Tingley is south of Leeds and overlooks a large part of West Yorkshire. The tower is built on land which is north of M62 junction 28 and is an area which is often called Topcliffe by locals and possibly that should be the proper name for the site, but for legacy reasons to do with previous owners it is known as Tingley.
The history of the land has changed over the years. First industrial use was for West Ardsley collieries and the railway, which linked Bradford, Dewsbury, Leeds and Wakefield.
Over time the collieries closed and the government removed the railway and the land was to find a new purpose with the then state owned British Gas Corporation who built the tower and a local maintenance/engineering depot often known as Tingley Gas Works.
Eventually British Gas closed the depot and the land would be find new usage as a small business estate with the NHS, Carlsberg and many more businesses taking up premises around the tower.
The ownership of the tower remained with British Gas until BG was split into smaller group of companies and the site would come under the ownership of Transco who operated the gas distribution network.
Transco merged with National Grid PLC who bought Crown Castle International (Privatised name for BBC Transmission). Crown Castle was renamed National Grid Wireless and eventually would be sold off by National Grid PLC to Arqiva along with many former BG/National Grid communication assets including the Tingley Tower.
My memory has it that the tower was always painted red and white, but now for some reason is white only. Also the tower has lighting.
The Leeds ILR band II transmitter was relocated to this tower from Morley in January 2006. |
