Graham Hewitt – What Was Pebble Mill?

Stan Smith’s retirement party

Photo from Malcolm Hickman of Stan Smith’s retirement party (circa 1983/4), which was well attended by Comms Centre staff.

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

Brian Johnson: ‘Will give it a try: Front row L to R – David Robinson, John Noble, Chris Donovan, Stan Smith, Keith Lindsey, Graham Hewitt: : Second Row L-R Shaffiq, John Nestor, Brian Johnson, Ian Gordon, Roy (Cyril) Thompson (peering over his shoulder), Glynn Benbow, Roy Winson, Jon Parker, Bob Allison, Mike Day, Fred Norton, Nigel Harris, Keith Brown, Paul Wheeldon, Derrek Smith, Malcolm Hickman,: Back Row R-L- John Malby, Phil Partridge, Guy with Glasses (??), then Graham Todd, Richard Taylor.
Can anyone fill in the (??) .

Great Photo. but what a male orientated lot we were’

Malcolm Hickman:’Guy over Roy’s shoulder is John Parker. Went to VT. Nigel Harris with beard, Keith Brown looking sideways.’

Andy Marriott: ‘Graham (on the right, with his hand on the trolley looking thing) was one of the Comms supervisors when I started.’

Comms reunion Sept 2017

Some of the Pebble Mill Comms team met up for a reunion 28th Sept 2017.

Included in the photo are: Stewart Kelly, Chris Elliot, Graham Hewitt, Arif Mohammed, and Cliff Harvey.

Thanks to Jane Wolf Elledge for sharing the photo.

The following comment was added on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Andy Marriott: …and none of them look a day older than when I first set foot in the Comms Centre back in August 2000. Happy days and fond memories.

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Colin Pierpoint blog, Part 12 – Radio Links

Radio Links

Dave Thumpston and Graham Hewitt in Radio Links van. Photo by Colin Pierpoint, no reproduction without permission.

Here is a photograph in one of the Birmingham Radio Links vehicles, with Graham Hewitt (right) and Dave Thumpston. To me, the routing of television signal was no different from sound switching

in the control room; you check the quality, pass the signal on, and if there is a fault you query it with the previous station. But there were some Comms staff who resented me coming in from Operations, and what they saw incorrectly as the “Radio” Control Room. Some gave me advice on how to do the job “on the road”, not realising that I had already done many Outside Broadcasts for Radio OBs in the Audio Unit.

Engineering

I was used quite a bit for real engineering with a soldering iron, working to Stan Smith the ACSE (Assistant Communications Systems Engineer). He got me to supervise the wiremen putting in new jumpers on the main distribution frame in the basement of Pebble Mill. Jumpering is adding pairs of wires to provide new circuits. It was necessary because the Comms Centre as it was handed over after installation to Birmingham staff, was missing quite a lot of sound circuits.

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