Which Transmission Facility Might This Be?

[McMurdo]

there's a tower in the vicinity used as a TV relay and I think probably mobile phone, visible from the road. Not sure if that's anything to do with it. Woodhead hall of course is well known to the locals and is/was privately owned by a family who ran the town hardware store.

[Radio Wrangler]

Y-service intercept listening centre in WWII. Likely to have been kept on for some time afterwards as part of GCHQ, they had a number of places sprinkled around.

David

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by McMurdo

there's a tower in the vicinity used as a TV relay and I think probably mobile phone, visible from the road.

That's much what I expected of the single mast now shown by OS.

[Mach One]

Originally Posted by fetteler

It's not a transmitter, turns out it was a listening station first established in 1937 and no longer standing. A little googling turns up the following:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...le,_Staffs.JPG

https://electronicspy.fr/431651551

Steve

So, thank you to everyone for this comprehensive answer! I assumed a transmitter site, of course.

I wonder what made them leave that one, lonely, mast? Nice that it still exists. And the story about Wing Commander Swanborough having been in charge for what looks like a whole working life - what a lovely place to work and an interesting job for someone who is interested in radio! I wonder if he was?

[paulsherwin]

The remaining mast is a small Freeview Light relay for Cheadle, which apparently isn't covered by the full service Fenton relay in Stoke or the Light relay for Leek.

https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Cheadle
https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Leek
https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Fenton

[ms660]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

The remaining mast is a small Freeview Light relay for Cheadle, which apparently isn't covered by the full service Fenton relay in Stoke or the Light relay for Leek.

https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Cheadle
https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Leek
https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Fenton

The mast in that link is on Hares Lane which lies to the South of the one that's already been identified close to Thornbury Hall and Woodhead Hall to the North where RAF Cheadle was.

Lawrence.

[Roger Ramjet]

Sometimes remnants of these old masts are still visible i.e. concrete anchor blocks dotted around the field in which the masts were located. I guess they must be like an iceberg with little showing on top but a lot more underground making removal difficult ?

Rog

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by Roger Ramjet

I guess they must be like an iceberg with little showing on top but a lot more underground making removal difficult ?

It's quite rare - if it actually happens - for the concrete stay-blocks to be removed. They are indeed 'the tip of the iceberg'. BBC Skelton's are still in the ground, having been sunk in 1943 and onwards.

Sometimes a 'comb' arrangement is used, with 'fingers' sunk deep from a solid block top in to the ground at an angle to vertical.

After all... What would you do with them if you dug them out? Bury them? Maybe removed if the land was to be developed for housing, say.

[Trevor]

I knew a guy Peter who worked there ! As you say it was a listening station part of Gchq
many years ago I was riding a motorcycle down a small road along side it The bike broke down within minutes was approached by policemen or guards who said I could not hang about in that area Having said the bike restarted and I was on my way
It usedto be sign posted as a raf facility back in the day

[McMurdo]

It's in a very secluded location really. To the locals it was known as 'the air ministry'. Google will easily throw up lots of info, article in local papers etc for any in depth reading. At least, stuff meant for public consumption.

[Hybrid tellies]

Back in the mid to late 1970's and into the early 1980's when we lived a few miles south of Bath from my bedroom window I could see a cluster of radio masts some miles away.
I never did find out exactly where they were or what they were and there was certainly nothing on the local OS maps.
Sadly another mystery from the past that I shall now never solve.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by Hybrid tellies

... and there was certainly nothing on the local OS maps.

That in itself implies that they were military, or at least government.

[paulsherwin]

There is a widely held belief that lots of things were removed from OS maps, but on serious investigation it's difficult to substantiate this. There used to be an urban myth (since debunked) that the PO/BT tower in London and/or the other Backbone towers were removed from maps in the 60s - this went as far as being raised in Parliament.

Certainly nowadays there's no attempt to hide government comms facilities such as the huge American listening station at Menwith Hill from civilian maps, though Google Maps sometimes helpfully reduces the image resolution.

Bath is very close to MOD Corsham, which is above a huge government nuclear bunker (now mostly decommissioned and declassified). If anywhere was going to be suppressed from OS maps it'd be there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centra...r_Headquarters

[ms660]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

There is a widely held belief that lots of things were removed from OS maps, but on serious investigation it's difficult to substantiate this.

It was the case in some parts of the country possibly when the Cold War was taking place, some sensitive sites were not shown, the areas in question being left totally blank on the map which was a give away in itself, it was mentioned in a BBC TV program a few years ago.

Lawrence.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

There is a widely held belief that lots of things were removed from OS maps, but on serious investigation it's difficult to substantiate this.

I can provide a degree of substantiation in that the local maps did not give any indication of the presence of Broughton Moor Royal Naval Arms Depot prior to its closure, showing agricultural fields - which ironically had a railway terminating in the middle of one. Once the depot closed down, lots of buildings suddenly materialised on subsequent maps that had not been shown before despite the buildings having been there all along. I'll dig out the maps in due course.

Edit: maps added:

[paulsherwin]

Yes, there's no doubt that this happened sometimes. It's not clear if there was ever a consistent policy. I suspect the practice was largely discontinued after the 60s with the launching of Soviet surveillance satellites, when it would have become counterproductive - if something is on a satellite photo but not on a map then that in itself is suspicious.

[Stockden]

It was certainly still in place into the mid 80s. Some time in 1987 I was standing on a hillside with a group of other students trying to understand why the large fenced site in front of me was shown as an empty space on the new OS map I was holding. I then spotted the word "Aldermaston" just to the north of it and all became clear!

A few years later a friend, who was developing a GIS, explained to me that he bought digital map data of the UK from Russia because it was vastly more detailed than the OS equivalent and included all the prospective "targets" that the OS did not.

Hugh

[paulsherwin]

I suspect the Ruskies knew all about Aldermaston by 1987. All those CND marches in the 60s must have been a bit of a giveaway. They probably had lots of people working there

[DrStrangelove]

1987? ROTFLMFAO.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/o...od-297084.html

NKVD from 1934, active from 1938, busily supplying details on "Tube Alloys" to her red friends.

Not forgetting dear old Klaus Fuchs of course who gave them even more.

[Stockden]

Er yes, I think that was the point I was making.