Goonhilly Earth Station, How can we save it?

[asonda]

Hi,

Today me and the missus visited Goonhilly Earth Station.

It is now called Goonhilly Future World (which I don't like so will keep calling it its proper name).

In 2006, BT Announced that because of business costs etc, by the end of 2008 Goonhilly will cease to operate.

So, what is Goonhilly Earth Station. Well, it is the largest Satellite Dish Station in the world.

It was the first here in the UK that boasts the first transatlantic Television Transmission amongst other innovations and amazing Great British history that deserves to be kept and told for generations to come.

One of the dishes (Arthur - antenna 1) is now a Grade 2 Listed building which means he will always have to stay , except BT are threatening to dismantle all of the others!!!

This will be one enormous loss to the UK, it's our history, our past, technology, engineering marvels and innovations!!!

To read more about Goonhilly take a look at these links:

http://excellence.qia.org.uk/VLSP22/030/040/020/005/e_030_040_020_005.htm

http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/display.var.917901.0.goonhilly_to_close.php

http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/attractions/The_Lizard-attraction-120.htm

and many many more.

We're once again losing our history and past, but you have to understand that this beautiful dishes will never be built again.

Fibre Optic cables are the reason why dishes have become less useful over the past so many years but ofcourse thats how technology works.

This means that these massive, monumental structures will never be built, ever again.

Today was a dissapointment, you can tell this place is going to be no more than a desolate wasteland with only one dish remaining in the middle of nowhere all on it's lonesome

We got a sad little bus tour, we didn't stop at any of the dishes, it didnt even take us to all of the dishes. didnt let us get off and take pictures and study these technological feats of their day.

The reason I know how bad this has got, is because I went there many years ago and was one of the best days out I had.

How on earth can anybody try to save this unique world renowned communications hub.

Ofcourse we can't tell them to use the dishes instead of cable but surely there is something we as the UK population can do to save this site and turn it into a fully fledged attraction for all to come and be simply aweshocked and inspired by this marvel.

I'll post a pic up of me infront of Arthur (Dish 1) when I get the pictures off my camera.

Feels like Cornwall is losing the most important site of technological/communication past ever.

sucks!

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

I remember the first transatlintic satellite link from Goonhilly Down - can't remember when - but I seem to remember the first pictures UK sent to USA was of The Beatles, so it must have been sometime in the 60s. I seem to remember a famous TV presenter of the day (was it Richard Dimbleby?) paddling in the sea and rocks around about, waiting for the first pictures to come through, which were late as usual (remember waiting up all night for Neil Armstrong?) but it was a tremendous feat for its day. We now take geo-stationary satellites and fibre optic cables for granted, forgetting the history of their development.
Barrie

 

[Grassman]

If you feel this strongly about the place form a small working group and get the entire site listed. You don't have to own a building to get it listed and protected.

 

[asonda]

I've been reading up on the new rules English Heritage have put into place where you get the whole site listed and sent off a couple of e-mails to them regarding what I could do.

It is something I feel very strongly about because it IS our technological past, Arthur (Antenna 1) Started something, he started the chain of events which today mean we have TV, Mobile Phones, Transatlantic Debit/Credit Card Transactions...Everything we all now take for granted in this mordern world of ours.

The place could be an absolute heaven for anybody interested how modern space age communications really began, if I was put in charge of Goonhilly, I'd do away with this new future world crap and expand on the history and legacy of goohilly.

There could be live experiments done with the dishes, nobody has ever seen Arthur move yet everybody gets told he can do a full circle and move horizontal to verticle in just 3 minutes!!! People need to see this stuff.

Open up the control tower where all the dishes were controlled from and let people see the site from the perspective of the 1960s!

Madley (where bt are moving their Dish oprations too) doesn't have the history that Goonhilly does.

We need to save it!

 

[Dawg]

Wouldn't it be a better idea to fill Cornwall up with new technology, the sort that brings jobs, money and all the advances that we so like? It's a rust bucket, and we can't have every second place in the country a bleeding museum.

 

So, what is Goonhilly Earth Station. Well, it is the largest Satellite Dish Station in the world.

We could go for the record for the worlds largest Pizza with it.?

Earl

 

[asonda]

Wouldn't it be a better idea to fill Cornwall up with new technology, the sort that brings jobs, money and all the advances that we so like? It's a rust bucket, and we can't have every second place in the country a bleeding museum.

The idea of having this as a complete attraction would create new jobs. The area where the station is located has all sorts of links with the past, such as 5000 year old standing stones etc, the only place a certain type of flower and bush grows.

there were 120 people working there when the site was fully active, 90 people have/are going to lose their Jobs.

