ISSUE 4: NEW YEAR 2022

From the editor

What was not obvious to me was that the organisation would, this early in its life, find somewhere that could fulfil both these roles. The new home is at Hemswell Cliff, a village formed from the former RAF base at Hemswell. It was originally the sergeants’ mess, built in the 1930s. It consists of a long building, with two wings at right angles and a warren of extra spaces, including two major halls, behind. Fundamentally solid and sound it has, as they say, lots of potential. 

The advantages are clear. It is near to the city of Lincoln, which has, in addition to its magnificent cathedral and enticing shops, two universities. Hemswell Cliff draws an unusual crowd. Most of the former RAF buildings have been converted into antiques centres making this, in total, the largest antiques centre in Europe. All sorts of interesting people turn up in search of something special.

Associated with the antiques centres are a number of excellent cafes. This means that, whether on the occasional open day or with a fully operating museum, it won’t be essential for BECG to offer catering.

The building is big, nearly 30,000 square feet in total. It has a chequered recent history but at one time was known as the community centre. If you live in Hemswell Cliff, rather than merely visit, you will find that everyday facilities are limited – one shop, a sports court and a primary school are about it. BECG intends to help by making some space available for community use.

The three large spaces in the building will, once refurbished, lend themselves to use as studios and exhibition spaces. Other, smaller, rooms will be valuable as stores and workshops. There are plenty of toilets – remember this was a residential building – although as yet no disabled facilities. There are three lovely staircases and quaint spaces such as drying rooms. All this is extremely promising.

But – and what a but – there is a lot of work to be done and, of course, not enough money to do it. My first impression on seeing it was ‘what a wreck’. Yes, structurally it is sound but it has stood empty for some time. As a result there are boards on windows and new breakages without boarding. In some places, water has got in. The building needs new windows, the damp areas must be dried out, new plumbing is wanted and, ideally, improved insulation and some solar panels.

Still, better a challenge than somewhere that lacks potential. The trustees have already done an impressive amount of work. Electricity has been connected to much of the building. Work is under way to get water back to at least some key areas. There has been a lot of tidying and cleaning. Much of the jungle outside has been cleared. Even I spent some time peeling off wet wallpaper and numbering rooms. In the dark!

Everybody is putting as much into it as they can, but it will need more time, more volunteers and more money. But still, what a thrill. BECG has a home, and it will be a great one. Do help if you can.

From the chairman

1936 has proven to be a busy year for historians. For us in TV history, November 2^nd was the date that the BBC opened its high-definition television service in London based in Alexandra Palace. In the same year, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin with many significant developments in television technology on show. Unfortunately, the games were also a confirmation that the Nazis were on the rise and dangerous. This was vindication of the British government policy of rearmament in the 1930s. As part of that strategy, the RAF was growing fast, with new aerodromes and aircraft designs. One such expansion-era aerodrome was RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire, and our new home is there in the former sergeants’ mess, built, coincidentally, in 1936.

86 years later, the BECG is the proud owner of this amazing building and our Broadcast Engineering Museum (BEM) will emerge here over the next few years. Our location next door to the largest antiques centre in Europe is a huge plus, but it’s true that some would have preferred something in the south of England. The reality is that the cost of a building of similar proportions there would be five-fold or more and impossible to contemplate. We are in awe of the funding provided by individual donors and the support we’ve received so far. It would have been impossible without them. What this means is that the BECG (the charity) owns the building, and no landlord can evict us or dictate how we do things. 

This acquisition enables the development of a significant museum dedicated to the conservation and presentation of broadcast engineering history. It will take several years to develop and build with the usual twin issues of funding and volunteers at the fore. In the very short-term (mid-January 2022) we can quite quickly bring parts of the ground floor of the main building back into use as a major store. Many artefacts will be moved there and will be catalogued using museum-industry approved procedures. 

Beyond that, our first display rooms will probably show our huge VTR and telecine machines. We need to create dedicated areas for them as soon as we can. 

Much more must be done to the building in terms of repair and adaptation. Solidly built, it was designed to withstand blasts and incendiaries but being unoccupied for the last 10 years has left it in a run-down condition which was not in its design specifications. There’s nothing serious, but at almost 30,000 sq ft there’s a lot of it!

How the many and varied core goals unfold is still in discussion and depends greatly on funding, personnel and priorities which are still to be determined. Money is the key. Yes, that’s an obvious linkage, but it can’t be ignored. The more tasks and work that can be carried out by contractors, the faster we can bring our museum to reality. 

