Tatsfield BBC Receiving Station, '11

[The Archivist]

Tatsfield B.B.C. Receiving and Measurement Station was established in 1929 to monitor domestic radio broadcasts, gather technical data about them and ensure that each B.B.C. station transmitted on exactly the right frequency.

During the war, Tatsfield carried out technical measurements on the station frequency, signal strength, location and identity of foreign broadasts as part of the BBC Monitoring Programe: it swept the wavelengths continually for any changes from the norm, which would often be an indication of events taking place in or near the studios or the transmitters themselves. The station had additional responsibilities for locating foreign propaganda transmitters and reporting on jamming of BBC and British Government propaganda stations overseas.

By 1961 the Tatsfield Site covered 40 acres, most of them studded with various aerials receiving both radio and television broadcasts connected to the main building by co-axial cables. Newly constructed experimental aerials also received satellite signals (Tatsfield had been the first place in the United Kingdom to detect signals from the Russian Sputnik-1 satellite on 4 Oct 1957).

The site is believed to have closed in 1974 when its work was merged with that of BBC Monitoring's receiving station at Crowsley Park in South Oxfordshire. The masts were removed and the site divided between a local farmer, British Telecom and SEGAS. Most of the buildings on site have now been demolished: a BT repeater station occupies the site of the main block and all of the buildings to the rear of the site were demolished when a new gas compound was built down the hill to the west. What remains is spread out and has deteriorated greatly over the last few years. For reference, compare Cybergibbons' set from 2005: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybergibbons/sets/1700053/with/79439495/ and Godzilla73's report from 2008 http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=6808

On with the pictures, quotations taken from a BBC booklet published in 1961.

BT Repeater Station

The Engineer-in-Charge (E.i.C.), the Assistant E.i.C., and another senior assistant, together with clerical staff, have offices in a separate small building adjacent to the main building.

The office building has suffered both an apparent fire and a roof collapse believed to be due to heavy snow

Remains of the E.i.C's office

Telephone inside the entrance to the office building

Three quartz crystal frequency standards are installed below ground level in a special thermally-controlled Standards Room [...] A room adjacent to the standards room contains checking and monitoring apparatus with which the frequencies of the standards may be compared British National Standard Frequency transmissions from MSF, the similar Standard frequency transmissions from other countries and with U.T.2 time signals from Britain and U.S.A.

Frequency standards bunker

Frequency Standards Room

The only piece of paperwork I found in the place.

Checking and Monitoring Room. The door leads to an accumulator room and the main entrance.

Unidentified graphing equipment

Possibly part of an intercom system

Stairs down to the bunker from the main entrance

This stand of connifers once surrounded the tennis courts.

Al that's left of the courts now is this brick edging and the stumps of a few fence posts.

What I believe may be part of the foundations of the social club. Nothing remains of the farm buildings down the hill.

There are four rhombic aerials for short-wave reception from Canada and U.S.A. and one rhombic for reception from the S-S-W direction. There are also short-wave dipole-curtain, folded dipole, inverted-V and Beverage aerials for reception from directions south-eastward, eastward and north-eastward from Tatsfield.

One of several huts located in the shaw alongside the mast fields.

Mast stay

Sewage plant

A modern, cathode ray, radio-compass direction finder with adcock and crossed-loop aerials is available at a separate site, distant about 200 yards (approx. 180 metres) from the main statinn [sic] [...] The apparatus, manufactured by the Plessey Co. Ltd. (type BW-58) is of 1960 design and has replaced an earlier instrument installed in 1940."

RDF Bunker. Before the RDF station was built this site was occupied by an aerial lighthouse

Modern comms. mast

The surrounding fields offer excellent views of much of London.

More history and photographs here.

Thanks for reading,

A.

 

[highcannons]

That is a very interesting report, thanks for posting.

 

[night crawler]

Great report full of interest.

 

[Derelict-UK]

A really interesting report, thanks for taking the time to show us

 

[godzilla73]

An interesting update, so thanks for that. I did a full FOI request on the site last year and some ofl the in-house BBC documents site the sports and social club on the other side of the road, where the aerial lighthouse originally was. I've interviewed two former employees who reckon that you can see some of the markings for the tennis court on that side, but I've never been able to make them out myself. The 1964 map suggests that the tennis courts are on the other side, but they arent there at all on the 1942 blueprints which were done for the extension of the site - suggesting that they may have been moved from the other side of the road. When I finally get round to writing the book about it (12th of Never!) I'll try and get to the bottom of it, but right now I can't even update my own website entry on it (what a loser!).

