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 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
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.
One of several huts located in the shaw alongside the mast fields.
Mast stay
Sewage plant
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.
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.