92-454: PK Porthcurno is a museum located in the small coastal village of Porthcurno Cornwall , UK. Porthcurno was the point at which many submarine telegraph cables— transatlantic and to other locations—came ashore. The first cables were direct current impulse transmitters . The first cables with transistor amplifiers were laid in the 1950s. The museum, which opened in May 1998, is housed in
184-550: A developer of radio , from the Poldhu cliff top about 17 miles (27 km) to the east, across Mount's Bay on the west side of the Lizard Peninsula . In those days Marconi's 'wireless telegraphy' was seen as a potential threat to the established 'cable and line telegraphy' on which the security of Porthcurno and many jobs depended. A small hut was built nearby to house the early wireless equipment and remained there for
276-436: A micro-climate being sheltered from winds in most directions. For the more exposed cliff-top areas, gale-force winds are common throughout the year which occasionally cause moderate structural damage to buildings locally. In the summer months, Porthcurno is popular with families on holiday with young children who enjoy playing on the beach and perhaps some supervised bathing, as the beach is prone to strong rip currents . In
368-463: A scheduled monument comprising about five ramparts , ditches and some evidence of round dwelling huts. There is a small rocky island off the Logan Rock peninsula called Horrace and another smaller granite island called Great Goular which is only visible at low tide. The prevailing wind is from the southwest and the winters are unusually mild for its latitude because of the influence of
460-409: A Sunday. This has reduced the total number of continuity announcers required each day down from four to three. The Greenwich Time Signal , popularly known as "the pips", is broadcast every hour to herald the news bulletin, except at midnight and 18:00, and 22:00 on Sunday, when the chimes of Big Ben are played. There is no Greenwich Time Signal at 15:00 on Saturday or 11:00 and 12:00 on Sunday due to
552-470: A broadcast signal from Radio 4 on 198 longwave to verify the annihilation of organised society in Great Britain. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a wide variety of speech-related programming, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. Music is broadcast as in documentaries relating to various forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs . Sport
644-687: A continuous news service devoted to the Gulf War , Radio 4 News FM , with the main Radio 4 service transferring to long wave. Before this, Radio 4's FM frequencies had occasionally been used for additional news coverage, generally for live coverage of statements and debates in Parliament. By the start of the 1990s, Radio 4 had become available on FM in most of the UK - previously FM coverage had been restricted mainly to England and south Wales. This meant that it
736-533: A further 21 years. The company mistakenly concluded that Marconi's efforts posed no threat to their cable business. Marconi's secretive development of the Shortwave Beam Wireless System at Poldhu would be so successful that Eastern and many other cable telegraph companies were forced into near -bankruptcy by 1928. There is a pair of large boulders near the cliff edge of which the smaller one, weighing about 5 tons, can be rocked by
828-405: A lack of female broadcasters. In September 1972, Radio 4 employed the first female continuity announcers—Hylda Bamber and Barbara Edwards. For quite some time, the introduction of female newsreaders led to complaints from listeners; women discussing topics of feminist interest led to similar complaints. In addition, there has been long-running criticism by atheist and humanist groups of Thought for
920-425: A large photographic collection and the archives of Cable & Wireless plc , as well as models of cable ships , paintings, company staff magazines, cable samples (including the first transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1 ), and a range of telegraphic equipment. The museum has around 16 professional staff, mostly full-time, and a large volunteer community. Many of the museum's technical volunteers trained or taught at
1012-464: A planned switch-off of long wave transmissions by 2025. BBC Radio 4's medium wave frequencies were switched off on 15 April 2024, which previously served as relays in areas with a weak LW signal to provide reception of BBC Radio 4 LW, such as Northern Ireland and south west England. Most were turned off at 12:27 PM BST and broadcast an endless closedown loop informing listeners to retune to other methods of reception. The final transmitter to change into
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#17327810334961104-519: A result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference (all ITU Region 1 MW/LW broadcast frequencies are divisible by 9). At this point, Radio 4 became available across all of the UK for the first time and the station officially became known as Radio 4 UK, a title that remained until 29 September 1984. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday. These were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and at 17:55. There were also programme variations for
