Building record 7756/9 - Jodrell Bank Observatory: Botany Huts

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

‘…When Lovell realised that Manchester was unsuitable for his experiments he approached the Bursar to ask if the university owned any land outside the city. Having rejected land at Lymm due to high-voltage lines, he was directed to speak to FW Sansome, a botanist who ran the university’s botany grounds at Jodrell Bank. The land had been purchased in 1939 using a donation from the Royal Botanical and Horticultural Society of Manchester and the Northern Counties. Sansome agreed to Lovell’s moving to Jodrell Bank and he had the army tow the ex-military trailers containing his equipment to the site. At this time the only buildings on site were two wooden huts used to store fertilisers and spades. They are first shown on the 1:1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map published in 1952. With the help of the gardeners, Alf Dean and Frank Foden, Lovell was able to generate electricity using a diesel generator and on 14th December 1945 he switched on a radar transmitter and receiver. The two huts became exclusively used by Lovell’s team as their base. Lovell stated that originally one of the huts had a coke stove where the team thawed out, brewed tea and ate their packed lunches. The botany huts continued to be used for around ten years with former staff recalling that one hut was used for research and storage with a canteen and the other was used as a dormitory. Eventually they were replaced by a purpose-built canteen building (now the telescope workshop) and companion dormitory building constructed in the mid-1950s. It is likely that their ownership then returned to the Botany Department. Both huts are both presently disused…’

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