Our most significant and costly current need is for new windows. We must have almost 150 and some are broken or decayed. Many are currently boarded. Eventually, we need to replace most of them and that could easily cost £40,000 or more. Grants are a strong possibility, but they take time. At the moment, the reality is that there will be a mix of repair and replacement as funds allow. In another curious quirk of history, George Formby had what is perhaps his greatest hit - ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ - in 1936. We would love to be doing that to new windows!

Many thanks to everyone for all the support and kind words that we’ve received in 2021. The coming year is going to be exciting and demanding with so much to plan, do and achieve.

All of us at BECG would like to wish you a happy New Year.

From the treasurer

This has been a tumultuous year. In October I went into my local branch of NatWest to send £362,500 to the solicitor to buy our building. It felt surreal at the time and still does now. 

How did we raise the money? The trustees personally contributed a total of £150,000; an equal amount was donated by Peter Farrant. Peter is a retired chartered engineer and a good friend of one of the trustees. We thank him for his exceptional generosity. All the donations were made under the Gift Aid scheme so we can reclaim £75,000 from HMRC.

We would also like to thank all of you who have made donations. 

Buying the building is just the start. We need to raise a lot of money to make it into the home of the Broadcast Engineering Museum. So how will we do this?

First we need to pay for everyday running costs - electricity, water, insurance etc. These ongoing costs add up to a little over £1,000 per month according to my best estimates. This is where you, as a friend of the BECG, can help. If 40 of you can donate £20 per month that’s £800. We hope you can make these as Gift Aid donations so we can claim £200 back from HMRC and voila! That’s £1,000 per month. If you can spare only £10 or even £5 per month, it will still help.

By far the best way to make regular donations is by standing order. Here are the details to give to your bank or building society:

Account name: Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group
Sort code: 54-10-23
Account number: 1933 3358

So we can identify your donation please give it the reference: Monthly donation

Your bank may ask if it’s a business or personal account. The answer is business. You may also find that the account name doesn’t give an exact match with the details. Please don’t worry. It’s because we have a long name and the system doesn’t quite know how to handle it.

You will find a GiftAid form on our website: https://becg.org.uk/donate/

Please complete this (it doesn’t need a signature) and email it to: treasurer@becg.org.uk

We will be very grateful for your generosity.

We will also need much larger sums to pay for the renovation of the building and creation of the Broadcast Engineering Museum. Over the next few years I estimate we will need something well into six figures Short of bank robbery, how can we do this?

Do you know any companies or wealthy individuals who might like to sponsor us? 

We will also apply to organisations that give grants to charities. If you know about any of these please tell me. We could apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund but this requires a lot of effort; many charities pay for professional advice.

The trustees plan to be around for a good few years but where possible we’ve remembered the BECG in our wills. Would you be willing to do the same? You can either give a specific amount or a fraction of your estate. It’s quite easy to write a will yourself or you may ask a solicitor to help you. I’ve put specimen wording on our website: https://becg.org.uk/donate/ Because the BECG is a charity, all bequests are totally free of inheritance tax and may help to reduce your estate’s IHT bill.

If you have any questions about donations or legacies please email: treasurer@becg.org.uk

It’s not just money. Donations of materials, equipment and services are all very welcome. We thank Peter Weiss of Leapman Weiss: http://www.leapmanweiss.net/ for accountancy services. We’ve also acquired useful stuff from Freecycle. There is a specialist museums Freecycle group which has been fruitful. We thank:

• Salford Museum & Art Gallery for a large amount of Dexion shelving: https://salfordmuseum.com/
• Museum of the Home for shelving and plastic storage crates: https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/
• Bruce Castle Museum for display boards: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/libraries-sport-and-leisure/culture-and-entertainment/exploring-haringey/bruce-castle-museum

If you know companies that might be willing to donate building and decorating materials, building services, plant hire, electrical supplies etc, then please get in touch.

From the secretary and webmaster

On Sunday 21st November we held our first trustees meeting in the Hemswell building, in one of the rooms that will become part of the telecine/videotape area.

Much of my time recently has been taken up by the events leading up to the purchase of the Sergeants' Mess at Hemswell Cliff, then the investigations into exactly what we have let ourselves in for!

On the website there have been various news updates regarding the move of ABC/Thames from A&G in Lincoln to Huttons in Melton Mowbray for bodywork and re-spraying.

As part of our announcement of the "Broadcast Engineering Museum" we have registered the domain names "bemuseum.org.uk" and "bemuseum.tv". Currently these point at the main website but will eventually contain separate content.

Our Facebook Page (administered by Wayne Kirman) now has 173 members.

Buildings, bogs and boilers

It’s a big building with a lot to discover and even more to do. We were very pleased to have documents confirming that all asbestos had been safely removed.

