Building record 7756/1 - Jodrell Bank Observatory: Control Building

<1> Oxford Archaeology North, 2015, Jodrell Bank Control Building, Cheshire East: Historic Building Survey and Impact Assessment Report, p.17-21 & p.24-44 (Client Report). SCH7975.

'...Owned by Manchester University, the telescope and original control buildings (a two-storey observation building flanked by single-storey north and south wings containing laboratories) were erected between 1952-1957. The buildings' design incorporated elements of both Modernist and Art Deco styling. Subsequently all three control buildings were extended significantly and additional buildings constructed. The original control buildings are considered nationally important structures, with the central control building (in particular the lobby and observation room) retaining much of its original layout and internal features. It is also physically linked to the telescope by a tunnel…'

Includes a full architecture assessment and description.

<2> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1443868 (Web Site). SCH6528.

‘…The observatory at Jodrell Bank is one of the earliest planned sites for radio-telescopes in the world. As such it had a pivotal role in the development of the new science of radio astronomy which was one of the first steps towards modern Astrophysics, revolutionising our understanding of the Universe. The site was first used for academic purposes in 1939 when the University of Manchester's Botany Department purchased three fields in the Cheshire countryside covering around 11 acres. The earliest use of the site for radio astronomy occurred in December 1945, when Bernard Lovell, who worked for the university’s Physics Department, moved here to escape the radio interference that occurred in Manchester city centre. His first observations used ex-army radar equipment located at the south end of the site, close to two pre-existing botany huts. Subsequently his team expanded northwards with the continuing construction of more permanent buildings, and purpose-built aerials and telescopes to support their research. Jodrell Bank’s status as a world-class centre of ongoing scientific research continues to this day with the construction of the global headquarters for the Square Kilometre Array project linking hundreds of telescopes and aerials in South Africa and Western Australia.

The control building for the Lovell Telescope was begun in March 1954 and completed in August 1955, and on 25 August a symposium was held in the Lecture Room, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union. (Sir) Bernard Lovell’s office was moved here from what is now known as the Electrical Workshop, and this room is retained. By late 1956 or early 1957, the equipment racks and control console were wired up and in position, and on 9 October 1957, the servo loop to the Lovell Telescope’s drive was completed, allowing automatic remote control of the telescope from the control room for the first time. That night, transmission of radar signals to the moon began in anticipation of tracking the carrier rocket for the soviet Sputnik 1 satellite. Control of the telescope was via a novel electro-mechanical analogue computer. The cathode ray tube displaying the returning Sputnik signals was set up in the lab of Dr Stanley and Dr JG Evans. It was via this display that the rocket was first detected on the night of 11 October and then tracked the next night as it passed over the Lake District. On 12 September 1959, at the request of the Russian team, the Lunik II rocket was also tracked to the moon, and in the Control Building JG Davies measured the Doppler shift caused by the moon’s gravity, a technique used in all subsequent moon approaches.

In July 1958, the US Air Force flew a trailer of equipment to the UK and installed it next to the control building, so that they could use the Lovell telescope to track their own space rockets (which the Guardian newspaper of 25 July called 'a telling tribute to the versatility and power of the great telescope'). They also erected an antenna array with several helical aerials on it, fixed to a concrete pad to the west of the control building, for additional telemetry. This era of US space flight is not thought to be particularly significant although it did include the first pilot-controlled manned space flight, by Alan Shepherd. Shortly afterwards this array was moved to the roof of the control building. A photograph shows it on the roof of what is now the reception room to the south of the lobby. As this helical antenna was removed from the roof in 1961, this room must have been added to the control building within five or six years of completion. Single-storey, semi-basement extensions around the control room must have been added in the same period, as they are shown in another photograph of 1961. It is possible that these phases of extension were planned earlier, as there are no architect’s drawings for the building and it is known that funding difficulties led to phasing decisions on the construction of the Lovell telescope itself, and so likely that the same applied to the control building. The requirements of the control building certainly evolved during the planning phase as the practicalities of operating a completely new type of instrument with enormous amounts of international co-operative work and media interest were thought through.

In 1964, a 50ft-diameter telescope was installed to the east of the southern wing, on a podium building of concrete. Soon afterwards, this building was attached to the original by a single-storey eastward extension of the south wing. In the late 1960s the main building was extended at the north on a cranked line in brick with timber panels, and the original north wing also extended eastward, in brick to match the original style, and probably reusing some external materials from the original east wall. In the 1970s, timber clad extensions were added to the roof of the south wing, to the south of the reception room, and to the north of the semi-basement extension around the control room. In 1982, the 50ft telescope was replaced, on the same mount, by a 42ft telescope, which is not included.

As part of the upgrade to the Lovell Telescope from 1967-71, the analogue computer was replaced by the Ferranti Argus 104 digital computer that was first used to control the nearby Mark II Telescope. This has also now been replaced by state-of-the-art controls. However, the U-shaped central control console is the original, adapted for continued use, and the control room is otherwise relatively little-altered. Elsewhere in the control building alterations to the original rooms have largely been to the function and contents rather than to their essential character and finishes, although the installation of the processing computer and its cooling, for co-ordinating worldwide observations for Very Long Baseline Interferometry, did require some physical works…’

<3> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.416-7 (Book). SCH7059.

<4> Chris Blandford Associates, 2016, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Conservation Management Plan (Client Report). SCH8560.

<5> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, 27/09/2018 (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.