# Rugby Radio Station - Hillmorton - May 2013



## RichPDG (May 10, 2013)

Rugby Radio Station was a radio transmission facility at Hillmorton near the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England, situated just west of the A5 trunk road and in later years junction 18 of the M1 motorway. Its large very low frequency (VLF) transmitter came into service on 1 January 1926 and was originally used to transmit telegraph messages to the Commonwealth as part of the Imperial Wireless Chain. After the 1950s this transmitter, active as callsign GBR on 16.0 kHz, using Morse code and later on 15.975 kHz with frequency-shift keying FSK and minimum-shift keying MSK, was used for transmitting messages to submerged submarines. Criggion radio station acted as a reserve. The GBR transmitter was shut down on 1 April 2003 and was replaced by a new one at the Skelton transmitting station.




20130506_165914 by RichPDG, on Flickr



20130506_165854 by RichPDG, on Flickr



External by RichPDG, on Flickr



Doors by RichPDG, on Flickr



Abandoned by RichPDG, on Flickr



Flooded by RichPDG, on Flickr



Basement by RichPDG, on Flickr



Hallway by RichPDG, on Flickr



Stairs by RichPDG, on Flickr



Theatre by RichPDG, on Flickr



Wood by RichPDG, on Flickr



Corridor by RichPDG, on Flickr



Rubbish by RichPDG, on Flickr



20130506_164834 by RichPDG, on Flickr



20130506_165351 by RichPDG, on Flickr



20130506_165430 by RichPDG, on Flickr​
Thanks for looking


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## UrbanX (May 10, 2013)

Nice shots that man. Shame it's so trashed, but still looks quite a good explore!


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## Meridian (May 10, 2013)

Thanks, interesting to see the place. Bizarrely, Rugby radio appears in the opening part of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells". See:-

http://alancordwell.co.uk/personal/index.php


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## shot_in_the_dark (May 10, 2013)

liking this a lot, thanks for sharing


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## The Wombat (May 25, 2013)

some good shots there
The basement is Skanky!!!


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## Jabberwocky (Aug 1, 2013)

It's a shame to see it in that state, very sad. I was an apprentice there in 1973, and have some good memories of the people who were stationed there.

The basement used to flood because the builders struck a spring when they built it in the 1950's. There was a sump at the end of the basement, beyond the air-raid shelters and the boiler room, and a pump with a float switch stopped the water rising too far. I imagine the power has been turned off so the whole place has filled up.

There was a full-sized snooker table and skittles table down there as well. It's a bit sad if they've been ruined.


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## flyboys90 (Aug 2, 2013)

Dont know how I missed this one,great report.


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## alex76 (Aug 4, 2013)

i had a mooch of this place yesterday got spooked when i herd beeping in the corridor found it a bit strange when the place got no electric


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