Eagle Tower – What Was Pebble Mill?

BBC Landrover and Eagle Tower

The photograph shows two men working on a Marconi Mk3 camera belonging to MCR 15 or 16. Is anyone able to identify them? In the background are two Midlands Eagle Tower radio links vehicles. The Landrover was registered in 1967, so the photo might have been taken at Carpenter Road. If you can add any more information, please add a comment.

Thanks to Robin Stonestreet to letting me know about this photograph.

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

Malcolm Hickman: ‘It’s certainly a Midland tower in front, but I don’t recognise the location or the two guys. There were 3 land rovers in Brum in the early 70s. Two on links, one long and one short wheelbase with no side windows and a sound OB with windows. All had BBC Midland logos on. Plus there is a white building in the background, Carpenter Road was red brick. Kendal Avenue was white painted.’

David Kirkwood: ‘Fond memories of the Marconi Mk3. Not sure it’s Birmingham though equally not sure where else they still used that camera in 1967?‘

Glynne Dummett: ‘Operated the Eagle Tower many times, was a bitch to drive with the cage forever banging on the cab roof.’

Keith Brook (aka Scouse): ‘ Remember the Marconi from my Ally Pally days. Such fun when I sent the turret the ‘long way’ round!‘

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Eagle Tower at Silverstone

Photo by Steve Dellow, no reproduction without permission

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This photo shows a couple of heavily rigged Eagle Towers at the Silverstone Grand Prix. The towers were self-erecting and had to carry the transmitter so that the signal from the outside broadcast truck could be relayed to a radio links vehicle at a mid-point, which had to be in line of sight with the tower.

I understand that the Eagle Towers were manufactured in Warwick, at Eagle Engineering.

Thanks to Steve Dellow for sharing the photograph.

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

Malcolm Hickman: ‘I believe you are correct, Eagle was at Warwick. They were fitted on Bedford chassis. They were transported laying down onto the top of the cab and pumped upright by using levers at the back to control the hydraulics. After rigging at 30′ the centre could be extended to 60′.’

Kate White: ‘We only had one Eagle Tower in Birmingham, the other would have come from London. The 4ft dish was probably pointing at a midpoint at Dunstable Downs and on to Crystal Palace. The 2ft dishes pointing at a midpoint at Charwelton near Daventry, that would then have gone into the receivers at Sutton Coalfield. This is based on my memories from the 90s.’

Chris Harris: ‘Wouldn’t the 2ft dishes be pointing to Stowe Corner and CM1?’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Quite right Chris. We used to have vans at Stowe, occasionally Maggots and Becketts. I was with Rod Batch at Maggots when a car spun off. The cameraman on his scaffolding was tracking the car and saw the line up card go through the shot. The car just bumped the scaffold and all we saw was a bit of camera shake.’

Mike Jordan: ‘In later years, we rigged all the links on a platform above the grandstand.’

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Eagle Tower – Stuart Gandy

Eagle Tower 1980

Photo by Stuart Gandy, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of the Eagle Tower, it was taken in 1980 in the Pebble Mill car park. This vehicle was used by the Comms department at Outside Broadcasts. It had a 60 foot mast that was raised and had a microwave dish on top that was used to transmit the programmes back from the OB to a receiving point. The Comms engineers needed a good head for heights as they had to climb the mast to position the dish correctly. It was usually driven by one of the many Pebble Mill ‘rigger/drivers’ as they were known.

Stuart Gandy

Paul Grice, added the following comment on Facebook: ‘It’s interesting to think that these were the mainstay of OB transmissions until satellite technology took over in the 90’s and that they only transmitted over line of sight which meant some OB locations might need three midpoints to get the signal back. Here’s to the people who spent many a happy day stuck on a remote hilltop.’

Richard Taylor left the following comment: ‘I would hasten to add that we didn’t actually climb all 60 feet of it! The first stage was 30 feet, the mast was telescopic and rose from the centre of the first stage. It was all done by hydraulics, the engine gearbox being locked in to a hydraulic pump mode first. After the first stage was raised to the vertical, we’d climb up the fixed vertical ladder, through a small trapdoor and onto the platform raising the safety rails.

The radio link components had to be manually hauled up, using a hoist arm, and bolted into place. Once all was fitted together the tower could then be raised and panned remotely from the ground.

I remember giving David Robinson, an EM then, cause for concern at a Grand Prix rig. The tower chassis had been extended lengthwise for some reason, and the shuttle valve to convert prop shaft motion from driving to pumping would jam. The solution was to get into the chassis and “help” it with a long screwdriver. All perfectly safe, wouldn’t do it otherwise, but David was concerned because the engine was still running, and someone could have knocked it into gear accidently. Not with a burly Rigger Driver guarding the cab, they couldn’t!!’