Nor any drop to drink

There wasn’t water, water everywhere. Apart from some small leaks in the roof, there was none at all. A call to Anglian Water resulted in a couple of very helpful guys coming along. The water had been cut off years ago because they couldn’t contact the previous owners. Martin has simplified the internal pipework so that Anglian can easily certify us as safe to connect but as we go to press we still don’t have a supply. At least the drains are OK. So far.

Power to the people

We have no idea if the previous owners paid their power bills but we were happy to find we had electricity. Our address for electricity is still the Sergeants Mess, with a road name and postcode that were abolished in 1991. Perhaps they wanted to cut off power but couldn’t find the place! We now have a two-year contract with Octopus.

Dave has been investigating the electrical installation in the building. The RAF re-wired most of the ground floor of the main building in around 2006, including a new main distribution board and sub-boards, but there are parts of the older installations still in use - these may have to be updated.

The gas meter was removed several years ago. We don’t intend to use gas so we’re ahead of the UK’s green planning. The old boiler will be heavy iron scrap at about £100/tonne. We found more than 70 cast iron radiators in a room near the entrance. Somebody must have thought they were valuable and stripped them out, but we’ve established that they’re worth no more than scrap.

It's alright leaving me!

This is the plaintive cry of many broadcast engineers. Plusnet arranged for Openreach to install a new phone and internet connection without any hassle. This means we can remotely monitor our security system.

We inherited a security system with many video cameras. The wiring is awful and the recorders had seen better days but Dave and Paul have made it work again. We would like to thank Basil Bara, a cousin of Ruth, who has retired and closed his security business. He has donated a couple of modern security recorders and other equipment. But we’ll still need a lot more.

Grounds for improvement

It would be an exaggeration to describe the area around our building as a jungle, but only just. The area was unruly and a disgrace to the village. In addition, trees growing too close to the buildings threatened drains and, ultimately, the structure. Martin did some sterling work with his chainsaw. In particular, we are grateful to Peter Farrant who brought his garden machinery and spent several days taming the undergrowth. Richard and Peter also worked on downpipes and drains which has helped to keep water out of the building.

PLEASE HELP US AT HEMSWELL

Apart from money which is always welcome you may be able to help in other ways. The following is a partial and very provisional list of goods and services with which you might be able to help the BECG. If you have other equipment, materials or services that you think might be helpful then please contact us: helpus@becg.org.uk

Goods wanted

Please don’t go and buy things like this for us. If you’ve been hoarding stuff or are about to strip out an old shop etc that’s ideal.

Lighting We’ve got lot of of old and dubious lighting at Hemswell. We’d love to get modern LED fittings that can be software controlled but unless somebody is feeling very generous that won’t happen soon. So we’re scrounging for old but decent equipment.

• 4ft/1200mm and 5ft/1500mm LED light fittings
• 5ft/1500mm single and dual fluorescent fittings
• 2ft/600mm square LED and fluorescent “ceiling tile” fittings
• 4x2ft/1200x600mm LED and fluorescent “ceiling tile” fittings
• 2ft/600mm, 4ft/1200mm and 5ft/1500mm T8 fluorescent tubes (they’re the ones that are about 1in/25mm diameter)
• LED outdoor floodlights

Ceiling tiles for suspended ceilings. Both 2ft/600mm square and 4x2ft/1200x600mm.

Electrical fittings

Metal-clad electrical fittings. Mainly light switches and double sockets. Good used condition is fine. 

MCBs: Merlin Gerin/Schneider Multi 9 series and Crabtree C50 series, 

Networking kit.

RJ45 patch panels, Cat5e/Cat6 cable, multipair Cat5e/Cat6 cable for block wiring. RJ45 outlets. Wifi kit. If you know somewhere that’s disposing of a multiple access point system (the sort that gives coverage in large buildings such as hotels, offices etc) that would be great.

Security kit. We currently have a video camera system that works but it’s far from ideal. We have been given some more modern equipment but far from enough. If you have security cameras (standard co-ax or network with PoE) and other related equipment that would be very useful.

Pallet truck. We have loads of heavy stuff to move around.

If you have any of the above or other things you think might be useful to us, please send a note to: helpus@becg.org.uk

Help wanted

We will be organising some working weekends where you’ll be welcome but there are also some special skills with which you may be able to help.

Surveying and CAD. We need some decent CAD drawings of the premises. At present all we have are some poor-quality hand-drawn plans and elevations. This is a job for somebody with good surveying/architecture skills plus familiarity with AutoCAD or similar CAD.

Glazing. Paul has mentioned the big and expensive job of fixing our windows. Do you know a glazing company that might donate or heavily discount their services?

Fire safety and fire alarm expertise. We have an alarm system but it needs work. Advice and help would be very welcome. Likewise emergency lighting.

