Building record 7756/8 - Jodrell Bank Observatory: Moon Hut B25

<1> Historic England, 2015-, Notification Report of Decision not to Designate, Fox P, 11/07/2017 (Written Communication). SCH7825.

‘…The Moon hut was built c1949. It is of exactly the same construction and design as the buildings thought to have been constructed at this time around the northern and eastern sides of ‘The Green’, and there is no evidence to suggest that it was later in date. It appears with deciduous trees in full foliage in a photograph that was included in February 1951 in (Sir) Bernard Lovell’s memorandum setting out his ideas for what became the Mark I Telescope, and therefore appears likely to have been built by at least the summer of 1950. The buildings around The Green were the hub of both research and teaching onsite. The construction of these new buildings marked a serious commitment by the University to the development of a permanent radio astronomy facility at the Jodrell Bank site.

It is thought that prior to construction of this hut, Moon research was carried out in a wooden hut immediately to the south, which was later replaced by another wooden hut which is no longer extant. The Moon hut was used primarily for lunar research using radar, which formed part of Lovell’s original plans for the use of the site at Jodrell Bank. In June 1946, six months after Lovell first arrived at the site, three researchers were tasked with developing high-sensitivity equipment using long-duration radio pulses and a narrow-bandwidth receiver. This was difficult to achieve, and Jodrell Bank was ultimately only the fourth observatory to obtain radar echoes from the moon.

Details of the panels and glazing bars on the part-glazed doors differ between the two sets of doors and from other doors on similar buildings elsewhere on the site, but the main pair of doors is thought to be original. Otherwise externally the building is little-altered except for the painted finish and plastic rainwater goods. Internally, the linear edgings in the parquet floor suggest that the central block-work wall aligned east-west (with a doorway at its eastern end allowing access between the north and south rooms) is original, and that originally there was also a lighter partition running north-south in the southern room only, approximately 4ft from the west wall, with a doorway on the south side of the central wall. Discolouration of the herringbone blocks suggests that subsequently, another north-south partition was installed about the same distance from the east wall (aligned with the west jamb of the doorway between the two rooms), with a doorway adjacent to the central wall in both rooms giving access to the western part of the hut, and in the northern room returning to meet the east wall at the northern jamb of the paired external doors, to form a lobby. This partition has since been removed. Stud partitions have been used to create a room in the north-west corner of the northern room, accessed from a corridor along the northern side of the east-west central wall. This room is lined internally with metal sheeting to create a Faraday Cage, shielding it from electrical interference for research purposes, but the research to which this relates is not of national note…’

<2> Chris Blandford Associates, 2016, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Conservation Management Plan (Client Report). SCH8560.