A few photos from the former Rainford MF site. I walk past this place regularly, and was surprised to learn that Radio City was once transmitted from here.
As the photos show, there is no sign whatsover of any masts having been in the field, no scars, bumps or concrete on the ground. They tidied up after themselves well. The only structure in the field is a pill box from the former military ordnance depot, likely unrelated to the IBA installations as there are others like it nearby.
There is a mobile phone tower on the edge of the field around 200 yards from where the MF masts stood. As alluded to on the previous page, there is a possibility that the adjoining building was originally the transmitter housing for the Radio City installation- it looks older too. It sits amongst the former military storage buildings, today used as industrial units.
A local news archive mentions Rainford Council receiving a planning application in 1973 from the IBA for a 175 ft aerial, so this gives an idea of size. This is the same height as the Skew Hill array, built for ILR in Sheffield on the same frequency of 1548 kHz / 194 m.
A forum post I came across suggests the reason for this site’s demise- the directional signal was aimed 215º / SW, towards Liverpool, Birkenhead and eventually hitting the Clwydian Hills just over the border in Wales. The reflected signals, which were out-of-phase, caused interference back in Merseyside, with reception sometimes better in Blackpool than it was in Liverpool.
No idea when the masts were eventually torn down, service ended in July 1994, but as mentioned previously, a planning application makes reference to them in 2003. |
