Building – Page 102 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Recording Sound Effects for the Archers

Photo from Gill Powell, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows sound recordists Lee Harrigan and Rob Taylerson, in the Pebble Mill car park making a recording of Carl Dolan’s car engine for when Eddie Grundy went stock car racing in ‘The Archers’.

Gordon Astley adds the following comment on the Facebook Page: ‘recording Archers FX was my first job when I joined Broad Street in’69. I believe we played them in on one of the 1st Mellotrons. John Lennon had the first. Do I remember correctly? I have dined out on it ever since .’

Pebble Mill paper-weight

Thanks to Marie Phillips for making the paper-weight available.

Marie Phillips was secretary to Pebble Mill, Senior Personnel and Admin Manager, Andy Tylee, for five years and to Senior Human Resources Manager, Bridget Allen, for one year, in the 1980s. The Pebble Mill paper-weights date from the 1980s, and were produced as corporate gifts for visitors.

Ivor Williams on location – photos by Ian Collins

Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

The photos show Pebble Mill VT Editor Ivor Williams ‘working’ on location at an outside broadcast.

It was when Ivor got his job as an Editor. The location was Leicester Velodrome, where the crew were based for 2 weeks to cover the cycling. The photo is probably from the mid ’80s.

Thanks to Ian Collins for providing the information.

Pebble Mill at One – Goodyear Airship

These stills are from the visit of the Goodyear airship to ‘Pebble Mill at One’.

Please add a comment if you can add any information, or know the approximate year.

Conal O’Donnell left the message on the Facebook page: ‘I think it was in the mid -eighties.I did a piece on it for WM.We sauntered over Coventry at about 2,500 ft -it was a wonderful way to fly in ideal conditions . I wouldn’t fancy it in anything other than ordinary weather tho’.One of the most bizarre aspects of it was the ground handling crew were all Vietnamese boat people.’

More spooky goings on at Pebble Mill – Kath Shuttleworth

Kath Shuttleworth with Johnny Ball

There are many tales of spooky goings on at Pebble Mill. I too had a slightly unexplainable experience in Studio 3. Whilst staying late one evening to prep some SFX I was working in the cubicle and the lights on the studio floor were off. I heard the sound of the studio door open as if being picked up via one of the mics and coming out of the speakers. I assumed it was security doing their checks but when I looked at the desk there were no mics faded up. Strange I thought and carried on working. I was at the back of the cubicle and several times turned round suddenly as I could have sworn someone came in through the door at the back. At this point I thought this was all getting a bit weird but put it down to being tired and went home.

The next day I mentioned this to a colleague who wasn’t surprised to hear my tale and told me more tales of mysterious moving props, rearranged furniture and similar bizarre goings on. A few months later another of my colleagues also had a weird experience of strange things happening with CD players and unexplained sounds coming from the speakers.

Before we left Pebble Mill we did a piece for Halloween for Late Night Currie. The programme was broadcast from the Mailbox but we still had the ISDN facilities in Studio 5 at the Mill so we did a little OB from there. We had various psychics and ghost hunters in studio 3 at Pebble Mill trying to fathom out all these ghostly tales and see if there was anything there!

After the TX the ghost hunting team said they’d love to do an all night ghost watch before the building was demolished. So we did! It was all very spooky and there were certainly some cold spots and unexplained feelings around Studio 3 and some of the basement areas.

I do have a copy of the report but it is not conclusive as to paranormal activity. All I know is that there are certainly some good tales of spooky goings on and having experienced something bizarre myself I have to admit I’m not quite as sceptical about ghosts as I once was!

Kath Shuttleworth