Thanks for sharing though!
Godzy

 

[godzilla73]

Also - on the 1942 blueprint, the building you have marked as EiC (which was what I always thought it was, to be truthful) is just marked as "Experimental Research". Again, this could have changed roles I suppose. Its clear that the site changed substantially over the 40 odd years it was in operation, so I suspect its all pretty moveable.

Godzy

 

[jools]

Thanks, well done on the research and nice pics

 

[godzilla73]

One more interesting thing, and then I promise I'll shut up. There's no 1945 aerial imagery for the site on Google Earth. This puzzles me, because there must be such photography (its only a mile or two away from Biggin Hill). Any clues?

GDZ

 

[Foxylady]

Really enjoyed seeing this again. So many interesting remains. Cheers.

 

[The Archivist]

Thank you all and thanks especially Gozilla73 for all your input. I suspect the uses of different parts of the site changed over time as technology improved. As to the aerial imagery, I always thought that rather odd, maybe the photograph was lost or Google simply forgot to put it up. It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened.

 

[OldTatsfieldian]

BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station

I just came across this forum while searching for references to Tatsfield, Surrey, the area I called home for the first 20+ years of my life.

My father knew (not sure how) the then Chief Engineer, Mr. Penfold, but I don't recall his first name, even if I ever knew it.

On two separate occasions during the 1950s, Mr. Penfold gave me a tour of the facility. I distinctly recall rooms full of RCA AR88 receivers, and I think I recall that on the second occasion they had at least one of the then-new Racal RA17 receivers.

In the field (or maybe more than one field) down the hill from the facility were several towers supporting what I think were rhombic antennas aimed in various directions.

In the field closer to the main road and on the opposite side of Beddlestead Lane from the facility (in other words, between Beddlestead Lane and Tatsfield Approach Road) was what I think was a direction-finding antenna setup -- several verticals fairly close together.

In one of the other threads here, someone mentioned derelict farm buildings farther down the hill. Unless those had been rebuilt later (and I certainly do not recall them ever having been rebuilt when I left the area in the early 1960s), they are what was left after a V1 hit them.

 

[theartist]

where da piccies?

 

[krela]

where da piccies?

Clearly this is memories... I will moved it to a relevant report/thread when I'm at a computer.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[The Archivist]

Interesting to hear first hand from someone who saw the site up and running. If you haven't seen it already, you might find this PDF to be of interest.

For reference, here's a link to the report I made in 2011. There have been others.


I don't know about derelict buildings down the hill, but I know that Pilchers Copse Farm is marked immediately to the west of the site on the 1964 OS. Of course, that doesn't rule out its being in ruins at the time, or not there at all, given OS's tendency to still show things long after their demolition. All that's there now is a scatter of rubble and domestic waste. There are a couple of smaller buildings in the woods (might have housed some kind of transformer or cable hub), and the brick outline of the tennis court and social club (I think).

The remains of the Radio Direction Finding station are still there, under what is now a mobile communications mast. The underground equipment room is now used as a plant room by the service provider (used to be Orange, no idea now).

Thanks for posting,

Arch.

 

[krela]

I've merged the two threads together for better context.

 

[Lady Anne]

BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station

I just came across this forum while searching for references to Tatsfield, Surrey, the area I called home for the first 20+ years of my life.

My father knew (not sure how) the then Chief Engineer, Mr. Penfold, but I don't recall his first name, even if I ever knew it.

On two separate occasions during the 1950s, Mr. Penfold gave me a tour of the facility. I distinctly recall rooms full of RCA AR88 receivers, and I think I recall that on the second occasion they had at least one of the then-new Racal RA17 receivers.

In the field (or maybe more than one field) down the hill from the facility were several towers supporting what I think were rhombic antennas aimed in various directions.

In the field closer to the main road and on the opposite side of Beddlestead Lane from the facility (in other words, between Beddlestead Lane and Tatsfield Approach Road) was what I think was a direction-finding antenna setup -- several verticals fairly close together.

In one of the other threads here, someone mentioned derelict farm buildings farther down the hill. Unless those had been rebuilt later (and I certainly do not recall them ever having been rebuilt when I left the area in the early 1960s), they are what was left after a V1 hit them.

