History
Wenallt was originally established on a temporary basis to provide a television link to the ITV transmitter at Preseli which entered service in September 1962. This formed part of a contract awarded to GEC in 1961 for a 6 GHz link from Wenallt to "Foel Drych" and Blaen Plwyf - serving BBC and ITA requirements. By 1965 a new "standard tower" had been installed, supporting a single "large" horn facing Werfa. At this stage it seems linking from Purdown was not required - television feeds from London to Cardiff arrvived via cable.
The requirement for 625-line colour television links from 1965 onwards resulted in new links being required both east and west however Wenallt was effectively two terminal stations, one for trunk links via Bristol and one for television distribution west of Cardiff. In later years the number of dishes facing Purdown was significantly higher than those facing west.
A new site was added at Swansea in 1976, assumed to be for telephony traffic from Cardiff via Wenallt and Werfa. The number of televison circuits between Purdown and Wenallt incresed, partly due to the local ITV franchise covering Wales and the West and the contractor having studios in Bristol and Cardiff.
The tower has been used for FM broadcasting since 1980 and there are a number of images of Wenallt at the mb21 Transmission Gallery. The microwave site is adjacent to a former Anti-Aircraft Operations Room which was acquired by the Post Office and re-fitted during the 1970s to be a war headquarters for Wales. It seems this work was abandonded before completion.
