- Interests
- The THG
- Publications
- Events
- Days Out
- Links
- Contacts
Interests
The Telecommunications Heritage Group has subscribers whose interests range from the earliest telegraph systems and equipment, through electro-mechanical switching systems and electronic systems, coming right up to the modern offerings of ISDN, modems and IP Telephony.
Whilst the sections below cover some of the interests of the group they are not limited to the named topics. Some of the articles here are from previous copies of the Journal or have been written by active members of the group for web publication. If you have a topic you would like more widely publicised to the group there is the option of writing a piece for this website or for the Journal itself. All contributions will be considered, either by electronic means, audio tape/CD or hand written articles. The team will be pleased to convert your submission into an appropriate format for publication on your behalf. This ensures that our members who are unable to access or use electronic methods are not disadvantaged or excluded from bringing their own interests to the wider membership.
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The THG and how to join....
The Telecommunications Heritage Group (THG) is a club or society, not a trading organisation, and we cater for researchers, collectors, historians, operators of restored apparatus and all people just interested in the subject for its own delight. What we do Interests covered by the Telecommunications Heritage Group (UK) include old telephones, telegraphs, phone kiosks and other hardware. The complete heritage of telecommunications - civil, military, transport, public, private, ancient and modern, British and foreign - is studied across the membership. A number of members offer help on particular subjects such as kiosk restoration and railway telecommunications. Some enthusiasts own restored vehicles or telephone kiosks, whilst others are responsible for running complete multi-exchange telephone systems on preserved railways, using vintage telephone equipment. Quite a few museums and preservation bodies have close links with the group and these can be discovered in the Days Out and Links sections.
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Why The THG aims to educate future generations as to the marvellous inventions of the past and to retain knowledge and skills that might otherwise be lost while having some fun in the process. THG members do collect obsolete exchange equipment and all kinds of telephones, telegraph and related apparatus but all of these are simply static exhibits without the vital knowledge, the processes and procedures of how and why they achieved what they did.
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How can I join? Founded in 1986, we are now some 400-strong, with members all over the world, joining is simple and membership is open to everyone. Find out more... |
THG Publications
The THG produces its own publication, the Telecommunications Heritage Journal. For a look back in time to see how the journal has evolved from its early days as a photocopied leaflet through to its current incarnation, a professionally published quarterly magazine, check out the journal history below.
Don't forget, the older journals have interesting articles and information in them. If you are considering purchasing some back issues, use the index feature below to identify the issues of interest to you.
Our subscribers can suggest books, films or DVDs that they feel might be of interest to the wider audience. If you have a suggestion, please contact the webmaster with as much detail as possible and we'll consider adding your review here. Use the links below to find out what our subscribers have suggested recently.
THG Events coming soon
Pictures courtesy of Kevin Sanderson.
The THG has a history of holding very popular swapmeets in a variety of good locations, the pictures above show just a little of the offerings. Over the years some venues have been more popular so we tend to gravitate towards these, but if you have any suggestions for other locations then please do get in touch.
Reservations for tables must be made in advance with our events organiser as some venues are very well attended, with more than 30 tables.
Lately our swapmeets have been giving even better value to our members. After the swapmeet has finished, and allowing a suitable break for a little light refreshment, we have held a small workshop. Ron Sewell has held free training sessions covering topics such as dial repair, reading and understanding N-diagrams and planset working and David Walton has held a session on the repair and re-termination of cloth cords. Details of the training sessions will be announced in the journal and here. You do not usually need to book a place but you will need to let Ron Sewell know in order that you can be told what to bring. The best approach is with a cup of tea (two sugars!) and a bacon butty. Or you can use the form in the Contacts section.
Laurence kindly organises our events for us and he can be reached by using the form in the Contacts section.
Please note, THG events are open to members only.
THG Swapmeet - Avoncroft. Sunday 5th Apr 2009
Another trip to Avoncroft for what is always one of the most popular swapmeet venues of the year. The museum have once again agreed to waive the entrance fee for THG members, parking is ample and it's free and the transport links are excellent, being just off junction 1 of the M42 south of Birmingham. The last two events at Avoncroft have had 30 tables booked and a few people making do with the floor, so get your bookings in early with Laurence, see above.
Training Session
Ron will be running another of his training workshops after the swapmeet. This time you have the opportunity to learn about the internal design and workings of the Box Coin Collecting 14, better known as the A&B box, and it's successor the 700 type coin box.
For those of you using an on-line journey planner or sat-nav the postcode for this event is...
B60 4JR
Days Out
There are several places that THG subscribers like to visit in relation to their own branch of the interest. Here are a few that are both popular and interesting, not just for telecommunications devotees but for all the family.
