Ertach Kernow - Cornwall’s part in the radio wave revolution
Technology in Cornwall plays a huge part as we create opportunities to research and share Cornish heritage around the globe, especially as today we celebrate our national day with St Piran's Day now a worldwide event amongst the Cornish Diaspora. These days we have become increasingly reliant on new digital communication, of which I am an advocate, as we move forward to new tools at seemingly increasing speed. However, I do try to have a plan ‘B’ just in case any of our new modern communication pathways fail us.
Cornwall’s place at the forefront of communication was brought to mind this past week through my broadband connection proving extremely dodgy. Even the most ardent technophobe whilst avoiding the digital world must have at some point in their lives listened to the radio. Telegraphic cables had been laid from Porthcurno since 1870 making this small hamlet into one of the most important communication hubs in the world at that time. The location of Cornwall jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean with nothing to hinder any radio signal between Britain and North America, seemed ideal. A number of people including Sir Oliver Lodge had been working on theories and experiments relating to radio waves towards the end of the 19th century. It was however Guglielmo Marconi who following his own experiments became famous for sending the first transatlantic radio signal. Marconi’s experiments proved that direct line of sign between transmitter and receiver was not required with the radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere.
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So, it was another small Cornish community that became the second in Cornwall to contribute to worldwide communication. The Cornish Echo and Falmouth & Penryn Times reported on 31st August 1901 ‘that Professor Marconi would be experimenting at Mullion with the intention of establishing wireless telegraphic communications with America.’ By the 11th January The Cornubian and Redruth Times were able to share that Marconi had purchased land at Mullion, buildings were being erected and a large amount of machinery located there. Rumours abounded and admittance to the site was restricted, which included the previous owner of the land. Estimates of being able to send messages to New York within three months were perhaps overly optimistic and proved so. In February The West Briton newspaper confirmed that Wireless Telegraphy Company were backing Marconi and the ten acres of land purchased was to be the centre of their operations. Previously there had been some experimental work from a site at the Lizard where a timber pole 150 feet high had been erected. This had enabled Marconi to communicate with a receiving station on the Isle of Wight, a distance of two hundred miles. Professors Marconi and Fleming, his assistant, had made several visits to Mullion and expectations for Mullion as an important station within the United Kingdom was anticipated. Prospects of employment within the new station was thought probable beyond the initial construction and development of the site.
Work progressed and by March local people were expecting big things. This included, according to the local newspaper, that a tower 200 feet high was about to be erected on the site. Over the coming months trials of different mast configurations were tried including a circular array. Unfortunately Cornish coastal conditions often play havoc with plans and a storm demolished most of this in September 1901. At the same time on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean there were issues to be overcome and Marconi travelled there with his assistant George Kemp, a Cardiff-based Post Office engineer. The original station at Cape Cod was considered too far at over three thousand miles for the power of the Poldhu transmitter so a new station was set up at St John’s in Newfoundland. It turned out to be an unintentionally good decision as a hurricane destroyed the Cape Cod antenna on 26th November just as Marconi was returning to Poldhu. At Mullion a new array was constructed and ready for what would become one of the worlds most important moments.
On 12th December in high winds Marconi and Kemp and a local team eventually managed to get a kite high into the air on Signal Hill at St John’s with a five-hundred-foot aerial attached. Meanwhile back at Poldhu they were sending the morse code signal for ‘s’ dot, dot, dot continuously. The first signal was received in Newfoundland at 12:30 with further signals at 1:10 and 2:20 and a further eleven more signals received the following day. There was of course sceptics, but later experiments with a marker physically proved the signals transatlantic passage.
What was suggested by the West Briton in February 1901 never fully came to fruition. Although wireless telegraphy and the continued development of communication, radio, television and related technology did happen, sadly for Mullion it never became the highly productive hub once envisioned. The station was closed down in 1933 and the site cleared leaving only the bases of the four masts which had been erected in 1902. These later masts were in place for the royal visit in 1903. Over the following years a number of conferences were held at the site using the facilities of the Poldhu Hotel.
Whereas Porthcurno did develop further from its earlier cable laying period and now home to a large well supported museum this was not the case with Mullion. Today there is a relatively small building erected by the National Trust in 2001 marking the centenary of that first signal. The Marconi Centre is open for visitor operations between March and October supported by volunteers from the local Poldhu Radio Amateur Club. The radio club use the visitor centre for their clubhouse and activities and have use of excellent facilities. For visitors The Marconi Centre has some interesting artefacts and offers a range of displays.
However, this was not the end of Cornwall’s foray into communication history, even greater events perhaps lay ahead. This was to be in the words of Canadian actor William Shatner in his role as Captain James T Kirk of the starship Enterprise ‘Space the final frontier’. The opening of Goonhilly Downs Earth Station in 1962 was another huge technological moment for Cornwall and located just under four miles distant from Marconi’s site at Mullion.
In May 1961 plans for a hundred-acre site at Goonhilly Down were shared in newspapers of construction beginning soon for a space telephone service. Built and operated by the Post Office it was to be a smaller version of Jodrell Bank the space observatory in Cheshire. The Goonhilly Downs station was the first of its kind to operate as a satellite earth station for communication as opposed to using cables it was on completion the largest in the world. Completed and ready for operation by June 1962 a collaboration was set with the United States who would be launching the Telstar communication satellite from Cape Canaveral on July 10th. The Goonhilly Earth Satellite Station was part of the collaboration to receive the first transatlantic television signals and the operational base for the BBC who coordinated the UK event on 11th July. The first colour transatlantic pictures followed on 16th July opening a new era of television and communication.
The original antenna dish named Arthur is 26metres diameter and was later joined by the larger Merlin at 32metres together with Guinevere, Tristan, and Isolde with a total of up to sixty antenna. Later operated by British Telecom (BT), after over 40 years of handling millions of satellite transmitted emails, international telephone calls and television transmissions Goonhilly’s operations as an earth communication satellite centre ceased in 2008. Although the decision by BT to concentrate all its communications to its site at Madley Communications Centre in Herefordshire Goonhilly wasn’t operationally down and out. The site was acquired from BT in 2014 by Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd the world’s first private deep space communications network. The now 160-acre Goonhilly site has antennas forming part of a global deep space network, with the company expanding internationally. While ‘Arthur’ dates from the early 1960 this large dish has been completely updated and repurposed for radio astronomy. Helping illustrate the importance of this site to Cornwall’s historic heritage ‘Arthur’ has been included as a Grade II listed heritage structure.
Besides the many ancient sites of quoits, hillforts and stone circles the technological sites from Cornwall’s very recent past found in Penwith are worth a visit. Although alas the visitor centre at Goonhilly Downs Earth Station is no longer open on a regular basis they do occasionally host events there. You can get up close and enjoy a guided tour around the perimeter, within this area of the Cornwall National Landscape, formerly known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). This includes a number of ancient sites. The Marconi Station Heritage Site is just 14 minutes’ drive away and PK Porthcurno Museum of Global Communications about an hours drive further west.
Cornwall continually shows itself as a nation able to look back on a valuable and interesting industrial legacy, but also a place where new ideas and ventures can take place whilst looking to the future.
Heritage Column
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