The site, is quite frankly massive and BT aren't going to sell off any of the land. Goonhilly is already a form of attraction to learn about communication etc...

It's an opportunity to really give the UK something different. It's not just about the dishes, the site could harvest a brand new type of communications science museum almost.

everybody could go and see how mobile phones work, how GPS works, study things about the space race so on and so fourth.

BT are ripping these monuments down for no reason, they're keeping the land, they are supposed to be keeping the half arsed attempt at an attraction, why bother taking down the large dishes that aren't costing them any money to just have there and if they put a little effort into the attraction side of it, could make them money too.

 

BT are ripping these monuments down for no reason, they're keeping the land, they are supposed to be keeping the half arsed attempt at an attraction, why bother taking down the large dishes that aren't costing them any money to just have there and if they put a little effort into the attraction side of it, could make them money too.

Really stupid to destroy something that is in working order,they may wish to use it again in the future who knows.

Same as Dr Beeching ripping up all the rail tracks in the 50's .

oh how we need those tracks now.

They criss crossed the country you could get a train to almost any village in the land.

Earl

 

[asonda]

I understand what you mean sirearl, it's just how on earth can one person stand up to everything that is going on?

 

[asonda]

To let you all know, I told you tha I had been in touch with English Heritage.

Today they replied saying Antenna 1 (Arthur) is due to go to an upgraded listing and Antenna 3 is actually just coming up for a decision on whether it is to be listed or not

So at least two of these beautiful constructions are likely to be spared their horrible fate.

Should find out later this week.

And here is me infront of Arthur (Antenna 1) The one which produced the first broadcast from America

 

[Dawg]

Sorry. I'm going to curmudgeon this again. Heritage schmeritage; we can't survive turning the whole country into a theme park and selling crystal scented candles and hand reared lattes to each other.
Will we want to save mobile phone masts in 50 years as the 'country would be bare without them'?


(BTW Earl. Beeching Report 1963; only continued closure of rail lines begun in 1950.)

 

I understand where you are coming from on this, but personally it would not bother me either way.

Progress requires that we don't keep looking to the past, instead look forward.

They probably cause all sorts of cancers anyway

 

[Grassman]

At least some of us have pride in our heritage and while I agree that not everything ever built needs to be saved, one or two excellent or unique examples of construction should be protected forever even just to remind ourselves how brilliant we once were.

 

[Dawg]

At least some of us have pride in our heritage and while I agree that not everything ever built needs to be saved, one or two excellent or unique examples of construction should be protected forever even just to remind ourselves how brilliant we once were.

I don't disagree with saving examples of the very best. I do think that there is a mindset in this country that gives the past greater importance than the present or the future, and wants to preserve the second rate, the unremarkable, the dull. This I think holds back progress as people rest on the laurels of a past age without pressing forwards with the energy and brio they are capable of.
It also gives a bunch of quangocrats power over what we can and can't do, which basically is a bad thing.

 

[asonda]

I do agree that we can't keep everything and that not everything should be saved. Mobile phone masts etc aren't really an important feature of our past. However, it's thanks to THESE very dishes that we have, TV, Improved Satellites, GPS, Mobile Phones, Wi-Fi etc.

If there was a form of hierarchy where the first thing on it was the thing that stemmed allthe later creations, the top thing needs to be saved. In this case, it's these dishes.

The thing is like I said before. BT aren't even going to rejuvenate the land, they are going to use one part of the land which isn't even used to create a big renewable energy wind farm but even that is dubious as the lizard plains on which the dishes are on were put there for a reason, 1.) there is no wind, somehow, there just isn't much wind at all. 2.) It's away from everybody else, on purpose to reduce the air pollution from things like small towns for crystal clear reception for the dishes.

This means the land is pretty much that, just land that can't really be used for anything else anyway (doing more digging, they can't even sell any off for property developers, so they're pretty much stuck with it). so why is there any harm in keeping something to show youngsters and people who want to learn about communications?

There isn't any.

They are continuing to use the site as a hub for a set of fibre optic cables that links the UK to many other parts of the world and I believe Goonhilly has the largest (Un-Repeated i.e un-amplified) fibre optic cable going from there to someplace accross europe.

Remember these dishes all did something first, the ones at madley when everything goes fibre optic, can get burnt to the ground and turned into pencil sharpners for all I care. These ones at goonhilly, did actually do something for the modern world today, and they'll be getting rid of them for no reason.

