October 2017 – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Outside Broadcast – with waders

Photo from Brian Johnson, no reproduction without permission

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This outside broadcast was obviously going to be a wet one, necessitating waders!

The man in the photo is Radio Links Supervisor, Billy Horne. The van is either 15 or 126, both Bedford Links Vans. According to Brian, who took the photo, Billy had just bought the waders and was persuaded to try them on.

The photograph was originally shared on the Pebble Mill Engineers Facebook group.

Thanks to Malcolm Hickman for adding information about the photograph.

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Pebble Mill before the BBC

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. This photograph shows the Pebble Mill site before the broadcast was built.

I found this short history of the BBC Pebble Mill site on a Facebook Page, ‘Birmingham Back in The Day’. Here is the link to it: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1177026819016145/permalink/1645644118821077/?pnref=story.

“Pebble Mill was a fulling mill in the 16th century. Standing on the Bournbrook, it was also known as Kings Mill or Kynges Mill after John Kynge. On his death in 1557 this mill together with Over Mill at Edgbaston passed to his son, Roger Kynge. The mill was used for blade grinding in the mid-17th century and was a corn mill by the mid-19th century.

The millpool, which was drained in 1883 allegedly after a high incidence of suicides, became the site of the BBC Pebble Mill studios from c1960. The building was demolished in 2005 when services transferred to the Mailbox in the City Centre.”

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Both Ends Meet

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This comedy was transmitted on BBC television on 25th March 1962, at 20.35. It was produced at BBC Birmingham’s Gosta Green studio.

It featured a very young looking Richard Briers, shown in the photo above with Polly Adams.

Below is the entry from the Radio Times, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

‘A comedy by Arthur Macrae.

Contributors
Author: Arthur Macrae
Producer: Campbell Logan
Designer: Charles Carroll
Tom Davenport: Jack Watling
Margaret Ross: Diane Hart
Mr. Wilson: Richard Pearson
Clarissa Davenport: Polly Adams
Edward Kinnerton: Richard Briers
Jimmy Scott-Kennedy: William Mervyn
Sir George Treherne: Henry Oscar
Lord Minster: Charles Heslop’

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/3baf3e3048cb4161bb372f98b3cbeab2

Thanks to Joyce Hawkins, who worked in Costume for this production, for sharing the photo.

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Fifth Gear

This photo shows Vicki Butler-Henderson presenting on Fifth Gear. Female racing driver, Vicki, was a presenter on Top Gear, until the show was cancelled by the BBC in its original form in 2001, when she, Tiff Needell and Quentin Wilson went on to present Fifth Gear for Channel 5 in 2001. The series was made by ex-BBC Birmingham staff, and hired some of the facilities, such as post production.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this screen grab available.

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

Jonathan Relf: ‘Did a Motor Show shoot with Vicki, assisting the camera crew. The press day and the first day of opening.
Also remember the opening shot of one series at Goodwood racing circuit where they attempted to get one of every car available on the UK forecourts but can’t remember if she was there for that. Top Gear was fun to work on as a change from the studio stuff.’

Darren Cox: ‘I wasn’t BBC staff and I think I shot that actual item. It’s at Brands and Tiff was driving. To be fair I was a BBC contractor for a while.’

Murray Clarke: ‘Vicki B-H was an excellent presenter on Top Gear. Great to work with. She was bit of a ‘lad’, but at the same time, managed to be very feminine!’

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Rod Fawcett in the WM workshop

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The photo shows Radio WM engineer, Rod Fawcett, in the workshop at BBC Pebble Mill.

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

Paul Hunt: ‘I’m guessing this is about 1988? I joined Dan Cooke as the second engineer there 5 years later with Tom Horsefield as the Engineer-in-Charge. The test set on the upper shelf is an ME2/5 (built by the BBC equipment department). Underneath is a Ferrograph RTS2 test set. On the bench is a DC power supply unit for powering equipment under test. Rod’s holding an AKG D130 which was the “standard” omni reporters mic that would be used with a UHER. The WM engineers workshop, room 104, had started life as the newsroom when Pebble Mill opened. It then moved upstairs to the 2nd floor and then back to the first floor in 1989 to be adjacent to TV news. It’s also worth noting the Dymo tape on the drawers – something very common in Local Radio stations!!’

Christopher Hall: ‘Top shelf, with black meter, is BBC ME2/5 audio test set, below it with white meter is Ferrograph RTS-2 audio test set, below it is an amplifier test rack, to left are two H&H AM8/12 loudspeaker amplifiers, below them is a Farnel power supply, and at the right of the bench is a Telequipment D66 oscilloscope.’

Keith Butler: ‘Isn’t the ‘scope a D66a, I think the earlier D66 was blue.’

Andy Walters: ‘My office for my first three years at WM. Room 104 with it’s views of the River Rae and plague of Ladybirds every autumn.’

George Tatler: ‘All this kit still looks current to me, i wish i had a modern dual PSU like the Farnell one. At the far end of the lower shelf is one of those Glensound Tele Balance Unit boxes with the sloping front that an old tele used to sit on top of – as used in district studios or simple NCA studio setups etc..’

Martin Cox: ‘The grey box lying on its face next to the LS3/5a might be a battery powered Level oscillator’

Susan Hillman: ‘Was just a few weeks ago that we were standing round a Farnell power supply at work and saying that they still looked the same as they ever did. This was in stark contrast to the oscilloscope which had an awful lot missing round the back’

Ian Dyer: ‘I moved an ME2/5 between bays only today whilst rationalising the old MKIII bays in Wiltshire post-ViLoR!’

Andy Walters: ‘The same room on WM’s last day at Pebble Mill in Summer 2004.’

Photo by Andy Walters, no reproduction without permission

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