The Beam Station must have had a considerable impact on the
surrounding area.
There were eight masts and various buildings. In
the main the buildings are still there at the time of writing
(1993).
The three masts on the Grimsby side of the buildings
carried th Australian aerials and were 275 feet tall.
The five
masts on the Tetney side carried the Indian traffic and were 285 feet
tall.
All the masts had cross arms at the top and these were 90
feet in length.
To imagine the size of the masts it may help to
know that the Grimsby Dock Tower is just over 300 feet tall. The
masts were supported by stays which were anchored in concrete blocks
14 feet deep. Not surprisingly these blocks still survive either as
obstacles to be worked around in the fields or in the squares of
trees which have been planted to hide them. Apparently an attempt was
made to move the blocks but to no avail.
The distance between each mast was 650 feet and the distance
between the first and last was approximately one mile.
The aerials
themselves looked like curtains of vertical wires hanging from the
triatic bearers between the cross-arms at the tops of the masts. Each
wire was attached at the lower end to a balance weight arm which kept
the wire in tension. The lower end of each pair of aerial wires was
connected to a special box and these in turn were connected by a
system of copper pipes or feeder tubes to the particular
transmitter.
The largest building was the machinery hall and the transmitting room was behind this.
The grounds of the station were by all accounts kept in immaculate condition and sported lawns, a rose garden and a fish pond. The fish pond was the idea of Mr. Jupe the Chief Engineer but the fish disappeared shortly after the construction of the pond. Apparently they were the victims of a hungry heron.
Travellers who passed the station at night would have seen the glow from the large valves shining through the windows and the ruby lights on the masts to warn low flying aircraft.
All
in all the station must have been a prominent landmark and made quite
an impression on the surroundings until it was finally dismantled in
1940 leaving only the buildings, some concrete blocks and squares of
trees to remind us of its previous existence.
