New lease of life for transmitter station on Shropshire border
The site of the Criggion Radio Station on the Shropshire/Powys border is being given a new lease of life after it lay derelict for more than a decade.
In its heyday the transmitting station sent telephone and telegraph message across the world – including those destined for Britain's fleet of submarines. But after lying unused since 2003, new life is being breathed into the complex.
All four of the buildings are now owned privately. One building, Shortwave B, is the home of recording studio designers Studio People, and another, the Long Wave building, is to be turned into a home, subject to planning permission.
It is the latest chapter in the life of the site.
Mr Barry Jones, 81, from Oswestry, who worked there from 1951 until 1977, says there are many misconceptions about Criggion.
He says it certainly wasn't a secret station, although some of the messages that were transmitted there were secret; for example, those transmitted by the military. Long wave signals were the only way information could get to the navy's submarines.
"It was a transmitting station sending signals to places around the world, both telephony and telegraph. We even had Morse code equipment and 'Hellscribers' which used punched hole paper and which were the forerunner of the computer. We also transmitted picture images, which took an age to send."
The station was first owned by the GPO which become the Post Office and then British Telecom International.
The station also dealt with all Met Office transmissions and those from Reuters and other press organisations.
One of its main roles was the pre-satellite transmitting of trunk and international calls during a time when to call someone abroad you had to book a time slot and pay horrendous charges. A call to New York in 1951 would cost £4 a minute, half an average weekly wage.
"We used to transmit on shortwave telephone calls to all the ocean-going liners including the Queen Mary, Elizabeth and Mauritania. We also use to transmit to airplanes," Barry added.
When it was at its busiest the station employed about 150 people and, Mr Jones said, had a great atmosphere. "We would enter the Oswestry Carnival and organise social events," he said.