1196-471: A time becoming the largest submarine cable station in the world, with the capacity to receive and transmit up to two million words a day. Porthcurno is still known colloquially by the acronym 'PK' being represented in Morse code as 'di-dah-dah-dit' followed by 'dah-di-dah', communicating with a line operator and testing connections, an acronym often sent. Over the years, many apprentices were trained at
1288-596: A varied collection of still-working equipment designed for telegraphy. It remained a training college for the communications industry until 1993. An Exeter University project known as "Connecting Cornwall" was funded to promote a new exhibition; "The Nerve Centre of Empire". This was opened in the summer of 2010 by the Princess Royal . The exhibition was developed as an educational experience for children and young people, employing original design from local artist, Hennie Haworth. There are now around 16 people working at
1380-484: A year after broadcast as streaming audio from Radio 4's listen again page and via BBC Sounds . A selection of programmes is also available as podcasts or downloadable audio files. Many comedy and drama programmes from the Radio 4 archives are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra . Due to the capacity limitations of DAB and increasing sport broadcasts on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra , BBC Radio 4 DAB has to reduce its bit rate most evenings, such that after 7 p.m. its DAB output
1472-463: Is a pyramid built from granite blocks and painted white, about 3 metres (9.8 feet) tall. For navigation, it replaced a brightly coloured hut which housed the termination of another submarine telegraph cable connected to the French port of Brest owned by La Compagnie Française de Telegraphe de Paris à New York , which was laid in 1880. Overhead lines carried the signals to and from Penzance which had
1564-502: Is a small village covering a small valley and beach on the south coast of Cornwall , England in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement in a civil and an ecclesiastical parish , both named St Levan , which comprise Porthcurno, diminutive St Levan itself, Trethewey and Treen . It is centred 6.6 miles (10.6 km) west of the railway, market, and resort town of Penzance and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from Land's End ,
1656-403: Is also not part of the station's output, apart from during news bulletins, although between 1994 and 2023, the station's long wave frequency was used to broadcast ball-by-ball commentaries of most Test cricket matches played by England. Consequently, for around 70 days a year, listeners had to rely on FM broadcasts or DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave
1748-526: Is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network: Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review. The station is available on FM in most of Great Britain, parts of Ireland and the north of France; LW throughout the UK and in parts of Northern Europe, and the Atlantic north of
1840-437: Is noted for its sand of crushed, white sea shells, privacy, and isolation rather than the movement of ships. Porthcurno Bay has been described as "floored by glorious white sand that shines through translucent water". Sometimes combinations of wind, tides and sea currents can change the 'sandscape' dramatically in a few hours, but the volume of sand is sufficient that it is unusual for the beach to be completely inundated by
1932-522: Is now owned by The National Trust, (Cornish: 'rocky headland by the sea') is known locally as 'Wireless Point'. Here, exposed areas of granite bedrock and concrete plinths retain the preserved remains of the base and guy wire tether points of a wireless telegraphy antenna mast that was erected in 1902 by the Eastern Telegraph Company. It was thought that this was used to 'spy' on the early wireless transmissions by Marconi ,
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#17327810334962024-541: Is the second-most-popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2 . It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011, and was "UK Radio Station of the Year" at the 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2023 Radio Academy Awards . It also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File on 4: Export Controls . Costing £71.4 million (2005/6), it is the BBC's most expensive national radio network and
2116-594: Is usually in mono, even though many of its programmes are made in stereo (including its flagship drama "The Archers"), these can be heard in stereo only on FM, Digital TV on Freeview & Freesat (Ch. 704), Sky, Virgin and on line via BBC Sounds. BBC World Service, which uses BBC Radio 4 FM & DAB frequencies between 01:00 and 05:20, is in stereo, but only on Radio 4 FM & DAB and not on its own dedicated DAB channel. BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcasts in mono on DAB, but has always been in stereo on Digital TV (Freeview / Freesat Ch 708), Sky, Virgin and online. Announcers carry out
2208-514: The Admiralty and Goldsmith was ordered to replace the rock at his own expense. It took seven months, 60 labourers and cost Goldsmith £130 8s d at 1824 prices (equivalent to £14,494 in 2023) to replace it. The original invoice for equipment and labour is now displayed on the wall of The Logan Rock public house in the nearby village of Treen . Just to the north of the peninsula is evidence of an Iron Age cliff fort called Treryn Dinas,
