There is a link, which includes a picture, at the bottom of this page, to an article in the Skegness Magazine about the closure of this site, in 1979.
By the early 1960's, the BBC 405-line TV coverage to the coastal areas on the outer service area of Holme Moss remained poor and during the summer months, was frequently degraded by co-channel interference from distant continental transmitters. Consequently the BBC planned to build a number of, VHF band I relay stations, to improve the situation at some of the larger population centres affected. Skegness was one of these sites.
A 405-line, BBC TV relay of Holme Moss, Skegness entered service on 8th August 1963 on VHF channel 1, with a maximum ERP of 60 W, horizontally polarised. The aerial was sited on top of a water tower belonging to Anglian Water, with a mean height of 36m agl. The programme feed was via SHF link from a receiving station on a 365ft tower at a Radar station at RAF Stenigot near Louth, Lincolnshire. Not far from Belmont. A little over 3 years later the site was effectively made redundant with the opening of the BBC 1, band III transmitter at Belmont on 19th November 1966, which had a service area that encompassed Skegness, as well as most of the rest of Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire. Later BBC transmitter listings have Skegness as a relay of Belmont, so I assume that the SHF link was discontinued.
The BBC television service transmitter network had been restricted to the use of the 5, VHF band I channels. Following the publication of the Pilkington Committee report on 27th June 1962, the government agreed with its recommendation that the third television service should be awarded to the BBC, (BBC 2), and that this would use the 625-line standard, transmitting in UHF bands IV & V. The VHF band III channels that had been reserved for a future ITV 2 service, using the 405-line standard, were released to both the BBC and ITA to extend and improve their existing coverage, as well as providing additional regional separation for areas such as South Wales and South West Scotland. The construction of band III transmitters at Belmont for both the BBC & ITV, was a result of this decision. Two other BBC, Holme Moss, band I relays, that had been planned for Grimsby and Blackpool, were never built. The BBC band III transmitter at Winter Hill superseded Blackpool.
The water tower at Skegness, built in 1926, sank and developed a 12 degree list. This was not considered dangerous but salt air and winds had eroded the structure. By the late 1970's, the tower was no longer used for the town's water supply. Anglian Water wanted to demolish the tower and redevelop the site. As Skegness was by then, well served by both VHF and UHF versions of BBC 1 from Belmont, Skegness became the first 405-line transmitter to be closed, in December 1979. Just over two years ahead of the start of the phased closure of the rest of the 405-line transmitter network which commenced in January 1982. The water tower was demolished in June 1981. |