 

(BTW Earl. Beeching Report 1963; only continued closure of rail lines begun in 1950.)

yep your right just easier to blame one idiot,

1950....150 miles (240 km) closed
1951....275 miles (440 km) closed
1952....300 miles (480 km) closed
1953....275 miles (440 km) closed
1954 to 1957....500 miles (800 km) closed
1958....150 miles (240 km) closed
1959....350 miles (560 km) closed
1960....175 miles (280 km) closed
1961....150 miles (240 km) closed
1962....780 miles (1 260 km) closed
Beeching report published
1963....324 miles (521 km) closed
1964....1058 miles (1702 km) closed
1965....600 miles (965 km) closed
1966....750 miles (1 207 km) closed
1967....300 miles (480 km) closed
1968....400 miles (640 km) closed
1969....250 miles (400 km) closed
1970....275 miles (440 km) closed
1971....23 miles (37 km) closed
1972....50 miles (80 km) closed
1973....35 miles (56 km) closed
1974....0 miles (0 km) closed
Earl

 

[asonda]

Suprised Steve hasn't said anything about this?

with regards to the rail thing, you have to admire Japan for it's efficient public rail system.

 

[Hollow]

the trouble with goonhilly is it looks good from a distance, is a great location for a film shoot, and like most iconic buildings, no longer very useful except as eye candy. As to their historic value - this is the main reason why we should fight to preserve them.

 

[PintoPotts]

I am surprised people are so bothered about this...surely there are far, far more important and valuable things that priceless time and energy could be spent on.

Nobody (in general) is really that interested in some big, crumbling old sky tv dishes - (I am sure there is one of those on the side of a block of flats round my way).....although I bet you can get all sorts of great channels on that thing!

Sorry to seem negative...

 

[Goonhilly Tourguide]

I feel compelled to comment on this thread, despite it's age.

Goonhilly simply MUST be preserved. Arthur, the original antenna, is a HUGE British success and should be celebrated. At one time, the site could easily have been regarded as the most technologically advanced in the entire world.

As far as I'm concerned, the whole futureworld idea can die, but the dishes must live on.

 

[asonda]

Heritage and other bodies never got back to me on this, I have however just sent an e-mail asking what the outcome was, fingers crossed.

 

[stugster]

Heritage and other bodies never got back to me on this, I have however just sent an e-mail asking what the outcome was, fingers crossed.

Evidence that you don't actually feel that strongly about the stance you had back in 2008? If this is you only just now chasing up the enquiry, perhaps it was just a whim?

 

[Dawg]

Oi! You can't hurry Heritage. Especially flint axe cutting edge technology Heritage, which like somebody's Doric column, (Doric's?), was "the most technologically advanced in the entire world" at some stage....


Alas poor Doric, I knew him well...

 

[asonda]

Well, when I spoke to the heritage this month last year, they said they were waiting on a decision from the 'Secretary of State'.

I got in touch three months later in October as the government don't seem to work over the 6 weeks hols and they said then they were waiting on a decision.

It was at this point, something happened in my life, which I'm not going into (There was a thread in the private section about this 'thing' that was nearly over) and my own well being is obviously top priority.

The contact at the heritage, is now away until the 27th of July. So we won't get any more news until after then.

Dawg, I know you don't like this but that land they are on, is useless land. It cannot be built on for housing or anything like that. BT are having trouble establishing if they can even put a wind farm on there, due to thousands of year old standing stones and 5 rare/protected species of plant.

If they take them down (the ones that are left!) nothing will be put in their place, BT have NO Intention of selling up the site as it's a connection place for a fibre optic undersea cable.

So I don't understand why when they have it as an attraction, why they'd get rid of the dishes.

They are hurting nobody being there, and if gotten rid of, would lose peoples jobs aswell.

There just is no benefit for anybody by getting rid of them.

 

[Cornish Steve]

Cornwall is well-known for its engineering and scientific prowess. The Cornishman Humphrey Davey discovered more chemical elements than any other scientist in history - even though he was completely uneducated. Richard Trevithick built the first working steam locomotive - the basis of our song "Going up Camborne 'ill coming down".

Goonhilly Down, in its day, was a world-class facility with leading-edge technology. For those living in Cornwall, its huge satellite dishes are an awesome sight, and it would be a travesty to lose such an important part of our history.

If Goonhilly Down was in southeast England, there would be no question about its preservation. Because it's only in Cornwall, the government won't spend a thing to help. Prince Charles earns most of his income off the backs of Cornish folk. Let's see if he's willing to earn our respect by protecting this historic landmark.