2300-519: The Anchor Line ship Investigator . On 23 June, the first message was sent from Bombay to Pender’s house on Arlington Street, London , where he was holding a party attended by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII . It was received using the siphon recorder of Sir William Thomson . Next day, the line opened to public traffic. What became the world’s largest submarine telegraph station
2392-720: The Azores to about 20 degrees west; DAB ; Digital TV including Freeview , Freesat , Sky and Virgin Media , and on the Internet. Freesat, Sky and Virgin have a separate channel for Radio 4 LW output in mono, in addition to the FM output. The longwave signal is part of the Royal Navy's system of letters of last resort . In the event of a suspected catastrophic attack on Britain, submarine captains, in addition to other checks, check for
2484-688: The BBC National Programme . The letters LO continued to be used internally as a designation in the BBC for technical operations in the London area (for example, the numbering of all recordings made in London contained LO). The code LO was changed to LN in the early 1970s. When the British Broadcasting Company first began transmissions on 14 November 1922 from station 2LO in the Strand , which it had inherited from
2576-458: The Cornish language ' porth kornow / porth cornow ' (standard written form uses "c") meant 'cove/landing place of horns or pinnacles', a reference to the granite rock formations in the vicinity. Some evidence of early commercial port activity exists in the remains of man-made stone tracks for horse-drawn vehicles which may have provided access to the beach, visible on one of the footpaths near
2668-619: The Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of Big Ben . The pips are only accurate on FM, and LW; there is a delay on digital radio of three to five seconds and online up to 23 seconds. Radio 4 broadcasts the Shipping Forecast which, in August 2017, was 150 years old. According to RAJAR , the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 9.2 million with a listening share of 11.1% as of December 2023. BBC Radio 4
2760-539: The Marconi Company (one of six commercial companies which created), but technology did not yet exist either for national coverage or joint programming between transmitters . Whilst it was possible to combine large numbers of trunk telephone lines to link transmitters for individual programmes, the process was expensive and not encouraged by the General Post Office as it tied up large parts of
2852-504: The National Trust and the remainder by the local parish council on behalf of Cornwall Council . The nearby cliffs rise to 60 m to 70 m above mean sea level and are formed from a bedrock of prismatic granite ; over the geological timescales having been eroded, shaped and divided vertically and horizontally sometimes almost into rounded cubic blocks. An ancient bridleway , probably an early route to Porthcurno beach via
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2944-531: The Study on 4 / Options adult education slot from Radio 4's FM frequencies. Consequently, the full Radio 4 schedule became available on FM for the first time. However, adult educational and Open University programming returned to Radio 4 in 1994 when Radio 5 was closed to make way for the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live and were broadcast until the end of the 1990s on Sunday evenings on longwave only. Between 17 January 1991 and 2 March 1991 FM broadcasts were replaced by
3036-514: The village . At the southern end are: The route is marked as two hours from Land's End or about four hours walk from Penzance for the most agile cliff-side path walkers. A low-frequency bus service links Penzance, Lands End and nearby villages and hamlets including Newlyn , Paul , Sheffield , Lamorna , St Buryan , Treen , Trethewey , Polgigga and Sennen . Porthcurno is largely not farms or fisherman's cottages today, having its linear centre inland, centred 6.6 miles (10.6 km) west of
3128-522: The 1970s and 1980s; however, due to its isolation from towns, it closed in 1993. Some of its buildings were demolished. After the closure of the college, the award-winning Porthcurno Telegraph Museum was opened. This museum has been featured locally and nationally on educational programmes, including the BBC TV documentary series What the Victorians Did for Us and Coast . It occupies some of
3220-446: The BBC announced that Radio 4 will stop broadcasting opt-outs on long wave with the last opt-outs airing on 31 March 2024. The two displaced programmes, Daily Service and Yesterday in Parliament moved to BBC Radio 4 Extra . The daily amount of Shipping Forecasts was reduced to be broadcast 2 times on weekdays and 3 times on weekends. Test Match Special moved to BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra on 31 July 2023. These end ahead of
3312-856: The Future' , has been supported by Heritage Lottery Fund, the Arts Council England, Coastal Communities Fund, SubOptic, the Charles Hayward Foundation,. Department for Culture, Media and Sport/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, ShareGift, the Edith Murphy Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, The Headley Trust, Cornwall Council and the Trusthouse Charitable Foundation. Further funding
3404-518: The Globe (FLAG), and RIOJA. Each of these has thousands of times the capacity of all of their predecessors' cables put together. However, all of the successors of the telegraph cables today use Porthcurno merely as a shore landing-point for connecting to the national telecommunications network, passing directly via landlines buried under the local roads to a terminating station at Skewjack about 2 miles (3.2 km) inland from Porthcurno. Much of
