Wood Norton, Worcestershire

Wood Norton, is a Grade II listed stately home near Evesham, England. It was the last home in England of the Duc d'Orleans, who claimed the throne of France. It was later a private school.

In 1939, with war just months away, the BBC bought the site so that it could relocate its operations away from London and the other urban centres in the event of hostilities. A number of temporary buildings were quickly erected around the historic house to provide an emergency broadcasting centre. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/heritage/in_depth/buildings/wood_norton.shtml www.bbc.co.uk] ]

A dozen studios were built, and by 1940 Wood Norton was one of the largest broadcasting centres in Europe with an average output of 1,300 programmes a week. For a while it was also a monitoring station. Linguists, many of them foreign nationals, were hired to listen in to broadcasts from Europe.

Many famous writers and publishers lived and worked there during the war, and Wood Norton was said to have been "the least bureaucratic set-up in BBC history".

After the war it became home to the BBC Engineering Training Department.

In 1966, and into the late 1960s, Bredon Wing was built as an addition, containing a 175 foot long nuclear fallout bunker beneath it [ [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/w/woodnorton/ www.subbrit.org.uk] ] . A mast was constructed on top of the hill and was fitted with an SHF dish (microwave link) to Daventry radio station (referred to in 1975 cabinet papers released 30 December 2005).Two VHF yagi aerials were fitted to receive Holme Moss and Llandrindod Wells.Later, another SHF link was fitted to Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham. This supplied quality TV to the Wood Norton technical training facilities since the terrestrial TV signal was so poor.

This bunker (known as PAWN - Protected Area Wood Norton) and mast, and many other installations, were referred to as "Deferred facilities" in the BBC. Few staff (perhaps only three) knew the full extent of these facilities, although staff that were involved were vetted by the Ministry of Defence and had to sign the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Because of the threat of prosecution under the OSA, few people today will talk about these facilities, even though the Cold War ended in the early 1990s.

The "Deferred facilities" were modified many times during the years that followed. In the 1970s these facilities were extended and updated to provide a standby service known as the "Wartime Broadcasting Service".

The estate has been the home of the BBC's Technical training department since the war, now branded BBC Training & Development. It is well known for the quality and depth of expertise in all aspects of broadcasting. Training is provided for technical and engineering staff from most UK broadcasters and telecommunications companies, with some sales of training overseas. Training staff also travel the UK to deliver courses on other sites, run residential courses at the site, or design interactive courses for use on the BBC's internal network.

Under the leadership of Greg Dyke and Resources director Mike Southgate, the BBC sold off the residential accommodation on site used by trainees, which had been built by the corporation 20 years previously. There have been several problems since the sale as the companies controlling the accommodation on the site have not proven completely reliable. Wood Norton Hall itself was a privately owned hotel and conference centre, but closed down suddenly towards the end of 2005. The BBC retains its Technical and Operational Training Centre in the extensive grounds.

References

* [http://www181.pair.com/otsw/BBCMS.html "War Across the Airwaves"]

Further reading

* "Assigned to Listen - The Evesham Experience 1939-43", Olive Renier & Vladimir Rubinstein, BBC External Services 1986 ISBN 0563-205 083