Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
This photo is from Costume’s Ruth Kiosses, who was the back-end of this racehorse, inspired by the BBC drama series, Trainer, which was made at Pebble Mill.
Dental Hospital on former Pebble Mill site. Copyright resides with the original holder.
The article below was published in the Birmingham Post, and Birmingham Mail on 21st March 2017:
“The next phase of a major regeneration at the former home of the BBC in Birmingham has been revealed.
Calthorpe Estates, which owns the old Pebble Mill site in Edgbaston, has lodged new plans with the city council to create a building of up to 53,820 sq ft containing a range of medical facilities.
This latest stage is for a building of up to five storeys on ‘plot 4’ which will face onto Pebble Mill Road off the A38 Bristol Road.
Other elements of the regeneration include the new dental school, which is now open, a private hospital to be run by CircleHealth and new student accommodation.
There is not much detail on this latest phase as the planning application is only seeking outline consent for the building as a whole but it could contain R&D facilities, a hospital and a ‘non-residential institution’ such as a health centre or clinic.
The site has been vacant since 2003 when the former BBC Studios were demolished and the corporation moved to the Mailbox.”
(N.B. the date given of 2003, for the demolition of Pebble Mill is inaccurate. Production stopped at Pebble Mill in 2004, and the building was demolished in 2005).
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Ruth Kiosses: ‘Let’s hope they have a better pump under the building than PM did, oh what fun when the flood water used to rise up to wardrobe windows, giving approx five minutes to raise costumes off the floor before it gushed in. First time it did it the electrical plugs in the floor were smoking.’
Copyright, Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission
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!’
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
This is a photo of me, Vanessa Jackson, taken for the Pebble Mill Press Office, circa 1992. It was taken when I was a producer on Good Morning with Anne and Nick. I worked with Alex Fraser at the time on the VT inserts, and we commissioned Independent production companies to make the pre-recorded strands which went out on the magazine show.
Production co-ordinator, Gail Herbert gave me the photo, which she found in the basement of Pebble Mill, when the building was cleared prior to being demolished in 2004/5.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Alexandra Fraser: ‘Wow feels like yesterday and this gorgeous photo brings it all back!’
Jane Mclean: ‘Don’t look any different! Not sure what to say about it being found in the basement!’
Ruth Kiosses: ‘I’ll have you know all the very best people were in the basement at Pebble Mill!!!’
Steve Johnson: ‘I worked on Good Morning with Anne and Nick at the last series, looking after the ‘hotliner’ students.’
Photo from Ruth Kiosses, no reproduction without permission.
Anne-Marie Palmer and Ruth Kiosses stand proudly by the decorated Wardrobe door – in preparation for the festivities!