3496-558: The Porthcurno cable office in telegraphy and supporting skills, initially by ETC and then by Cable and Wireless. In 1950 the latter, nationalised , opened its Porthcurno engineering college which provided many courses in branches of telecommunications for employees, secondees and external students. The cable office closed in 1970, exactly 100 years after the first cable was landed, but the college remained open, receiving substantial investment in buildings and training equipment through
3588-400: The Porthcurno technical training college at some point in its history, prior to its eventual closure in 1993. The museum has won a number of awards since opening. These include: 50°02′35″N 5°39′14″W / 50.043°N 5.654°W / 50.043; -5.654 Porthcurno Porthcurno ( Cornish : Porthkornow, Porthcornow , meaning "pinnacle cove" , see below)
3680-478: The Saturday Afternoon drama and the omnibus edition of The Archers respectively. Only pips broadcast on FM and LW are accurate. On digital platforms there is a delay of between three and five seconds, and up to 23 seconds online. Radio 4 programmes cover a wide variety of genre including news and current affairs, history, culture, science, religion, arts, comedy, drama and entertainment. A number of
3772-531: The United Kingdom. Porthcurno Beach and bay enclosed by the Logan Rock headland has been listed among the ten most beautiful bays in the World. The cliffs are enjoyed by walkers using the many public footpaths in the area and the protected South West Coastal Footpath passes through the area often within just a few yards of the clifftops. Coastal areas around Porthcurno, including those formerly owned by Cable and Wireless, are now owned, preserved and maintained by
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3864-492: The air with some imagination, resembled a belt of trees, complete with rabbits and birds. The tunnel environment being secure, dry, and at a virtually constant temperature proved to be ideal for the sensitive telegraph equipment and it continued to house the subsequently upgraded equipment after the war until the cable office closure in 1970. It was then used for training facilities for the Engineering College until
3956-416: The beach and surrounding shores previously owned by Cable and Wireless was donated to the National Trust in 1993. Many of the houses built for the former Engineering College have been converted to holiday flats , making the population very seasonally dependent. Today the major industry in the area is tourism. The 12th and 15th-century church of St Levan is between St Levan proper and Porthcurno, towards
4048-538: The cable office. Some of the stone ducting which was built up on the cliffside to protect the cable is still visible from the footpath nearby. This was part of the first cable connection from the UK to the American continent passing from Porthcurno to Brest and then via the trans-Atlantic cable first to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon near the coast of Canada, and then a further 500 km (310 mi) to Cape Cod , Massachusetts . In 1919, another Compagnie Française cable
4140-403: The cables caused by ships' anchors . In 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC) Limited was formed which took over the operation of the cables and built a cable office in Porthcurno valley. The concrete cable hut, where the cable shore ends were connected to their respective landlines, is a listed building and still stands at the top of the beach. ETC and its cable operations expanded through
4232-436: The cliff path. Often a sand bank forms off Pedn Vounder at low tide. Unlike the nearby fishing coves of Penberth and Porthgwarra , about one and a half miles (2.4 km) to the east and west respectively, Porthcurno has no known recent history of commercial fishing activity. About halfway along the main coastal footpath from Porthcurno to Logan Rock another path loops off to the cliffs above Pedn Vounder beach. Beside this
4324-492: The cliff which may be reached by restored medieval granite steps. The steps were covered for many years but were discovered in 1931 by the Reverend HT Valantine and Dr Vernon Favel. They were restored in 2003, part of a Cornwall County Council restoration project, and were opened by Sophie, Countess of Wessex . The British philosopher Bertrand Russell , his wife Dora and their children John and Kate spent
4416-510: The closedown loop was the Plymouth relay on 774 kHz at 4:59 PM BST. These relays stopped broadcasting the closedown loop and fell silent completely by 30 April 2024. An online schedule page lists the running order of programmes. The station broadcasts a mix of live and pre-recorded programmes. Live programming includes breakfast programme Today , magazine programme Woman's Hour , consumer affairs programme You and Yours , and (often)
4508-524: The college itself also closed in 1993. Today the tunnel houses exhibits of, and is itself an exhibit of, the Museum of Global Communications, operated by PK Porthcurno. The cliffs and coastline around Porthcurno are officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty . Part of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and widely considered as some of the most visually stunning in