I worked in the office at the BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station from 1966 to 1969. I remember Mr Penford.

 

[Lady Anne]

Interesting to hear first hand from someone who saw the site up and running. If you haven't seen it already, you might find this PDF to be of interest.

For reference, here's a link to the report I made in 2011. There have been others.


I don't know about derelict buildings down the hill, but I know that Pilchers Copse Farm is marked immediately to the west of the site on the 1964 OS. Of course, that doesn't rule out its being in ruins at the time, or not there at all, given OS's tendency to still show things long after their demolition. All that's there now is a scatter of rubble and domestic waste. There are a couple of smaller buildings in the woods (might have housed some kind of transformer or cable hub), and the brick outline of the tennis court and social club (I think).

The remains of the Radio Direction Finding station are still there, under what is now a mobile communications mast. The underground equipment room is now used as a plant room by the service provider (used to be Orange, no idea now).

Thanks for posting,

Arch.

I worked in the office at the BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station from 1966 to 1969. There was a tennis court and social club.

 

[OldTatsfieldian]

Interesting to hear first hand from someone who saw the site up and running. If you haven't seen it already, you might find this PDF to be of interest.

For reference, here's a link to the report I made in 2011. There have been others.


I don't know about derelict buildings down the hill, but I know that Pilchers Copse Farm is marked immediately to the west of the site on the 1964 OS. Of course, that doesn't rule out its being in ruins at the time, or not there at all, given OS's tendency to still show things long after their demolition. All that's there now is a scatter of rubble and domestic waste. There are a couple of smaller buildings in the woods (might have housed some kind of transformer or cable hub), and the brick outline of the tennis court and social club (I think).

The remains of the Radio Direction Finding station are still there, under what is now a mobile communications mast. The underground equipment room is now used as a plant room by the service provider (used to be Orange, no idea now).

Thanks for posting,

Arch.

Yes, we knew the Sallis (spelling?) family who lived at Pitcher's Copse Farm (at least, I remember it as "Pitcher's", and I see that there is now a housing development named "Pitchers Copse" at Warlingham) for several years, but I think they had moved away by the time I left the area in the early 1960s. The derelict buildings to which I had referred were on the opposite side of Beddlestead Lane from the BBC station. I can't identify the precise location from Google Satellite view, but I seem to recall that they were where the road changed from a gentle downhill slope to a steeper uphill slope. The name has suddenly come back to me: "Middle Barns." I always assumed that they were farm cottages, but I don't know to which farm they belonged; and I never heard that anyone had died in that V1 hit, so maybe they were already unoccupied by that time.

And, speaking of V1 hits, I was told that at some point people who had been evacuated to that general area from London, when they discovered how close they were to the Biggin Hill RAF base, wanted to go home again.

 

[ihateuserforms]

I worked in the office at the BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station from 1966 to 1969. I remember Mr Penford.

my family are from Tatsfield. Burbages and Streets ..... my Aunty had a Anti Aircraft Battery at the back of her garden...... know any Burbs ? Silvia Streets was my Aunty. John Burbage, George, Amy, Rose, Kathleen, .... ring any bells?

 

[ihateuserforms]

BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station

I just came across this forum while searching for references to Tatsfield, Surrey, the area I called home for the first 20+ years of my life.

My father knew (not sure how) the then Chief Engineer, Mr. Penfold, but I don't recall his first name, even if I ever knew it.

On two separate occasions during the 1950s, Mr. Penfold gave me a tour of the facility. I distinctly recall rooms full of RCA AR88 receivers, and I think I recall that on the second occasion they had at least one of the then-new Racal RA17 receivers.

In the field (or maybe more than one field) down the hill from the facility were several towers supporting what I think were rhombic antennas aimed in various directions.

In the field closer to the main road and on the opposite side of Beddlestead Lane from the facility (in other words, between Beddlestead Lane and Tatsfield Approach Road) was what I think was a direction-finding antenna setup -- several verticals fairly close together.

In one of the other threads here, someone mentioned derelict farm buildings farther down the hill. Unless those had been rebuilt later (and I certainly do not recall them ever having been rebuilt when I left the area in the early 1960s), they are what was left after a V1 hit them.

my family are from Tatsfield. Burbages and Streets ..... my Aunty had a Anti Aircraft Battery at the back of her garden...... know any Burbs ? Silvia Streets was my Aunty. John Burbage, George, Amy, Rose, Kathleen, .... ring any bells?