Building – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Royal Navy helicopter landing at Pebble Mill

Photo by Keith Warrender, no reproduction without permission

Thanks to Keith Warrender for sharing this photo of a Royal Navy helicopter landing on the back lawn at Pebble Mill. This dates from the late 1970s. The landing would have been part of Pebble Mill at One, and was no doubt one of John Smith’s shows, as he had very good contacts with the military.

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

David Shute: ‘I often had the job of doing Hearts & Minds visits to the neighbours when we had noisy visitors expected. Great fun.’

Julie Hill: ‘I was at Pebble Mill then and we had harrier jump jets/ parachutes and all sorts of crazy stunts landing for Pebble Mill at One! Being told not to leave the BBC Club bar whilst the Harrier landed and took off went down very well! Oh happy days….’

Pebble Mill site 2020

Pebble Mill site 2020

Posted by Bhasker Solanki on Thursday, 9 January 2020

Thanks to Bhasker Solanki for sharing this video of the Pebble Mill site in Jan 2020. It looks very different from when it was a broadcast centre, with only the road past Security at the end of the video looking the same.

House Services Engineers circa 1983

Thanks to Richard Smith for sharing this photo of the House Service Engineers, who had just set up the marquee for Regional Clubs Day. It’s circa 1983.

From L to R: Dave Tansey, Mick Taylor, Dick Smith and Mick Archbold.

Ron Poston working at the BBC Club

Thanks to Jan Poston, for sharing this photo from the late 1990s, of her father working at the BBC Club at Pebble Mill.

Ron was a true gentleman and is fondly remembered by BBC staff. He also worked as a studio attendant.

Tony Newbury, Mike Day, Gail Herbert, Peter Skinner

The photo includes Tony Newbury, Mike Day, Gail Herbert (now Everett), and Peter Skinner. It was taken in the BBC Club at Pebble Mill one Christmas.

Thanks to Gail for sharing the photo.

The following information was added on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Paul Hunt: Mike was the Broadcast Systems Engineer. In a nutshell he knew everything about all the wiring of Pebble Mill and kept all the records up to date. Additionally he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the Post Office landlines across the midlands region!

Steve Dellow: ‘He was also given an ‘Unsung Hero’ award recently’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/get-inspired/46454426?fbclid=IwAR3lHi6eZp0AjzpVqpft-C89ZwTjK3Z2fksytN5JYu4QsvKFDxnhtu5li3U