October 2017 – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

The Flying Gardener

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The first series of The Flying Gardener was produced in London, by Owen Gay in 2001, with the subsequent series being produced in Birmingham in 2003. Sarah Davis (now Moors) was the producer, and Gill Tierney the series producer, when the series transferred to Birmingham. It was transmitted on Friday evenings on BBC2. Presenter and garden designer, Chris Beardshaw travelled around the country in a helicopter, in search of inspirational gardens, to influence the design of a garden project.

Thanks to VT Editor, Ian Collins, for making the screen grab available.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Steve Saunderson: ‘Barry Foster shot a lot, all or some of it on tape and I shot the title sequence on film, all at 75fps on my Arri SR3 Advanced camera, which then was speed-ramped in the edit to whiz the helicopter in and out of frame. My focus puller was Terry Bartlett and the assistant was my son Paul. We were on top of a steep “cliff” at a golf club somewhere above Cheltenham so that Chris could stand on the edge and have the helicopter rise and fall behind him with lots of airspace to manoeuvre. We shot most of it on my 50mm, 85mm and 135mm prime Zeiss Superspeed lenses, to visually pull the helicopter closer to Chris.’

Adam Trotman: ‘Yep I edited all the stings… speed ramping them…..very in those days….. bloody Matrix had a lot to answer for’

Barrie Foster: ‘ It was great fun. Tim Green did the sound and Castle Air did the flying. Memorable very ‘lumpy ‘ rid over Scottish hills after kippers for breakfast!‘

Tracey Bagley: ‘How could I forget this one .. hard sums and schedules but all worth the effort’

Sarah Moors: ‘Now there’s a blast from the past! The hours spent on that programme and the stories I could tell…The start of years of Gardening programmes for me. Happy times.’

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Radio WM studio

Photo from Rod Fawcett, no reproduction without permission

Chris Nelson in Radio WM, with the desk partially dismantled, on the first floor of Pebble Mill.

The following comments were added to the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Andy Walters: ‘That’s gotta be Area 1. The only Studio that was orientated that way. The removed unit will contain the Peak Programme Meters, Red DTX buttons and Talkback as well as master level controls.’

Paul Hunt: ‘I think it’s a very young Chris Nelson and he’s sitting in Area 1. (In Area 2 and 4 the operator had their back to the window) The central module has been removed. It wasn’t uncommon for folk to hit the tannoy or DTX (Direct to transmitter) buttons so hard that they would stick in. These BBC Mark 3 desks were hand built by the equipment department at Avenue House in Chiswick. The last one in service is at Radio Lancashire, not bad considering they were designed in the 1970’s!!’

Andy Marriott: ‘Wow, is Lancashire really the last Mk3 site? Does that mean everyone else is ViLoR’ed now? Or are the post 2000 refurbed ER template sites still in service?
I’ve got one of those centre modules in my garage, ex-Humberside, I think. What I’d like to know is what are those 7 segment LED displays are? Next to the LS3/5. Didn’t WM have some kind of computer controlled CD jukebox system for their music?’

Andy Walters: ‘There was a CD jukebox controlled by Acorn RISC computers with NSM mechanisms. It was originally bought for CWR in Coventry. I remember chucking it in the skip. The hard disk system was called Numisys but I do think it was there for very long. World Service used Numisys a lot. The display by the speaker, I think were timers for the two Gram channels.’

Paul Hunt: ‘We did the trial with Studer Numisys in 1994. As Andy points out the CD jukebox system was moved over in 1996 after the merger with CWR.’

Philip Morgan: ‘Am I correct in thinking that this area was originally the Station Manager’s office (i.e. Jack Johnston’s) in the 1970’s? I believe these areas were originally designated something like studio’s 8, 9, and 10 when Pebble Mill was under construction and the area was reserved for the Midland Region of Radio 4.’

Rod Fawcett: ‘The cart machine on the right is a BE (Broadcast Electronics) triple deck – replaced eventually by the Sonifex Micro HS series… The photo is from the 80s and after Radio WM became stereo (as of course its a Mk III stereo console). I can’t remember when WM converted to stereo exactly, was it 1985??’

Simon Walsh: ‘This is the Late Nights with Adil Ray desk, and was a pleasure to drive.’

Thomas Graal: ‘It looks like Chris Nelson with hair to me. The LP on the desk is 20 Fabulous Hits by Jake Thackray originally released in 1975.’

Paul Hunt: ‘So who do I bump into in the basement of BH today but Chris Nelson. He loved the photo and said it was working with people like Ed Doolan that helped him get on. He now travels the globe directing multi camera programmes for BBC World.’

Andy Walters: ‘Here’s how the same studio looked on WMs last day in 2004. It was the last studio on air as it was used by the Asian Network for six weeks after WM left.’

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Joan Walsh

Pebble Mill canteen, photo by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission

Joan Walsh, who worked in the BBC canteen in Birmingham from 1952, sadly died last week (Oct 2017), aged 93. Louise Willcox has pieced together some of information about Joan’s career, with the help of former colleagues.

