Princess Anne – What Was Pebble Mill?

Pebble Mill opening delayed – tales from the archive

A letter held in the BBC Written Archives shows that Princess Anne was asked in January 1971 if she would open the new broadcasting centre in Birmingham in the autumn of that year. Her Lady in Waiting, replied that unfortunately The Princess would be on holiday in Scotland during the period specified, but that if the opening ceremony could be delayed until November, then she would find it easier to fit the engagement into her programme. It was pointed out that Her Royal Highness would understand if someone else was asked to open the building in her stead.

It was decided to move the occasion to November, rather than ask anyone else to perform the ceremony, and Princess Anne duly opened BBC Pebble Mill on 10th November 1971.

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

New generation of Royals ‘appropriate’ to open Pebble Mill

Princess Anne opening Pebble Mill. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Princess Anne opening Pebble Mill. Copyright Sue Sweet, no reproduction without permission.

As a follow up to the recent blog about who should officially open the new Pebble Mill building: http://www.pebblemill.org/blog/who-should-open-pebble-mill/ the next memo of interest in the BBC’s Written Archives at Caversham dates from 16th January 1970. It is from the BBC Director of Public Affairs, Kenneth Lamb, to the Director General, Charles Curran, and suggests that either the Prince of Wales, or Princess Anne should be asked to open the new broadcast centre in 1971. Lamb adds that he thinks that one of the ‘new generation of Royals’ would be ‘appropriate’ for the occasion, and both Prince Charles and Princess Anne are ‘one up the scale’ from the Royals who had opened the ITV centres. Princess Alexandra had recently opened the ATV centre in Birmingham!

Princess Anne was subsequently approached to open Pebble Mill.

The BBC obviously did not want to be upstaged by the calibre of Royal that ITV were able to attract!

Princess Anne at the Opening of Pebble Mill

This photo was taken on 10th November 1971, when Princess Anne officially opened BBC Pebble Mill. The man behind Princess Anne is almost certainly Mr Deighton, one of the managers at BBC Pebble Mill.

Thanks to Sue Sweet for sharing the photo. Sue was the receptionist at the opening of Pebble Mill, and previously worked at Broad Street in the Recorded Programmes library.

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

Sue Sweet: ‘After all these years names are a little foggy! He [Mr Deighton] was amongst the ranks of Phil Sidey, Mr McQueen etc. After the signing I had to run round the quadrangle, up the stairs and be ready to meet Princess Anne on 7th floor – couldn’t speak – not nerves – just out of breath!’

Dharmesh Rajput: ‘I was born in 1971! But I got to meet Princess Anne when she came to The Mailbox – can’t remember if it was an official opening or not. Was it in 2004.’

Pamela Renoata: ‘It was the official opening Dharmesh. I remember being nervous at meeting her and obsessing over the protocol of addressing her and whether to curtsey or not!’

Official Opening of Pebble Mill Invitation

This is the invitation which was sent to dignitaries for the official opening of Pebble Mill on 10th November 1971.

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

Terry Barker: ‘I was there but not as a dignitary just a secretary working in Radio 3 who nicked the left over champagne!’

Karen Singleton Davies: ‘4th floor head honchos called me in the Asian Unit to ask if I’d be ‘lift girl’ to operate said equipment to take Princess Anne to the dignitaries floor for a reception. The button panel was doctored in case I inadvertently pressed the wrong one & took her to the 2nd floor – the bar was in house in those days. I bought a new scarf for the occasion!’

Official Opening – free lunch

This memo was sent to staff at BBC Pebble Mill in autumn 1971. All staff, including artists and freelancers who were working on the day of the Official Opening of Pebble Mill on 10th November 1971, were to be given a free lunch, including a glass of wine, to celebrate the occasion. For their free ticket, staff just had to fill in the slip at the bottom of the memo. The Broadcasting Centre was opened by Princess Anne.

(It’s noticeable from the memo how official abbreviated job titles were habitually used, you don’t see that today).

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

Judith Markall: ‘I remember this and my mom Elsie Brown was in the line up to be introduced to Princess Anne. I have the photo somewhere that was in the Birmingham Mail.’