4600-518: The company's Holborn headquarters in London. It is now located in the previously excavated tunnels near Porthcurno beach, Cornwall. The layout of the museum display was carried out after receiving a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund . The museum has displays showing the history of submarine cable-laying ships and telegraphy , and a variety of samples of undersea telegraph cable designs used throughout its long history. The museum has
4692-405: The end of the cul-de-sac main village road. It has medieval foundations and is adjoined by a graveyard which has two of the parish's six stone crosses and a small car park. It sits close to the coast path, lightly wooded slopes and adjoins pasture meadows . The largely unadulterated exterior has featured in the BBC drama Doctor Who . Narrowly out of sight of Porthcurno beach in the cliff face to
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#17327810334964784-420: The following duties from Broadcasting House: Newsreaders read hourly summaries and longer bulletins from New Broadcasting House. In 2012 the BBC announced that it would be reducing its main presentation team from 12 to ten. Other continuity announcers for whom it is not known whether they are freelance or BBC employees, include Joanna Kean, Kelsey Bennett, Arlene Fleming (who also used to read
4876-467: The former college buildings and includes many exhibits, in 'The Tunnel'. The cable office at Porthcurno was a critical communications centre and considered at serious risk of attack during the Second World War , being only about 100 miles (160 km) from the port of Brest in occupied France . To improve security, a network of two parallel tunnels, connected by two smaller cross-tunnels,
4968-629: The former telegraph facility. In June 1870, the Falmouth, Gibraltar & Malta Telegraph Company of John Pender (which had been established in July 1869, with capital of £660,000 (in 1870s money)) landed the final section of the first Great Britain-India submarine cable in Porthcurno . The cable section between Carcavelos and Porthcurno was laid by the Hibernia , with the shore-end being laid by
5060-455: The immediate area to guard the station. Passes were issued to residents and visitors who had business to be in the area and many mock attacks were staged. The defences included pillboxes and a petroleum warfare beach flame barrage which could be operated remotely from the tunnel. At the end of the War, although some 867 bombs fell in the (Penzance) area and 3,957 houses were damaged or destroyed,
5152-518: The last twenty years or so these have all been superseded by their very high-capacity modern descendants, those using fibre optic technology as the transmission medium instead of copper. These also have been landed at Porthcurno forming a significant link, part of the UK connection to the international telecommunications 'backbone' infrastructure. These form parts of international cable networks and include systems known as Trans-Atlantic Telephone Cable 12/13 (TAT-12/13) , Gemini, Fibre-Optic Link Around
5244-457: The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in 1928 to merge with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited to form Imperial and International Communications Limited which was renamed Cable and Wireless Limited in 1934. Cable and Wireless Limited was a predecessor company of Cable & Wireless Worldwide and Cable & Wireless Communications . In the inter-war years , the Porthcurno cable office operated as many as 14 cables, for
5336-462: The late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching from the UK to India , which was then a British colony . Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth because of the reduced risk of damage to
5428-629: The most westerly point of the English mainland. Road access is via the north end of the valley along a long cul-de-sac with short branches off the B 3283 and land traditionally associated with the village, including its beach, is on the South West Coast Path . The village comprises houses and apartment blocks together with a few commercial premises along the access road known as "The Valley". The road curves inland past Minack Point to St. Levan's Church about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from
5520-502: The museum, welcoming visitors from around the world and managing with a constant flow of research enquiries from academics, family historians, local historians and the media. The most recent chapter in the museum's development involves the sensitive re-development of the Grade II listed buildings to accommodate greater exhibitions space, and improved visitor facilities including a cafe and greater accessibility. The project, 'Developing for
5612-691: The music, film, books, arts and culture programme Front Row . Continuity is managed from Broadcasting House with news bulletins, including the hourly summaries and longer programmes such as the Six O'Clock News and Midnight News , and news programmes such as Today , The World at One and PM , which by early 2013 had returned to Broadcasting House after 15 years at BBC Television Centre in White City . The news returning to Broadcasting House has also meant that newsreaders can provide cover for continuity, which regularly occurs at 23:00 each night and 16:00 on
