Colin Pierpoint – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Broad Street News Studio Gallery

These photographs show the news studio gallery at Broad Street in the 1960s. In the second photograph you can see into the studio, through the window. The man in the white shirt is a young Jim Dumighan.

These photographs were originally posted on the Pebble Mill Engineers Facebook group. Thanks to Stuart Gandy for allowing them to be shared.

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

Colin Pierpoint: ‘I did a short time in there. I didn’t do much except change a few caption cards in the studio, and I was on tape and grams at least once. The Director asked me for a particular sound effect, so I went to the F/X disc library to get one. When I returned I incurred the Director’s wrath for not being at my post when they had done a rehearsal! (In fact, I had left the tape machine on remote so the sound supervisor could start it). Photo 1: Sam Shaw standing at the back. I think the tape and grams operator may be Ant (Anthony) Astley.

Gordon Astley: ‘I used to work where the guy, back left in the first pic is, playing in sound fx on disc.’

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John Cheshire

Midlands Today studio at Broad Street. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

I have heard from Annie Gumbley Williams that John Cheshire died last Friday, 5th May 2017. This news was given to her by John Pierce. Both the Johns joined the BBC at Broad Street, and then moved to Pebble Mill in 1971, when the new building opened. John was a mechanical and electrical engineer, which is an unusual and very useful combination in broadcasting.

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

Malcolm Hickman: ‘John Cheshire was in Carpenter Road Mech workshop when I started in Services in 1971, before we moved to the Mill. He was always very obliging, nothing was too much trouble. A real gent. It is a sad loss.’

Colin Pierpoint: ‘The studio shown is Studio 4, which was a Radio Studio (and I remember that Charles Parker recorded Peggy Seeger and Ewan McGregor for some of his Radio Ballads – some of which I edited). Studio 4 was converted to television with instructions that we must look after the equipment (Black and white vidicon cameras) which will be moved to Pebble Mill. Needless to say they weren’t. The previous television studio at Broad Street was Studio 1 which was EVEN SMALLER!

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Studio 3 door

This photo shows the ‘door’ from Radio Studio 3 at Pebble Mill. The door would have been used to create effects on Radio 4’s The Archers, as well as other radio dramas. The mini door is on castors so that it could be wheeled around to wherever in the studio it was needed, and is a box construction. It contains all the parts on a door that would make a distinctive sound: a turning key, and knob, and a door chain.

Thanks to Martin Fenton for sharing the photograph, which he took in 2003.

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

Jane Green: ‘On my way back from the bar after a hard morning’s PM@1. Was hijacked by a radio person and asked to scrunch my feet on a tray of gravel.’

Stephen Lyons: ‘ I remember well the similar one at BBC Wales Radio where I worked on Schools Radio programmes over many years.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Notice the stairs in the background. They had 3 different finishes on each tread. Plus at the top of the flight they had several items of door furniture.’

Angela Padgett: ‘Seen them in the Mailbox on the Behind the scenes at BBC Tour. They’re still being used.’

Ruth Kiosses: ‘I once took in my brothers Elizabethan armour for the sound department (Donald McDonald) to record for some drama. I’m sure clanging baking trays would have been the same? But they wanted authenticity.’

Colin Pierpoint: ‘I don’t know who made it. You can see the original door in the photo which was built in to the stairs f/x (extreme top right). The problem was that it had such a large selection of locks, catches and levers that to open the door required at least 8 hands! The portable one appeared later and I suspect it was to overcome the 3 extra staff required to open the original door.’

Carolyn Davies: ‘Didn’t it used to be brown?’

Kathryn Shuttleworth: ‘All the box doors were painted and the screens refurbished for the move to The Mailbox. We had the sash window from under the staircase mounted into a box too. All still in use, they don’t make ’em like that any more!’

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Broad Street

These photographs pre-date Pebble Mill. They show the studio and newsroom when the BBC regional news operation was in Broad Street, Birmingham.

Included in the top photo are: L to R – Cyril Wilkinson, Gwen Smith, Jock Gallgaher on the phone, ?, but on the extreme right with back to camera is Barney Bamford (I think). It is taken in the newsroom at Broad Street. (Thanks to Gillian Thompson for identifying almost everyone!)

It’s interesting to see the caption card with the Midlands Today title on the stand, and the monitor with ‘Nottingham’ on.

Thanks to Stuart Gandy for sharing the photographs, which were originally posted on the Pebble Mill Engineers’ Facebook group.

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

Steve Saunderson: ‘There was little studio in Derby Road, Nottingham above the Jaegar shop. I first worked for a crew that was based there. It had 2 black and white cameras which Terry used to operate remotely in a tiny studio which Les Dawson described as a “technological broom cupboard” when he came in to do an interview down the line to Pebble Mill. They later moved into the bigger “sound” studio and I think actually went to colour and then into their present home.’

Peter Greenhalgh: ‘I moved to the Nottm studio in 83 as an engineer, not long after Terry left. It was colour by then (EMI 2001 cameras). The next move was to York House in 1989 think. That was where Radio Nottingham was and has now been demolished. We are currently in the London Road studios, which opened for radio and TV in 1999.’

Colin Pierpoint: ‘Nottingham television studio was in Black and White at the Broad Street time. I don’t remember if it was an outside source to BM or did a separate opt out, but I do remember at that time I saw a fault on the Notts insert, so I rang the control line to query it and heard a “Tingaling” on the sound off air! The telephone communication was to a field telephone on the studio floor with no ringing mute on TX. The change to colour was while I was at Pebble Mill, so between 1970 and 1980. Malcolm and I were sent to Bardon Hill with a standby generator in case the mains failed.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘The mains was OK, but the standby generator failed.’

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Colin Pierpoint blog – Part 17

Pebble Mill canteen. Photo by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission

Pebble Mill restaurant. Photo by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission

I remember sitting in Pebble Mill the top floor restaurant while a motor bike was flying round the top of the building. Seeing Gangsters recorded and transmitted. The daily Pebble Mill at One. In fact for a long time I appeared daily on BBC1 because the opening titles had a shot of me walking along a corridor. I didn’t know until my mother asked if it was me! In the Comms Centre we had to set up the a circuit daily from Pres A studio at the Television Centre, for the weatherman to be used in Pebble Mill at One. This was normally fed on the BBC2 distribution vision line, with Sound-in-Syncs for the sound, because in those days BBC2 didn’t begin transmission until the late afternoon.

Birmingham Network Production Centre, as it was officially known, was just the right size by accident to make an environment where everyone works together to the same aim. I brought my sister and her family on a visit, and got here to see makeup, which I could not have done in London if my face was not known. There were no divisions between departments and different disciplines which I saw elsewhere, where television people do not understand radio, and studio sound staff were unaware of film sound techniques. These problem were absent at Pebble Mill because you had coffee and meals in the same restaurant and talked to each other. I once had my evening meal with the Midlands Presenter for television, I used to invite other presenters into the Comms Centre for a coffee. A production Assistant and I had an arrangement to see each others jobs. One TM (Technical Manager in television) suggested I follow him around and see his work on the set for Pebble Mill at One. I think the regions NPC working environment has been undervalue by the BBC.

Colin Pierpoint

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