Security system expertise. Not only do we need security equipment but some advice and help would be very useful too

P5 move

There is great news about P5, our generator truck. After a period when it had to be stored outside, it is now under cover at the grain store at Leverton Farms, Ingleby. Even better, Steve Coulson, owner of electric bike company Batribike, has generously given us the space for nothing. https://batribike.com/

Moving P5 from its outdoor storage position, next to a bright-green double-decker bus, wasn’t straightforward. Remember, it has no petrol tank! Our chairman Paul parked his Volvo head-first up to P5 so his jump leads would reach but they turned out to be too short (the battery is under the passenger side running board). Fortunately our driver Sam had brought his long set of leads so we were OK. 

The petrol container was stood on the driver's side running board with the pipe dipped into it. Our next step was to wind the engine on the starter to get the petrol to pick up via the fuel filter and pump and go into the carburettor. Adding a small amount of petrol into the air intake helped things along, as did some sticky tape to stop the pipe coming out of the container!

A minor problem was that the charge warning light did not go out, so we guessed that the battery probably wasn't charging, but this didn't matter for the short distance we were travelling. The side-lights were also on permanently, but dim. This probably meant that an earth lead has come off somewhere amongst the rust.

Anyway, P5 is now safely stowed.

We have also learnt more about P5’s generator engine. After we published our news items about the acquisition, we were contacted by Rod Thompson in Cornwall, who said that the engine looks like a Ford 6D rather than a Perkins as we (and the auctioneers) had thought. He also offered his assistance when things get back to some sort of normal!

I couldn't find an engine type plate anywhere but I did find some casting marks on the block and an engine serial number.

Using a link that Paul found (https://everythingaboutboats.org/how-to-identify-ford-engines/), I learnt that the block casting number matches that for a Ford 6D engine made in May 1961.

So it does seem that we have a Ford 6D engine, which is not the original!

ABC-Thames at A&G and Huttons

There is progress on our newest OB truck, ABC-Thames. As we reported last time, we were waiting for a transmission specialist to rebuild the gearbox. This has now been done and reinstalled by A & G Commercials in Lincoln. There is still a problem with the attachment of the speedometer cable, but the vehicle is now roadworthy, and on 26^th August Sam drove it to EH Hutton Coachbuilders at Melton Mowbray for bodywork.

Work is being fitted-in between other jobs but progress has been made. The repair panel on the side and the damaged panels beneath have been removed and new ones fitted. The bumpers have been rebuilt and sent away for powder coating.

Our original intention, to fill in the roof skylights with wood panels then fibreglass the whole roof, has changed. Huttons reports the roof to be of aluminium in generally good condition, but fibreglass would probably not adhere to it, so the skylights will now be clad with aluminium bonded to the existing roof. Work is in progress on this and removing all the fittings prior to sandblasting for removal of the old paint in preparation for the respray. Traces have been found behind some fittings of the original paint for the “ABC” livery so a colour match can be obtained. We are grateful for a donation to cover this external work and funds are in hand to cover it to completion. For the moment, the truck is warm and dry in the workshop and we are looking forward to seeing our ‘new’ truck next year.

Retrotech

Retrotech, formerly the National Vintage Communications Fair, held its first event in two and a half years. It normally takes place on the second Sunday in May, but disruption by the pandemic meant that this year’s event was on 26 September, at the usual venue – the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre. BECG exhibited there, attracting considerable interest. The general feeling at Retrotech was of pleasure at being back. Visitor numbers were down but there was still a lively atmosphere, with everything from valves to televisions to telephones for sale. We would like to thank BECG friend Carol de Solla for her help.

One of the highlights of the show was a Roving Eye. Paul Elkington, a friend of BECG, has recreated one of these iconic vehicles, which had a camera with operator mounted on the vehicle roof, as none of the originals has survived. Citroen estate cars were chosen because their unique suspension systems made it possible to keep the camera level and absorbed any unevenness on the running surface.

Paul’s original aim was to recreate CRE-1, a DS with a Philips LDK-5 camera on top. Sadly, the cost of restoring the vehicle was prohibitive so he settled instead for a Citroen XM, a later model also used by BBC, that is itself now a classic car. Paul has restored the car, fitting a roof platform with swivel camera mount, and brought it to Retrotech with an LDK-5 camera on top. BECG trustee Richard Harris provided the LDK5 camera and the monitoring equipment, and built the engineer’s operating panel and control systems. The LDK5 is complete, but has been fitted internally with a modern camera for ease of use at exhibitions.

Sat in a prime position at Retrotech, the roving eye was a tremendous draw. We are unable to confirm the rumour that children were seen on the roof of the vehicle, supervised while having fun operating the camera.

Read this article by Richard Harris if you would like to learn more about the history of the roving eye.