Covert Activities. |
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Bletchley Park former home of ULTRA, Britain's best kept secret! |
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Camp X - Featuring: SOE -SIS -COI - OSS - CIA - BSC - OWI - FBI STS 103 - Canada's on-line World War II intelligence, history site! |
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Cold War Research Study Group-secret underground bunkers |
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Crusty Old Joe's Place- Little Known And Marginally Useful Information- With some interesting pages about the Radio and Telephone History of Kodiak, Alaska. |
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Garat's HaY-Home to the "Y" (Wireless Intercept) Services- An essential link in the code-breaking chain. |
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Hack Green-Secret Nuclear Bunker NORAD-The United States and Canada established the North American Air Defense Command more than 40 years ago and gave it the job of defending both nations against attack by Soviet bombers. An international headquarters and combat operations center were set up at Colorado Springs, Colorado. |
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North American Air Defense Online Radar Museum-This site is dedicated to the thousands of U.S. Air Force "Cold Warriors" who served, mostly without recognition, during the Cold War period following the Second World War.
RAF Air Defence Radar Museum has two display rooms of telephone system exhibits at: Royal Air Force, Neatishead, Norfolk NR12 8YB. Tel: (01692) 633309 . The museum is open to the public on Tuesdays from April to end September. Also second Saturday in month throughout year. 10-00 AM to 15-00 PM. The World War Two Memories Project World War Two was perhaps one of the most traumatic times in recent history. The fighting and hardships affecting the whole of Europe, the Pacific and having a knock on effect throughout the world. If you were at home during the war, posted abroad with one of the services, helped in the home guard, were evacuated or in a reserved occupation. No matter how small please add your memories to the collection and help preserve the wartime spirit forever, in the hope that it will never happen again. |
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Alexander Graham Bell-on Compact Disc from the Fitzgerald Studio. |
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Alexander Graham Bell Institute-gateway to a resource of books, photographs and notes. |
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CERN-The European Laboratory for Particle Physics & Birthplace of the World Wide Web. |
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ERLANG, Agner Krarup -Mathematician & telephone traffic theorist. |
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Michael Faraday (1791-1867) -Discoverer of electromagnetic induction - page from Wikipedia |
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The Royal Institution of Great Britain -Remember those Christmas lectures ? |
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Nikola Tesla -inventor of the polyphase induction motor and more... |
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Wolfgang von Kempelen's speaking machine-early speech synthesis |
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Russell Whitworth's Collection of Telecom Quotes- Find out who said it ? |
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Atlantic-Cable.com -History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy-From the first submarine cable, laid in 1851, to the present day fiber optic connections circling the world. |
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The Dean Forest Railway is served by an internal exchange system (UAX13) which can be seen in the museum at Norchard. |
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DF30E's Teleprinter Museum collection by Henning Treumann-Dedicated to the history of Baudot-code teleprinters.
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Ffestiniog Railway- not to be confused with the Welsh Highland Railway ! |
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Glass Insulators Reference Site - Glass insulators were first produced in the 1850s for use with telegraph lines. Today there are over 2000 collectors and this site is packed with information. |
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Mid Hants Telephones - Providing telephone services to the Mid Hants Railway. |
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NADCOMM -The North American Data Communications Museum-With a collection of machines spanning the entire history of teletype and the transition to contemporary digital modem technology. |
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Sam's Telecomms Index-Packed with information, quality photographs and numerous links. |
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The Signal Box -Semaphore, Block Working, Railway Companies and more... |
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The Signal Corps Association (1860-1865) would be honour'd to have you visit their website at: www.civilwarsignals.org Be sure to check out the telegraph sounder under the Telegraph section. |
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Le télégraphe Chappe -en Français |
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Telegraph Instruments of Europe by Fons Vanden Berghen- Lots of pictures. |
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Telegraph Lore -The American way. |
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The Watercress Line -AKA The Mid Hants Railway |
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Welsh Highland Railway -'The Railway that time forgot'... |
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AERO'S Web Page -Quality pictures of old phones Abdyantiques - A family company who carry out servicing, restoration and sales of old phones Simon Mitcalfe's www.antiquegpophones.co.uk specialising in sales of antique GPO telephones |
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Antique Telephones <http://www.antiquetelephones.co.uk/> Run by Neil Carpenter a THG member and collector of telephones. I specialise in quality fully restored telephones and give a lifetime of ownership guarantee. |
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Bill's Phones-check out the wall of phones! |
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Birmingham Anchor Exchange - A detailed study by Sebastian Ballard |
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BOB's Telephone File-A quick and easy reference to www.britishtelephones.com At last, a site big enough to host ALL of the Telephone File which is absolutely packed with diagrams, T.I.s, E.I.s, Marketing Leaflets, pictures and loads of information about the majority of GPO/ Post Office telephones & Sub's Apps. |
