for more stories about strange goings-on in telephone exchanges, it might be worth trying to contact someone from the exchange construction staff based at Eldon House.
There must be someone who still works there that is also on the Forum
They can PM me if they want and I will tell them who I am.

I used to work at Eldon House in 90 91 I think it was. Didn't see or hear anything specific but heard lots of stories which was enough to scare the crap out of me and not go anywhere in the building on my own. I used to wait till lunchtime and go to the loo in Debenhams!!! How sad

What stories used to scare the crap out of you? Tell! Tell!
Also if anyone else has stories about Eldon House, please let us know!:)

The comment about the switch equipment noises is that that wouldn't scare you 'cos that it what you would expect in a telephone exchange !!!
It's the other things that happen that worry you !!!!
:?
A visitor may not know what noises to expect in a telephone exchange and mistake them for something else, like footsteps maybe.

Hi harry, I can't remember anything definate but I remember stories of a woman seen walking the corridors late at night when no one supposed to be in that part of the building. As you can imagine I didn't opt to do the night shift very often either!!

It would be interesting to see if anyone else has seen / heard of this woman? Who was she, when she lived or died, why she walked the place? What did she look like?

Re the noises in telephone exchanges:-
somebody being in the exchange at night would not be a visitor, he or she would be a fully fledged telephone engineer and therefore used to the sounds of a telephone exchange.

So no visitors at night who don't know what an exchange sounds like, thats fair. It means that normal things are less likely to be mistaken for something strange by the enginneer than the average man off the street or office worker. But even dismissing footsteps, the other posts from prioryx lolalola and davep suggest sometimes strange things did happen. Anyone else have anything interesting to tell?

For anyone interested, you will find some photos of most of Sheffield's telephone exchanges on this website. Also many pics of engineers past and present. Enjoy.
http://citysnapper.org/btsf/

Sorry Harry I haven't got a clue as to what she looked like or any story behind her. I should have paid more attention at the time. I was very young and only worked there for about a year. Sorry!!!!

Thats ok, the only thing you think about when working in a boring office is going home anyway.

i used to do catering there 90-94 based at telehouse but went to hallam, disu & trafalger,washington works doing vending machines. The basement at washington works was spooky around the kitchen and lift

In what way? Spooky because it was quiet and no people or because it didn't feel right in a differant way?

spooky because it did not feel right always felt as if someone was watching you the only room down there was the lecture room
telehouse is supposed to have 2 ghosts 1 a construction worker that died in an accident and a grey lady
i am called lisa

Interesting.. Do you know what sort of accident? Maybe it can be checked up on in the archives perhaps?

Hello Lisa! I am Harry.

the only thing i know about the accident is i was told he fell of some scaffolding while they were building telehouse but i do not know if it is true