The BBC’s former transmitting station at Rampisham Down is a fascinating piece of social and technological history.
Now it is fast becoming a busy hub for business, thanks to owner Jeremy Taylor – who also has links with Auntie Beeb.
His home, Cricket St Thomas, was transformed into the Crinkley Bottom theme park by Noel Edmonds, on the back of his hit show Noel’s House Party from 1991 to 1999.
Jeremy said: “It was completely my doing that Noel Edmonds opened his Crinkley Bottom theme park at Cricket St Thomas. I heard he wanted to open a theme park in the area and contacted him.”
Jeremy bought the former Rampisham Transmitting Station, one of the three ex- BBC World service relay stations in the UK, in 2021.
The 189-acre site was originally purchased by the BBC in November 1939, and went on air on February 16, 1941.
Massive transmitters were lined up in halls separated by heavy blast walls. Some 29 antenna arrays were suspended between 15 masts ranging from 30m to 100m high, creating a landmark sight as people travelled between Maiden Newton and Crewkerne on the A356.
During the Second World War there were attempts at destruction by the Luftwaffe.
Mr E A Beaumont, who was part of the original installation team, wrote: “I have vivid recollections of my colleagues during these years when we completed the installation and putting into service of the station to the accompaniment of the Luftwaffe’s efforts to put southern England out of action and I can still recall the line of craters left on the north side of the road opposite the station by a stick of bombs deposited by a German bomber one night and the cannon shells which penetrated the diesel generator building on another occasion. Aerial dog fights between large formations of German bombers and our defending fighters became a daily occurrence.”
From the 1940s until 2011 the site provided world coverage, broadcasting in all major European languages.
In 1982 Rampisham was completely stripped of the old antennas and the building gutted to a shell in preparation for a complete new installation.
A fully automatic control system was also installed that continually monitored the broadcasts and the site.
In 2010 the station was operated by Babcock International Group as part of the takeover of VT Group (formerly VT Communications and Merlin Communications following the privatisation of BBC Transmission Services in 1997).
But following extensive budget cuts by the BBC World Service, due to funding by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office being axed, the site closed.
The final broadcast from the site – Deutsche Welle’s final German service to Europe – ended at 9pm on Saturday, October 29, 2011.
The final BBC transmissions were in Arabic to North Africa, an hour earlier.
For a few years nothing happened there, but in 2015 the former West Dorset District Council approved a planning application by British Solar Renewables to build a solar farm on 40 hectares (99 acres) on the site, for a period of 25 years. But opposition by a number of organisations including Dorset Wildlife Trust, concerned at the potential destruction of the largest area of rare acid grass habitat in the county, saw the plans ‘called in’ and the eco company instead applied to develop a less controversial adjacent site.
The site was originally designed to generate its own electric and water, with two diesel generators. Water was supplied from springs in the nearby valley and pumped up to the transmission site – mainly to cool the transmitters.
“It’s now quite an eco site,” said Jeremy. “The whole place is heated by a wood pellets-fuelled biomass boiler and there are solar panels on the roofs.”
A super mix of businesses have since made BBC Rampisham their home, enjoying the plentiful parking, on site café and wonderful views.
There’s Volt Loudspeakers Ltd, who make exceptionally high quality speakers. Then there’s Pusher Music, who produce music for films and TV, with artists coming here to record the tracks. Pusher’s other offices are in New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin – founder Marcus Wormald is from Bristol, but spent 20 years in LA. Having space here is critical – The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra come here to record.
Jeremy said: “Our biggest tenant is Synergy Farm Vets, but there are lots of other smaller businesses here.
“There’s a restoration company reconstructing a Grade I listed building inside their building.
“There are also four studios here on the upper floor, with Camilla Jackson creating her amazing sculptures, jewellery designer Clare Hawley, and a yoga studio.
“From zero staff on site in 2021 there must be more than 100 here now.”
The site is now an SSSI, thanks to the rare acid grass, which is why the solar panels plan was called in. However Dorset Council has been keen to work with Jeremy to establish it as a business park.
Jeremy said: “I grew up round here and was familiar with the sight of all the masts. The masts were all taken down apart from two – one transmits the TV signal to the outlying villages.
“They should be kept as historic artefacts, now.
“Dorset Council has been very good with the planning.”
The latest addition to the site is a new branch of Jeremy’s self storage containers business Stuff2Store.
n For enquiries call 01460 984007 or go to stuff2store.co.uk
n A fascinating 1961 video on the BBC transmitter station can be viewed at facebook.com/watch/?v=1671365959595562