01207

The 01207 telephone area code covers almost the entire area known as Derwentside in the county of Durham, England.

The primary town in the area code 01207 is Consett. Before PhONEday the area code was 0207.

Before STD

The main exchanges in the 1970s were

*Consett
*Stanley
*Rowlands Gill
*Burnopfield
*Chopwell
*Ebchester
*Castleside
*Annfield Plain
*Dipton
*Lanchester
*Edmundbyers

Changes in the 1970s

With the introduction of STD in the 1970s, most 4 digit and 3 digit exchanges were prefixed as follows; some exchanges were consolidated into others.

*Consett - 4 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 50
*Stanley - 4 digit numbers became 5 digits and prefixed with 3
*Dipton - 3 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 570
*Burnopfield - 3 digit numbers became 5 digits and prefixed with 70
*Ebchester - 3 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 560
*Lanchester - 3 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 520
*Edmundbyers - 3 digit numbers became 5 digits and prefixed with 55
*Castleside numbers were integrated into Consett telephone exchange and prefixed with 508: Castleside 201 became Consett 508201
*Chopwell numbers were integrated into Ebchester telephone exchange and prefixed with 561: Chopwell 201 became Ebchester 561201
*Annfield Plain numbers were integrated into Stanley telephone exchange and prefixed with 34: Annfield Plain 201 became Stanley 34201

Changes in the 1980s

In the 1980s a new wave of prefixes were introduced in the area code:

*Rowlands Gill - 4 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 54
*Stanley - 5 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 2
*Edmundbyers - 5 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 2
*Burnopfield - 5 digit numbers became 6 digits and prefixed with 2

In the 1980s, BT planned to rename all exchanges "Derwentside," but with many numbers crossing over into the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead on Burnopfield, Rowlands Gill, and Ebchester exchanges, the idea was scrapped.

Number explosion

There has never been a number explosion in the 01207 area code, most areas still use their original 1970s/1980s prefix except for Consett and Stanley which have introduced new numbers.

*21 - DDI for NHS and Derwentside Council
*23 - Stanley
*25 - Edmundbyers
*27 - Burnopfield
*28 - Stanley (introduced mid 80's)
*29 - Stanley (introduced early 90's)
*50 - Consett
*52 - Lanchester
*54 - Rowlands Gill
*56 - Ebchester
*57 - Dipton
*58 - Consett (introduced early 90's)
*59 - Consett (introduced mid 80's)
*60 - Cable and Wireless
*69 - Virgin Media Cable

hort codes

Short codes, a system of abbreviated dialing scrapped in the 1990s was as follows:

*4 - Rowlands Gill 02074
*6 - Durham 0385
*9 - Newcastle 0632
*998 - Ponteland 0661

Rowlands Gill Only

*8 - This was the short code to dial into other 0207 exhanges when it was a 4 digit number with area code 02074, even when Rowlands Gill was upgraded to 6 digits and area code 0207 the code remained in place until short codes were abolished.

References