# Borough Hill Daventry - Ex BBC transmitter Site



## magmo (Jul 29, 2011)

On a misty morning this week I was early for a job I was doing in Daventry so I decided to visit Borough Hill Country Park. It is the site of the old Daventry long wave and short wave transmitters that I remember well from my youth.







Daventry Site Circa 1980​
The first thing that strikes you when entering the park is the last of the remaining tower which can bee seen for miles so no excuses for not being able to find it,






The mast now is mainly used for Microwave communications, cell phone antennas and TETRA,






As you walk up towards the mast from the car park you can see the remains of a mast base of the same type as the remaining mast. The mast rests on a gimble consisting of a steel domed plate on a concrete base.






The weight of the mast is supported by a single steel ball of about 1” ½ diameter as is shown by the comparison with a 50p.






The mast is tensioned by the guys onto the gimble and when masts of a similar design in nearby rugby were demolished they just put a small charge on the guy ropes on one side and the masts just fell over. You can see the gimble assembly on the base of the remaining mast.






First they had to replace the detonation cord installed the day before as the rabbits had eaten through them. As you can see from this picture of the anchor point borough hill has its own resident rabbit population.






The park is littered with the remand of guy bases of smaller masts.






As well as the bases remaining from the larger tower structures.






Lager than life close up.






This is another of the tree anchor points and in the background is a tower that was dismantled and stored for spares.






The old BBC compound is still used for storage of communication masts and equipment. This is a transmitter cabinet from a T-Mobile installation. You can see the antenna feeds for the 3 arrays around the mast plus a feed for a G.P.S antenna. The GPS feed is used for precision time synchronisation at the cell.






Hope you found this of interest and being a public park access is open to all, it is surprising what history is on your doorstep at times.


----------



## themousepolice (Jul 30, 2011)

great stuff. really good post.

i was brought up in Kilsby and remember these well. they dominated my vision and thoughts whenever we past them in the car or on the school bus.

i recall being told that if the Russians ever attacked (this was 1980) that these masts would be one of the first targets........ i used to dream of grouping my village friends together to defend them..... well i was 10 at the time.... never thought that sling shots, pine cones and one dodgey air pistol wouldnt stop whatever force came to destroy them......

anyway. thanks


----------



## Richard Davies (Jul 30, 2011)

When travelling to family in Northamptonshire this site is one of landmarks on the way.


----------



## krela (Jul 30, 2011)

Interesting stuff. I'm guessing the gimble/guys design makes the mast safer/more stable in winds?


----------



## imyimyimy (Jul 30, 2011)

sweet!.. Loving the GPS control system


----------



## oldscrote (Jul 31, 2011)

Fascinating,would be interesting to know how much weight is resting on that base plate.Thanks for sharing.


----------



## johno23 (Aug 2, 2011)

Interesting thread and good photos.

I have seen this installation a few times from some miles away and always wondered what it was for.

I am always surprised actually how close we can get to such things,what with their importance "when" in use and the associated dangers of radiated power and electricity etc.

Love techy stuff like this.


----------



## magmo (Aug 3, 2011)

krela said:


> Interesting stuff. I'm guessing the gimble/guys design makes the mast safer/more stable in winds?



Thats the idea.

I remeber in the 1980's an F111 from Upper Hetford hit a Guy wire on the Sandy Heath TV mast while flying low, That came close to comming down.

It also sliced 2' of the end of the wing but it managed to get back to Upper Heyford and land, I wonder if he parked it round the back of the hanger and hoped no one would notice.


----------



## nelly (Aug 3, 2011)

Thanks mate, I found that surprisingly interesting


----------



## missgreen (Dec 23, 2020)

very interesting thread although your top picture isn't borough Hill, Daventry, Those are the Rugby Masts a few miles away.


----------

