Major collections

The quality and significance of the documents, photographs and films we preserve have been recognised by both Arts Council England and UNESCO UK.

We have a near-complete set of phone books for the whole country produced not only by BT Group, but also by its predecessors including Post Office Telecommunications, the National Telephone Company and other private companies. They date back to 1880, the year after the public telephone service was introduced into Great Britain.

BT Group's historical phone books from 1880-1984 are available online. Scanned in collaboration with Ancestry.co.uk they are of particular interest to family historians. You can still see copies of the phone books from 1880 to the present in person at the BT Group Archives.

Note: historical copies of the Yellow Pages directory are available at the Royal Berkshire Archives.

These are our historical records for the telecommunications function of the Post Office and its predecessors. These papers document the development of the telegraph and telephone services up to 1984, and include records of preceding private telegraph and telephone companies taken over by the Post Office dating back to the early part of the 19th century. These are searchable and, where scanned, available to view on our online catalogue.

The collection of records from the private telegraph companies dating back to 1846 are some of the oldest held by BT Group Archives. This collection includes all the records created and used by the inland private telegraph companies before the network was nationalised under the Post Office in 1870. It also includes some private telegraph companies who operated international services, which were brought under control of the Post Office. This collection has many interesting items including company letter books and plans of the developing telegraph network. These are searchable and, where scanned, available to view on our online catalogue.

This comprises records created by the company from 1984 to the present day and are currently still closed.

This is a collection of historical photographs, video and film of BT Group and Post Office Telecommunications dating back to the last century. This fascinating body of records includes not just images of old equipment, but views of engineers and telephone operators at work, old vehicles, street furniture and scenes and so forth, including many local views. These are searchable and, where scanned, available to view on our online catalogue. A curated selection of particularly interesting images are also available in BT Group’s image library - just follow the link and choose Archives from the menu on the left.

We keep a wide selection of printed sources relating to the history of communications, from major scientific breakthroughs and national events to histories of local exchanges and telecommunications pioneers. Sources include journals and periodicals, technical and historical works dating back to the 18th century, and external publications and reports. These are searchable on our online catalogue.

We also hold a wide selection of BT Group publications, such as annual reports and staff magazines, many of which are digitised and can be searched electronically in our searchroom. These are gradually being added to our online catalogue.