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BT Museum Memorial Pages by Sam Hallas-A fitting tribute to a wonderful collection of telegraphs & telephones. |
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Cyber Telephone Museum created by Ron Christianson |
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The Dutch Online Telephone Museum Some nice pictures and lots of links. |
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Fred's Old Phones Page - A French collector's site (with passion). Now with English translation! |
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Historische Fernsprecher -A German site with some clear illustrations and pictures of phones. |
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L2L1-Old French Phones Collections-French [with English translations] site with lots of beautiful phones & schematics. |
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Martin Snaith's Phones A lively site for 'Strowger Maniacs and TXE4 freaks' looking at the BT atomic clock, phones, UAX13's, ophthalmology and 70's social history. |
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The Noisy Line Pages of Mark Cook -A Personal Telephone Collection. |
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Old Telephones As Entertainment-including telephones in the 'Movies and on TV'. |
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Ove's Telephone Pages- looking at LM Ericsson phones. |
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Phoneman.org - A collection of telephone related photos and associated information, courtesy of THG member, Kevin. |
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Phone-Pages.org.uk -Peter Walker's excellent site about phones both old and new. |
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PRIVATELINE MAGAZINE-A journal of inquiry into the telephone system-with topical links and some humor. |
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Rob Grant's Telephone Pages-Telephone tones galore ! |
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STC New Southgate - (The Standard) If you worked for Standard Telephones & Cables, this site will bring back some memories. |
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The Strowger Appreciation Site of Martin Loach -has an extensive collection of high definition photographs that will satisfy most aficionados. Complete with a few sounds too! |
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TCN - The Communications Network (previously The IBTE - Institute of BT Engineers) |
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Strowger Net - An archive of trailing-edge communications, originally compiled by Andrew Emmerson. |
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The Strowger Telecomms Page (The first Strowger site with sound !) The Telephone Code Locator, a useful site for researching telephone codes, the areas they cover and their allocation status. |
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Telephone Exchanges of the South Midlands traces the dialling codes and exchange buildings covering part of the UK. |
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Telephone History Website - By Chuck Eby - American site bringing together world-wide telecom links. |
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Telephone Man -From Kansas USA where phone collecting runs in the family. Some great phones to see. |
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Telephones UK - Mike Fletcher's resource of photos, pictures and information about UK telephones. |
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Telephone World -Information on Telephones, the Telephone Network, and related Telecommunications systems. (American Site) |
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The UAX Project - Everything you (probably) wanted to know about Unit Automatic Exchanges. |
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Vince's Cavalcade of Phones-Some unusual types, fancy graphics and clear photos. |
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Andy 'Valves' Homepage A site dedicated to the restoration of old electrical and electronic technology, containing phones, 405 TV, & lots of other old stuff. |
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British Vintage Wireless Society who participate in the National Vintage Communication Fairs. |
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Kaleidoscope - Classic British Television |
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Meldrum Home Page (MHP)- Test cards, Programmes and much more! American site OTRCAT offers vast resources about nostalgic radio shows. As well as hear thousands of old time radio episodes online, visitors to OTRCAT can stream or download full episodes in Mp3 format as well as read detailed descriptions of the performers and series broadcast in the era (1920's 1959). In the 'daily downloads', there are the broadcasts of the day throughout history (from the last |
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Portishead Radio/GKA -Follows the history from 1920 to its closure in 2000. |
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Radio-Electronics.Com - Books, tutorials and technology news makes an interesting mix of topics for the electronics enthusiast. |
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BRITISH BITS, Restored K6 kiosks, comprehensive range of new and refurbished spare parts, help and advice. 175 Swift Close, Deeping St James, PE6 8QS. Telephone (01778) 345968 www.britishbits.co.uk John FERRIS, Hartlepool. (01429) 223922. Kiosk backboards, notice frames, notices and adverts, also cash tray locks. FURNACE END FIRES sell Ex GPO/Royal Mail Post Boxes and associated equipment and collectables. Contact for lists and availability by email to info@fefbadges.com or in writing with sae to Furnace End Fires, Ersthaus, Atherstone Road, Furnace End, Birmingham B46 2LP stating interest. Also suppliers of collectable enamelled badges including ranges of Real Ale Breweries, Nostalgic Street Furniture (Post boxes, Telephone Box, RAC, AA etc), Nostalgic Advertising and Traction Engines. Can be viewed on www.fefbadges.com . Again contact as above with SAE stating interest. GLEN CALL INTERNATIONAL, SCOTLAND UK., Tel; + 44 1592 840853 Fax; + 44 1592 840005 e-mail enquiries@glencall.co.uk Suppliers of letter boxes and other novelty items. Web site www.glencall.co.uk MACHAN ENGINEERING, 103 Broad Street, Denny, Stirlingshire, FK6 6EL. (01324) 824309. Contact: Mr W. McMullan. SALVOWEB's Thornton Kay recommends www.salvoweb.com for information about dealers in architectural and garden antiques, which include old K6 phone boxes, pillar boxes, wall-mounted and post-mounted post boxes. Ford Village, Berwick TD15 2QG, England Telephone: +44 1890 820333 FAX: +44 1890 820499 Mike SHORES, Dale House, Carlton Miniott, Thirsk, Yorks. Tel/fax (01845) 522381. Phone kiosks, internal fittings and letter boxes.
