History
The Belmont television transmitter entered service in December 1965 for Anglia Television. The Independent Television Authority was permitted to provide its own SHF link to allow the station to rebroadcast Anglia's original transmitter at Mendlesham. BBC services were added in November 1966 with BBC1 on VHF (rebroadcasting Holme Moss) and BBC2 on UHF (rebroadcasting Emley Moor). UHF transmissions for BBC1 and ITV were added in 1971.
From 1974 the Belmont transmitter was re-assigned to the Yorkshire region. YTV however were required to provide some separate programming including a weather report produced by Anglia. A Post Office SHF link was brought into operation, running via Farley. Circuits for the BBC services were added during 1978 and for Channel 4 in 1982.
BT built a new (digital) distribution network for Channel 4 in 1992. This used fibre "ring" circuits from London to each region with occasional use of SHF links. In this scheme Belmont was fed from Nottingham via Carlton Scroop. The analogue links for BBC and ITV remained in service.
The mast was originally a 900 ft (386 m) steel tube supporting a 365 ft (111 m) lattice section which carried the main antennas. Together this formed the tallest structure in the UK and EU and the tallest tubular mast in the world, however in 2010 as part of the television Digital Switch Over the top section was removed: Belmont is now the second tallest structure in the UK and 14th in Europe. The PO/BT dishes were most likely at relatively low level on the mast, with separate accommodation in the transmitter building. Belmont does not appear on PO/BT lists of sites and is not thought to have been used for non-broadcast links.