The Daventry transmitting station was a major broadcasting facility located on Borough Hill on the outskirts of

Daventry Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. It operated from 1925 until 1992, carrying long-wave, medium-wave, and short-wave broadcasts at different times in its history. In its heyday the site had more than 40 masts and towers on an antenna field extending over hundreds of acres. Since 1992, only DAB services have been broadcast from the site using a single mast. All other antennas have been demolished.

Long-wave transmitter

During 1923, the

British Broadcasting Company The British Broadcasting Company Limited (BBC) was a short-lived British commercial broadcasting company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom. Licensed by the British Gener ...

's chief engineer, Peter Eckersley, deduced that it would be possible to provide a broadcast service to most of the United Kingdom using a single high-power long-wave transmitter located in central England. A 50-acre site on Borough Hill was acquired by the BBC for this purpose. A T-aerial was suspended between two masts, each 500 ft high and spaced by 800 ft. The Daventry transmitter took over from Chelmsford on 27 July 1925, radiating with a power of 25 kW. The initial frequency was 187.5 kHz, but this was changed to 187 kHz in 1927, 193 kHz in 1929, and finally 200 kHz in 1934. The long-wave transmitter was replaced from 7 October 1934 by a higher-powered one at the Droitwich transmitting station in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

. For its long-wave transmissions the station used the same 5XX call sign as its experimental predecessor sited at

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, although from 9 March 1930 this was replaced in all on-air and other announcements by the new name bestowed from that date upon the service broadcast principally via long-wave from Daventry: the BBC National Programme.

References

External links

The Transmission Gallery: Daventry
{{coord, 52.2542, -1.1401, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in Northamptonshire Daventry Transmitter sites in England