Factual – Page 105 – What Was Pebble Mill?

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.’

Pebble Mill Locomotive

The first photo is of the Pebble Mill locomotive sign (in final black and silver colours –after Virgin repainted it in 1998). It was an electric locomotive, Class 86, number 86256. The locomotive was originally a British Rail one, before becoming a Virgin one after the privatisation of the railways. It was taken out of service in 2002 and was finally scrapped in 2006.

The other photo is a screen grab of the actual naming ceremony in Nov 1981, Phil Sidey, Head of Pebble Mill, is pulling the string.

I understand that this sign with ‘BBC Pebble Mill’ was meant to be used on the train, but the powers that be didn’t want BBC on it, so it was never used. It is currently being listed for sale on ebay.

This link includes some photos of the Pebble Mill locomotive in service.

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/86256/Interesting

This YouTube video is Birmingham to London in 5 mins. At 1.21 in the train stops at Birmingham International and you can see it is “Pebble Mill”: it was made by Ewan Kiel from Midlands Region.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv640aRwFS8

Stuart Gandy left the following comment on the Facebook page: ‘I remember travelling on a train pulled by this locomotive. It was in 1987 when I was going to London by train for a course. I distinctly remember waiting on Wolverhampton station for the London train to arrive, and when it did it was this one named Pebble Mill. How uncanny was that!’

The Last Pebble Mill at One – photo from Mark Kershaw

This photo was taken just after the last ever ‘Pebble Mill at One’ on 23 May 1986. In fact you can just see the last few members of the audience leaving on the left hand side of the photo.

Included in the photo are:

Back row: Michael Smith (celebrity chef), David Lancaster (glasses), Caroline Marshall, Steve Weddle.

Next to back: Julian Hitchcock (with pink balloon), Chris Wright, Roger Sutton (just behind the others), possibly Barrie Edgar peeking out behind, Tony Rayner, Peter Urie, Peter Hercombe, Claire Chambers, Norma Scott, Mary Clyne, Mark Kershaw, Trudy Stanton, Steph Silk, Richard ?.

Third row from back: Girl in red dress below Tony Rayner is Jacqui Goodwin, Fran Groves, Ann Varley, Di Reid (red dress), Margaret Allen (with belt), John Westcott (FM), Annie Gumbley Williams (standing purple dress)

Back seated row: Sue Ashcroft, Debbie Hood, Caroline Matthews, Denny Hodge , Paul Coia

Middle seated row: Gareth Williams, Jo Buchan, Magnus Magnusson, Marian Foster, Bob Langley, Bev Wildman (Thompson), David Weir

Fron row: Tom Ross (standing), Eileen Bayliss just behind Tom, Maggy Whitehouse, Jane Clement, Viv Ellis, Peta Newbold, Colette Foster (central short brown dress), Nicky Barfoot, Claire Stride, Jane McLean, Jo Dewar

Please add a comment if you can fill in any of the people not identified.

Thanks to Mark Kershaw for making the photograph available.

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

Sourcing Clothes for Presenters – Janice Rider

Specially shot interview with costume designer Janice Rider, talking about sourcing clothes for television presenters. Janice mentions the challenges of finding a suitable outdoor jacket for wildlife cameraman and presenter, Simon King.

Simon King, photo by Gail Herbert