Part of a recent road trip adventure ending up here late at night looking for a Hobo Hotel. Up at the crack of dawn to take some pics before heading off to find some new places!
This former British General Post Office Listening Post is the replacement of an earlier site in a nearby village. In 1917 the GPO opened a commercial radio-phone service between this station and an AT&T site in New Jersey, USA. The original site was a field full of wooden huts with the surrounding hills covered in aerials. These structures were sadly removed in the 1950's for television transmissions.
Built in 1939 and was officially operational by 1942, Station H was one of a number of Y listening stations run by the Foreign Office and wartime intelligence services, gathering the raw material for the code breakers at Bletchley Park (Everyone should know what happened there). Several staff based in this GPO were transferred to the Far East in the early days of WW2 to Singapore. Some were captured, and held as prisoners of the Japanese for the remainder of the war.
At the end of WW2 the station came under the control of the Government Communications Head Quarters, masquerading as a long distance radio station. It continued to intercept messages, primarily in the Eastern Black, until becoming obsolete with the wide spread use of satellites and was finally decommissioned in 1988.
Recently the building was sold for conversion into residential accommodation.
On with the pics
1. Front View of the Listening Station
2. Chair shot
, oops
3. Large room to the front.
4. Ignored this sign
5. One of the operation rooms
6. Floor access ducts for the cables from the aerials
7. Aerial intake room
8. Safe to say this was a safe
9. Cold peely corridor
10. The building really is beginning to get in bad shape. There was roof access, but didn't head up
11. One more before leaving
Thanks for looking
This former British General Post Office Listening Post is the replacement of an earlier site in a nearby village. In 1917 the GPO opened a commercial radio-phone service between this station and an AT&T site in New Jersey, USA. The original site was a field full of wooden huts with the surrounding hills covered in aerials. These structures were sadly removed in the 1950's for television transmissions.
Built in 1939 and was officially operational by 1942, Station H was one of a number of Y listening stations run by the Foreign Office and wartime intelligence services, gathering the raw material for the code breakers at Bletchley Park (Everyone should know what happened there). Several staff based in this GPO were transferred to the Far East in the early days of WW2 to Singapore. Some were captured, and held as prisoners of the Japanese for the remainder of the war.
At the end of WW2 the station came under the control of the Government Communications Head Quarters, masquerading as a long distance radio station. It continued to intercept messages, primarily in the Eastern Black, until becoming obsolete with the wide spread use of satellites and was finally decommissioned in 1988.
Recently the building was sold for conversion into residential accommodation.
On with the pics
1. Front View of the Listening Station
2. Chair shot
, oops
3. Large room to the front.
4. Ignored this sign
5. One of the operation rooms
6. Floor access ducts for the cables from the aerials
7. Aerial intake room
8. Safe to say this was a safe
9. Cold peely corridor
10. The building really is beginning to get in bad shape. There was roof access, but didn't head up
11. One more before leaving
Thanks for looking
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