I set off knowing that this was once a Home Office regional maintenance depot and had a long history relating to police communications. The site and depot transferred to NTL with the privatisation of DTELS, and in due course to Arqiva.
Billinge Hill was used by Lancashire police on VHF as early as 1938 and subsequently as a Home Office MF station. There are photographs of the depot just prior to closure in November 2005, see bottom of page for links. The compound appears to have been divided up but many of the buildings survive. One area now seems to be used for caravan parking.
There are four towers in close proximity. The first picture also shows the beacon tower which is the highest point in Lancashire/Merseyside/St Helens, depending on your choice of administrative boundaries. The broadcast antennas are on the tallest structure, located within the depot boundary. Conveniently a public footpath runs around most of the perimiter fence. I'm not sure whether the green paint is intended to make the tower less conspicuous - the other three are finished in traditional grey.
I hadn't realised that the depot had closed, although this became reasonably clear on arrival. Also a slight error in my research led me to believe that the site was used only for DAB. It was a surprise to find a slant-polarised Band II yagi and also a pair of crossed dipoles with reflectors. These are, of course, for Wish FM. Plotting the Ofcom data shows a polar pattern with two distinct main lobes, presumably because the station serves both Wigan and St Helens yet the transmitter is located between the two towns.
There's a short mast on one of the buildings, carrying four yagis which appear to be of "domestic" grade. I assume these may be for some sort of monitoring purpose. |
