How voices from Daventry travelled the world
Why was Daventry chosen as a transmitter site?
When the BBC sprung into life in 1922, radio broadcasts could only be made over short distances.The company's chief engineer, Peter Eckersley, believed it was possible to create a long wave transmitter that would serve most of the country.The BBC decided to find a site for a transmitting station that was situated north of a line between the Severn and the Wash, surrounded by as much land as possible.Six locations were explored and Borough Hill in Daventry turned out to have the best coverage of land.The BBC bought 58 acres (23 hectares) of the hill and started work on constructing the station. There was no road to the top, so it built a rack and pinion railway to haul building materials up the slope.Two 128m (420ft) masts were erected with a lattice of copper wires and aluminium hoops.The transmission equipment was housed in a spacious hall with cathedral windows in what became known as the 5XX building.
What was the first radio service to be broadcast from Daventry?
The station opened on 27 July 1925, with a poem called The Dane Tree written by the-then poet laureate, Alfred Noyes.The first broadcasts, for the BBC's National Programme, mainly originated in London and included plays, like The Glittering Gate, the story of two dead burglars.There was also music, including popular songs and orchestral items.
When was the BBC World Service first broadcast from Daventry?
The BBC governors had been considering the idea of broadcasting beyond the shores of the United Kingdom for some time.The corporation's engineers knew that short wave radio signals could travel long distances by reflecting off the ionosphere, part of the Earth's atmosphere, making international broadcasting possible.Finally, in 1932, they expanded the site at Daventry and installed two short wave transmitters to send out the Empire Service, as the World Service was then called, to four zones across the world.In a speech to mark the opening on 19 December 1932, the BBC's director-general John Reith warned that the early programmes "will neither be very interesting nor very good", but he also said the launch of the service was "a significant occasion in the history of the British Empire".He predicted that "broadcasting is a development with which the future must reckon and reckon seriously".
How big did the international operation at Borough Hill become?
As time went on, more services were launched to different countries, and complicated schedules of frequency changes were needed to keep the radio stations on air as atmospheric conditions changed during the day.Retired engineer John Barry recalls services being broadcast in about 38 languages in the 1970s.He added that most of the languages were for eastern countries, as "in Asia, there are various vernaculars of Chinese, Indian, etcetera whereas, if you broadcast to the west, it was mainly Spanish".
What impact did the transmitting station have on Daventry?
People living in Daventry reported hearing programmes through metal items in their houses, such as taps and kettles, as well as chimneys and guttering.Rod Viveash, another retired engineer, said other aspects of daily life were affected: "When TV started, [the radio signals] did cause a lot of interference with TV, so we went through a bit of a period being unpopular."When cars started to get in-built burglar alarms, you'd get the sound of the programme coming out of the car when you got into it."BBC sports teams were created and a BBC club was opened in Sheaf Street.A number of the men who came to work on Borough Hill ended up marrying local women.
Why did the BBC station at Borough Hill close?
There were two main reasons why the BBC vacated the hill.The Cold War, a period of tension between the USA and the Soviet Union , was over so the USA's international radio service, the Voice of America, moved out of the BBC's site at Woofferton in Shropshire.World Service transmission could then be transferred from Daventry to Woofferton.Also, modernising the Daventry facility would have involved constructing a large number of self-supporting towers on Borough Hill in place of masts held up by wires.This would have been expensive, and may not have enhanced the Daventry landscape.Bill Bird, who worked on the hill for nearly 50 years, was given the honour of switching off the last transmitter on 29 March 1992.An exhibition is currently open at Daventry's museum telling the story of the BBC's time in the town.
Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Endangered crayfish returning to Nottinghamshire waterways
A rare species of endangered crayfish is slowly returning to its natural habitats, environmental experts have white-clawed crayfish is the UK's only native species, but it has been under threat for a number of years, particularly following the arrival of the North American signal crayfish in the North American crayfish competes with other native species for food and habitats, and also carries a deadly fungal disease called the crayfish plague, which has been rapidly killing the white-clawed the white-clawed crayfish is now returning to areas of Nottinghamshire following work from environmental groups. The Environment Agency said it has been working with Natural England to secure the white-clawed crayfish's future across the Nottinghamshire, a partnership to protect the species has been formed among various has included the Nottinghamshire Biodiversity Action Group, White Post Farm, and other environmental groups from further and volunteers are creating new safe havens, known as "ark sites", for the crayfish to relocate to, and moving numbers of them that are under threat to these protected McDaid, from the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, said losing the native species would be "heart-breaking".He added: "Our waterways wouldn't be the same if they went extinct as they keep the ecosystems in our rivers healthy. If a native species like that goes, the environment around it is impacted pretty badly."We really want to prevent that, and volunteers play a vital role in helping to stop that from happening." Danielle Grieves, an officer at Natural England, said the work she has observed from volunteers in Bulwell gives her hope for the future of the added: "We are seeing fewer numbers of the North American invasive species in ponds at Bulwell Hall. "It's been so rewarding to see vulnerable, native crayfish being moved to their new homes in Nottinghamshire."By protecting the white-clawed crayfish, we're helping to preserve the biodiversity and ecological health of Nottinghamshire's waterways for future generations."
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Ushaw Historic House library open to public for one day
A library which holds historic books such as Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica will open to the public for the first time – though just for a single Historic House, near Durham, will open its 50,000-item collection to the public on 9 August as part of its first ever book library at the former Roman Catholic seminary is usually reserved for researchers, Ushaw official Sanjay Gidda forward to welcoming a wider audience, Mr Gidda said: "This is one of the most exciting cultural days Ushaw has ever hosted." As part of the day's events, the library will display its copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle illustrated encyclopaedia from book is an account of Christian history from Creation to the early about a thousand copies exist in the world today, said Mr Gidda. In addition to the 1493 edition, the library also holds a pirated copy of the book printed four years later, which was smaller and cheaper to make and of which just a few hundred still is also home to a first edition copy of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, said Mr Gidda, as well as dozens of books printed during the earliest days of the printing press in Europe, known as incunabula. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Harper Adams University birdsong project expands in county
Technology that monitors birdsong as part of conservation efforts is to be rolled out across Green Box Project involves recordings via wireless boxes operated by solar panel. Recordings are uploaded to the cloud, where birds are then identified by is hoped the collected data could support conservation planning and contribute to national biodiversity databases."This idea of bioacoustics is something that people have been trying to implement in a box like this for a really long time," said Dr Joseph Mhango from the county's Harper Adams University which created the tech. "The artificial intelligence classifies what it's heard, and picks out specific birdsong... it's able to recognise what species of bird that is."Data scientists at Harper Adams will take over and analyse trends - what sort of migratory birds are coming to Shropshire over time, what sort of local species persist."The AI system was trained by real scientists, using millions of bird Shropshire Ornithological Society will host one of the sensors at its Venus Pool reserve near Shrewsbury."Ornithological surveys are vital for tracking changes in bird populations, which are often early indicators of broader environmental shifts," said Claire Mulvey, from the society. "The Green Box Project not only enhances our ability to monitor these changes but also fosters community engagement in conservation efforts."The boxes will record over the next couple of months, with the university releasing initial data at the end of September."We have set up pretty much a fleet of them… they will be continuously recording birdsong every single day," said Dr Mhango. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
