London - Rowridge & Chillerton Down - Southampton
Page last updated: 26/3/2020
History
The BBC television transmitter at Rowridge, Isle of Wight, entered service in November 1954. The Post Office initially provided a single-hop 4 GHz link from Golden Pot using off-air reception of the Alexandra Palace transmitter. This is referred to in POEEJ articles as "Stage 1". By 19xx "Stage 2" was available - a "fully engineered" link from London (Museum Exchange) and including a return path allowing use for outside broadcasts. At this point the BBC had no regional studio in Southampton and the Rowridge transmitter continued to carry the London service.
The ITV franchise for the south was awarded to Southern Televison who planned to establish studios in Southampton. To facilitate this "Stage 3" involved addition of a two-way link operating at 2 GHz between the ITA transmitter at Chillerton Down and the central exchange at Ogle Road, Southampton. Cable links between Rowridge and Chillerton Down and between the exchange and studios completed the ITV vision circuit: the incoming network feed arrived at the studios via the 2 GHz link to allow insertion of advertisements and locally produced programmes and the studio output was returned to the transmitter over the same link. Southern also operated a transmitter at Dover (from 19xx) which required the studio output to be conveyed back to London (continuing to Dover via an existing cable route).
The introduction of BBC2 and 625-line colour broadcasts for BBC1 and ITV led to a new route being planned between London and Southampton. However delays with completion meant temporary provision was required for the start of BBC2. Once the new permament links were commissioned the old route was taken out of service although the site at Golden Pot was retained by the Post Office/BT.