Emley Moor

[ppppenguin]

Many of you will be aware of the mast collapse at Emley Moor in 1969. The BECG has recently been given some photos from the collection of a late TX engineer, Geoff Platts. One of these photos is marked on the back as being the base of the new concrete tower. The others are unmarked. I wonder if they could have been taken in the aftermath of the collapse? The gent in the photos is dressed in a way that would have been very old fashioned in 1969.

[Mike Watterson]

The hat is sort of 1950s, but still worn by some in 1970s. Nothing particularly old about the coat?

It looks cold and certainly you'd want a big coat and a hat. The alternative would have been a duffel-coat, though nautical and hill walking people had knitted hats. I don't remember anyone in BBC TX department in 1970s having knitted hats. Duffel-coats seemed popular.

[djrm]

Great photo, sparked my imagination. I found some more here: https://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=336
Nice hat and coat with warm jumper underneath too.

[ppppenguin]

The other mast collapse in that era was Waltham in 1966. The gent looks distinctly unamused. I'm surprised he wasn't wearing gloves. To me, the photo has a 1940s or early 1950s feel to it.

[ppppenguin]

I've heard back from Gordon Lean, who was a TX engineer, rising to HTCPD. The photo came from the collection of the late Geoff Platts who was Gordon's boss at the time of the Emley collapse. Gordon says it's definitely no Emley. The wires are far too thin to be guy wires which he says were about 3" thick. Possibly part of n HF array or a receiving array. There are also other structures in the background that look like part of an HF array.

Gordon suggested that the photo might be Jimmy Redmond, who rose to become Director of Engineering. I can't see it: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4712...es-redmond

[Doodlebug]

The chaps glasses could be dated by an optician.
Do we have any here?