Joan worked at Carpenter Road, before Pebble Mill opened in 1971, rising through the ranks to become the second in command of the canteen. Eileen Bywater was brought in as Canteen Manager and she and Joan looked after the Pebble Mill canteen office. Jenny Brewer says that she was incredibly capable, delightfully calm and a joy to deal with.

Please add a comment, if you can add any more information about Joan.

The following comment were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Judy Markall: ‘Lovely lady. Her birthday was 28th May. I have many fond memories from when she was friends with my mom and then myself.’

Anne Smith: ‘Lovely lady, have lots of good memories of working with Joan and Eileen.’

Tracy Crump: ‘Sad, worked under Eileen and knew Joan.’

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Colin Campbell

Photos by Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission

Colin Campbell, with Jo Dewar and Terry Cartwright

Virtuoso pianist Colin Campbell has passed away aged 77 (Oct 2017). Colin was a keyboard player and played in the Midland Radio Orchestra at Pebble Mill. He often played on Pebble Mill At One, and is shown here on the Tom O’Connor Roadshow, in 1987.

Thanks to Jane Mclean for sharing these photos.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Sarah Ashton: ‘My father, John Kingdon, formed the Midland Radio Orchestra along side Norrie Paramor, their conductor. I remember going to work with dad and listening to the orchestra play on many occasions. I do remember the name Colin Campbell but was too young to put a face to the name.’

Jane Ward: ‘Loads of happy memories of Colin…fantastic musician and all-round lovely guy…. Very sad to hear this news…
And of course he was one half of Pianorama, with the inimitable Harold Rich….’

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Rod Fawcett with Radio Car 1983

Photo from Rod Fawcett, no reproduction without permission

Radio WM engineer, Rod Fawcett, standing proudly by the radio car, in July 1983. It looks like the photo was taken in the car park at Pebble Mill, round the back of the garage.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Keith Butler: ‘I was attached as an engineer to radio WM in 1983, and it was me who went down to Brookmans Park to collect this radio car and drive it back to Pebble Mill.’

Bob Chesworth: ‘UHF transmitter to that aerial on top of the mast, VHF comms (Storno?)to and from base.Air compressor to drive mast up (with safety overides!) No radio mic,just a drum of multi possibly to a Diggles mic (or was that too early?) Probably a 1.6 litre engine (some of the “County” stations had a 2 litre version) A lot of the vehicles had number plates reflecting the transmitter, Lincs was A219 SUL ‘cos we were 219 on medium wave. Joined up thinking from Transport courtesy of Peter Higgins I believe.’

Paul Hunt: ‘I came across the Cortina radio car when I did a stint at Radio Lincolnshire. Bob Chesworth demonstrated how putting the Moseley UHF transmitter into high power doubled the flashing speed of the cars indicators!!’

Keith Brook (Scouse): ‘Before I became a Pebble Mill cameraman, I worked at Radio Merseyside in the late 60s.

Their radio car was a Ford Cortina and the whole of the cargo area filled with very heavy car batteries to power the transmitter.

This made driving the thing great fun especially around corners when we were trying to stay close to a blue light police escort!

Trying to get a signal back was problematic and the car had to be inched backwards or forwards until the signal strength was good enough.

There was a switch at the base of the antenna to inhibit driving with it extended. To perform the ‘inching’ procedure, the switch was over-ridden with an old penny piece wedged between the contacts!!

Great fun!’

Marc Price: ‘I worked at WM from 1989 – 1993. The radio car was an Austin Montego in those days. Just before I left, I drove the Montego down to West London (can’t remember the site name but think it was where all the old broadcast kit went when it was decommissioned). I was only a few miles away from my destination when I managed to crash it! Think the replacement was a Ford Sierra.’

Simon Pattern: ‘Or as we called it at Radio York – the Montenogo.
If I recall, the Sierra replacements were dreadful to drive, the positioning of the technical gear left them with the oddest centre of gravity, which in turn made them act like a tractor pulling a herd of cattle once you got above 30mph!’

Chris Livingstone: ‘Didn’t Manchester have a similar version? I remember having to stand on the sill and pull the mast down for the last few inches so that it could be driven. Also, the mast on the top of Piccadilly plaza had to be rotated from the studio in order to pick up the signal. There were “black spots” too where a signal just couldn’t get through’

Andrew Thorman: ‘I think the car was eventually written off by a newsroom hack on the M5 having been “lent” him to get home.’

Ian Oakland: ‘I remember that being the ‘new radio car’’

Simon Pattern: ‘How can any radio car discussion not mention the Storno “dudderly dups”!’

Marc Clements: ‘The golden age of wm!’

Paul Andersson: ‘Whilst at Cleveland our radio car was a Hillman Hunter estate!’

Chris Bell: ‘very similar to the one we had. If I remember correctly it worked on phantom cue with station output coming from the car radio of all things!!! The mast had a small compressor but the cut out to stop you driving away with the mast up had a habit of failing!!!! Happy days eh?’

Kevin Keene: ‘Some interesting discussion on here. I remember in ’96 taking the vintage Radio Humberside OB van home for an early live at Mappleton cliffs. At 4am I went out to find I’d been blocked in. Spent 15 minutes doing short back and forth movements to get out with the loud reversing hooter coming on each time. The neighbours didn’t block me in a second time.’

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