9-00am to 5-00pm Monday to Friday and by appointment at any other time. Reg Lewis writes " For your members information, we supply and restore Telephone Kiosks and other items of Cast Iron Street Furniture together with most Kiosk Components from the K2 to the K8, Kiosk Models, Kiosk Interiors, Bakelite Telephones, A & B Boxes, Period Payphones, Post Boxes, Lamp Columns, Street Signs and Cast Benches. Hire to the Film & TV Industries is also a speciality." "We are a Quality Assured Company registered with NQA to comply with BS EN ISO 9002, and have carried out many prestigious restorations for BT, Local Authorities, Museums and Town Twinning Associations.We are closely associated to the National Kiosk Collection at Avoncroft and was one of the original sponsors and have recently helped by supplying new castings for the A.A. Box project." [February 2000]
White Contracts is a company that has restored, converted, changed dismantled, and installed Red Telephone Boxes across the World since 1986. We can supply our customers with fully restored K6 or K2 kiosks in any guise, be it a shower, aquariom, loo, or drinks cabinet. No idea is too wacky. We even let them go out in magnificent red paint only. White Contracts, Fyfield Hall, Fyfield, CM5 OSA www.redphonebox.com
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The Antiquarian Horological Society includes an Electrical Horology Group with references to Post Office clocks. |
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Retrowow is an online resource which features articles about life in Britain in the 50s, 60s and 70s. |
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AltaVista translations by Systransoft. Do you struggle trying to make sense of those well presented international telephone sites which aren't written in English? Take a look at the on-line translation system at http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
Findon Village A growing database of life in a typical 'olde' English village. |
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Search the whole web with...
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The THG is a member of the Antique Telephone Collecting Ring. |
Contacts
Any administration or general enquires should be directed to the THG Admin Team using the contact form below.
The Membership-Secretary can be contacted using the contact form below and will be pleased to deal with your membership or subscription enquiries.
Journal Submissions and Suggestions. The THG is always looking for new contributors to the highly popular journal. If you would like to submit an article or have a suggestion for a topic to be covered, please contact the Journal Team using the form below.
Use the form below to contact the THG events organiser with requests for table bookings or to suggest a new venue.
Have you found a problem with this website, a broken link or have a suggestion for content etc?
The THG Web Master would be pleased to hear from you.
The THG offers this service to allow members to register an interest in items that may be offered for disposal, or to aid the disposal of equipment you no longer wish to keep. If there is anything in particular that you want, please get in touch with one or more of the "scrapmen". They will hold the details of your request, along with contact information,and get in touch with you if anything becomes available. This service operates on a "first come, first served" basis. If you have items to dispose of then please contact the appropriate scrapman based on the area you are in. Please be aware the the term "scrapman" is a colloquialism, they do not exist to clear rubbish and their remit is not to travel around collecting items but to liase between the donor and the recipient.
The scrapmen aim to distribute items among the membership of the THG, we cannot arrange donations to museums. Should you wish to donate to a museum then please feel free to contact them directly but you should be aware that the collecting policies of museums are quite strict and they may be unable to take your items.
The "scrapmen" are regionally based and can be contacted at any of their locations using the contact form below. When contacting the scrapmen with offers please include your county in the message.
You may write to the THG at;
THG,
Dalton House,
60 Windsor Avenue,
London
SW19 2RR
If you wish to contact another member by post, please put your letter in a stamped envelope marked with the recipient's name, enclose this in another envelope and post to the above address.
The THG teams are contactable by telephone on 020-8099 1699. The system is menu operated and will guide you through leaving a message for the appropriate area.
This is also the THG information line, and will give details of forthcoming events, subscription rates etc.