Telegraph & Argus Wednesday, 21 January 1952:

Between 200 and 300 telephones in Thornbury were out of use following five violent explosions from a manhole on Leeds Road. Not only had the explosions cut off several hundred phone lines but had also caused a fire in the cellar of the Thornbury Hotel and smashed 18 windows. Luckily no was hurt, but all carrier cables from Leeds to Edinburgh were affected and 20 houses in Victor Street were without gas for 24 hours. According to one G.P.O. engineer the explosions were believed to have been caused by the short-circuiting of the 500-volt trolleybus cable outside the hotel, which had melted the Leeds-Bradford telephone cable.