March 2012 – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Pebble Mill at One OB

Photos by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

The photos are of an outside broadcast for ‘Pebble Mill at One’ in the Cotswolds.

The first photo of Engineering Manager, John Endall and the horse was probably taken at David Nicholson’s racing yard at Condicote.

The other photos are of a tractor which was in the way of the scanner and took a long time to start and move!

It is Engineering Manager, John Endall sitting on the tractor, with VT editor, Steve Neilson on the far left of the tractor photos. The man in the light anorak could be rigger/driver from BBC Bristol called Ken Townsend.

Thanks to Jayne and Tim Savage, and Dave Bushell for providing the information.

The Archers Spot Effects – Kathryn Shuttleworth

Studio 3 Spot Effects

One of the most famous effects to do! This all gets very messy but whenever there is a calf being born in Ambridge we reach for the yoghurt, a wet towel and some old tape (we may not record on it these days but it is still of use!). Squelching noises from the yoghurt and the “plop” of a wet towel onto the tape is all it takes to create this masterpiece of an effect! This technique is still used in studio to this day – some things never change!

Kathryn Shuttleworth

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Peter Poole: ‘I remember recording the Archers in M3 before it all went digital. And the omnibus edit.’

Andy Foley: ‘How we suffer for our art – I once had to violently rip apart a chicken carcass in Studio 3 for someone being garrotted! Not in the Archers I hasten to add! A drama with Timothy West.’

Radio Studio 5

Photos by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are of the cubicle in Studio 5, one of the network radio studios at Pebble Mill. They were taken by Philip on the viewing day before the auction to sell off the equipment from Pebble Mill that wasn’t being taken to the Mailbox.

Kathryn Shuttlecock adds the following information: ‘This was our main GP (General Purpose) studio and was used for most of our Radio 2 specialist music shows as well as plenty of live broadcasts such as Late Night Currie with the dear Edwina. This got a bit hairy in the later days as the desk was really on the way out and many a time an SM could be seen taking bits of the desk to pieces live on air to try and keep the thing running! Emergency calls to London to say we might actually fall of air were not unknown! The last time this studio was used was when we had actually moved to (and were broadcasting from) the Mailbox. I used the desk and the ISDN lines in there to do a live link up to Late Night Currie for Halloween when we had ghost hunters and psychics trying to work out if all the ghostly tales of the Mill were true. I had just enough bits of kit and cables to run from Studio 5 into Studio 3 where we had set up for the evening. By that time Pebble Mill was a spooky place to be regardless of any ghoulish happenings and the ghost hunting team were so fascinated they returned a few weeks later to do a full overnight ghost watch! This was probably the last thing to happen on site before the doors were closed to us for good.’

Steve Peacock adds the following: ‘It was also the studio for many fairly hairy live Farming Todays after the move from London and before we fell victim to a plague of Boyle and started pre-recording. 14 minutes live can be a tricky number for the numerately challenged.’

Lunchtime in the Pebble Mill Club

The photo shows VT Editor, Mike Bloore, PA, Jane McLean, and VT Editor, Brian Watkiss, in the Pebble Mill Club.

By how young they all look, it probably dates from the early 1980s. Looks like a typical lunchtime!

Thanks to Jane, for making the photo available.

The Morning on One

Thanks to Marie Phillips for making this available.

This bone china tea cup was made to celebrate ‘The Morning on One’. It dates from the early 1990s, when BBC Pebble Mill ran the morning schedule on BBC 1. The presentation was run by Ross King, and Lydia Thomas, and linked the two big large live shows: ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ and ‘Pebble Mill’.