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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
WARRINGTON (FAIRCLOUGH MILL)
| Photos by Ringway Manchester | Page last updated: 2026-08-16 |
| I went with a friend to Panacea Soul HQ for a catch up before visiting the transmitter site for the multiplex it is part of. |
| This is Fairclough Mill in Warrington. It sits on Atherton’s Quay on the River Mersey. It’s a historic 19th-century flour mill, best known locally as the iconic "Pink Eye" building due to a giant mural painted on the remaining 110ft grain silo by artist Anthony Turk in 1999. Apparently he’d hoped to create a giant marine life mural but was prevented by “red tape” so he painted the eye instead. Today it houses mixed commercial premises and just so happens to be home to two radio transmitters. One on FM and one on DAB. |
| The FM antenna belongs to Greatest Hits Radio north west. It’s a two tier Lindenblad array that has been live from here since March 2023 after previously being sited over at High Warren Reservoir. Greatest Hits Radio north west is on 107.2 FM from Fairclough Mill with an ERP of 200w. |
| The Lindenblad array consists of two sets of four, half wave folded dipoles slanted 45 degrees to the horizon, spaced ¼ wavelength from the centre pole, oriented 90 degrees to each other in azimuth to form two Lindenblad antennas. |
| This is the DAB antenna for the Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn DAB multiplex. There’s a repeater at St Mary’s Church in Runcorn and a second repeater is in Lymm which I’ll visit soon and share photos of. The antenna sits 131.2ft above the ground on a short pole on the side of the building and originally radiated an ERP of 240 watts from the centre of the coverage area before a power increase to 640 watts was granted by Ofcom in 2024. The multiplex covers Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn along with Lymm thanks to the repeater stations. |
| Identifying this one presented a challenge. I know the antenna is a vertical but there are three vertical antennas up here. The tallest one looks like a 5/8 wave for DAB. Zooming in shows the antenna is made by TRS. The transmit frequency is marked on the antenna itself. 197.648 MHz. The multiplex is 8B and it serves approximately 350,000 people. The multiplex launched on 18th August 2023. |
| Something else interesting I noticed is that the mobile phone antennas of which there are many up here are painted pink to match the building. I know they're not broadcast related but they're unusual. I can’t say I’ve ever seen pink ones before! |
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