Specific Transmitter Sites

Some BBC transmitter sites are of particular interest and further links are given below.

2LO (The BBC's first transmitter)

Vintage BBC Transmitters - 2LO and AP

The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain

Alexandra Palace (The BBC's first television transmitter)

The story of the birth of television at Alexandra Palace

AP history, with some good recent pictures

Alexandra Palace Television Society
A Society to preserve, for present and future generations, the oral and written history of the pioneers who inaugurated the world's first, regular, public high-definition television service from Alexandra Palace, North London, in 1936. 

Alexandra Palace - Direct Television
Personal experiences of the early days of BBC Television from Alexandra Palace between 1952 and 1963.  In addition there are some experiences of Lime Grove and Riverside Studios in the mid-1950s.

N.B. Unfortunately this web site seems to have closed down in 2006 but it can be seen buy entering
www.bbctv-ap.co.uk/bbctvp1.htm into http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Vintage BBC Transmitters - 2LO and AP

Ascension

Memories of Ascension - Phil Brooks and more Ascension pictures - David Dunmall

Athlone

Athlone transmitting station (not BBC)
Pictures of early Marconi and Brown-Boveri transmitters that are still in their original RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) building. All of the BBC transmitters of this vintage were scrapped and so this web site provides an interesting view of an equivalent installation.

Brookmans Park

Brookmans Park - Pictures and Memories - Peter Gutteridge

Brookmans Park.
The London Twin-Wave Broadcasting Station,  A Descriptive BBC Souvenir 1930.

A History of Brookmans Park Transmitting Station
By Lilian Caras 1982 (revised January 2002)

Daventry

New: Daventry Calling the World

Starting with the BBC in 1941 - Reminiscences about Daventry - Don Bowman

Daventry-Index
Click on Photo Tour to see an interesting history of Daventry transmitting station, with pictures.

Divis
Two videos: Television arrives in Northern Ireland (1954) and antenna replacement (1992).

Droitwich

Droitwich Calling - The Story of Droitwich Transmitting Station

Film of Droitwich transmitting station being constructed in 1934.

Emley Moor (ITA site)

Collapse of ITA Emley Moor mast on 19 March 1969 - James F Middlemiss

Holme Moss

Home Moss Open day - film

Lisnagarvey

Lisnagarvey and the Blaw-Knox mast - Aubrey McKibben

Rampisham

Resplendent Rampisham
Report of a visit to this HF transmitting station. Short Wave Magazine. January 2004.

Wonderful Woofferton - 60 Years Old
Report of a visit to this HF transmitting station. Short Wave Magazine. September 2003.

Skelton

Skelton Transmitting Station 1942 to 1998 - Over half a century of short wave broadcasting - G.P. Lowery

Sutton Coldfield

Tales from  Cold Field by Ray Cooper
An excellent feature on the MB21 web site about this important transmitting station.

Start Point

Start Point's special role following D Day - Stuart Frost

Wenvoe
Video of the open day in 1965.

Woofferton

Fifty years of transmitting at BBC Woofferton - Jeff Cant. (75 page, 7MB PDF file)

Life at Woofferton 1961 - 1995 - Eileen Briggs

Woofferton: Ancient and Modern - Richard Buckby

A visit to Woofferton -  Two articles resulting from a visit arranged and hosted by David Porter:

Wonderful Woofferton - Celebrating 60 years on air in October 2003, this article from Short Wave Magazine (now Radio User) provides a good description and includes many interesting pictures. See also: Diamond Jubilee below.

Diamond Jubilee - This article from Practical Wireless magazine is based on a visit by the editor Rob Mannion together with Kevin Nice the editor of SWM (see above).  The two articles inevitably have much in common, but Diamond Jubilee has more on the history of the station, whereas Wonderful Woofferton has more on the technology.  Permission to reproduce the articles in BBCeng is gratefully acknowledged.

Writtle (forerunner of BBC transmitters)

2MT Writtle: the birth of British broadcasting.

A good book describing events leading up to the start of the BBC, with particular emphasis on transmitters and characters such as P.P.Eckersley. author: WANDER T R   publisher: Capella  year: 1988   isbn: 0-946443-10-6

Two Emma Toch - Writtle
A play made for hospital radio which depicts some of the events leading up to the formation of the BBC.  The main character is Peter Eckersley who later became the BBC's first Chief Engineer.  This very entertaining play recreates the atmosphere in the famous hut where broadcasting pioneers built up an enthusiastic audience during 1922.  Written by Tim Wander and Dennis Rookard, the play is based on the book "2MT Writtle: The Birth of British broadcasting" (see details above).