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#17327810334965704-541: The nearby Trendrennen Farm, about half a mile to the east of the village, has been opened by the Ramblers Association . This was probably used by horse-drawn carts to collect seaweed which was used for land fertilisation. Porthcurno Beach and Bay, a few hundred yards south of the village is situated in the shelter of the Logan Rock headland just less than one mile (1.6 km) to the east. The beach
5796-515: The news) and Richard Evans. Criticism voiced by centre-right newspapers in recent years have a perceived left political bias across a range of issues, as well as sycophancy in interviews, particularly on the popular morning news magazine Today as part of a reported perception of a general "malaise" at the BBC. Conversely, the journalist Mehdi Hasan has criticised the station for an overtly " socially and culturally conservative" approach. There has been criticism of Today in particular for
5888-482: The only damage suffered by any communications equipment at Porthcurno was the destruction of an antenna when a bomb fell at Rospletha Farm, located at the top of the hill about half a mile to the west of the cable office. Porthcurno's association with international telecommunications links continues to the present day. The first successors to submarine telegraph cables were submarine telephony cables of coaxial construction, some of which were landed at Porthcurno. In
5980-571: The parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations. These included Roundabout East Anglia , a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC East 's studios in Norwich each weekday from 6.45 a.m. to 8.45 a.m. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in August 1980, ahead of the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk . All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980, apart from in
6072-484: The programmes on Radio 4 take the form of a "magazine" show, featuring numerous small contributions over the course of the programme— Woman's Hour , From Our Own Correspondent , You and Yours . The rise of these magazine shows is primarily due to the work of Tony Whitby , controller of Radio 4 from 1970 to 1975. The station hosts a number of long-running programmes, many of which have been broadcast for over 40 years. Most programmes are available for 30 days or over
6164-489: The quieter seasons visitors tend to be local people and day-trippers from other parts of Cornwall. Many tourists come from elsewhere in the United Kingdom and abroad and may have rented self-catering or bed and breakfast accommodation nearby. The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum and the Minack Theatre , both bring visitors to the area. The name Porthcurno evolved from the 16th century Cornish spelling 'Porth Cornowe'. In
6256-465: The railway, market, and resort town of Penzance and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from Land's End , the most westerly point of the English mainland. In most local-level organisational and community bodies, it is in civil and ecclesiastical parishes named Saint Levan and usually spelled as St Leven since the 18th century. Porthcurno is unusually well known for its size because of its history as a major international submarine communications cable station. In
6348-418: The rear cross tunnel to a concealed exit in the fields above. Each of the main tunnel interiors was that of a windowless open-plan office constructed as a building shell within the granite void, complete with a pitched roof to collect water seepage from the rocks, a false ceiling, plastered and decorated walls, and all the necessary services. In total about 15,000 tons of rock were removed to construct
6440-409: The sea at high tide. To the immediate east of Porthcurno beach, on the other side of Percella Point is a small tidal beach called Green Bay. Sometimes this is accessible with caution from Porthcurno Beach at low tide. Another tidal beach called Pedn Vounder lies further to the east between Porthcurno and the Logan Rock headland for which footpath access is by a steep and rugged path leading down from
6532-452: The small rocky peninsula . Millennia of erosion had balanced it so finely that one person could move it easily. In 1824, a group of sailors led by Lieutenant Hugh Calville Goldsmith, nephew of the poet Oliver Goldsmith , and the worse for drink climbed up to Logan Rock armed with crowbars and dislodged it, allowing it to fall down the cliff. Such was the disgust of the local people at this blatant act of vandalism , that they complained to
6624-417: The solid granite of the valley's hillside to house the telegraphy equipment. Porthcurno telegraphy facility closed in 1970, 100 years after it first began its operations. Modern cables are usually fibre optic and are much lighter in construction, international information is now made available of the locations of submarine cables. The museum was started by former employees of Cable and Wireless based at
6716-399: The south side of the car park ascending the east side of the valley. Development of the area was dominated for over one hundred years by the operations of the cable station owned by Cable and Wireless plc and its predecessor companies. Probably over 90% of the inhabitants were either employees of Cable and Wireless or were directly supported by it. During the Second World War , Porthcurno
6808-543: The south towards St. Levan Church and turning left at the top. It was built virtually single-handedly by the late Rowena Cade who worked there into her eighties with the support of local labourers. Today the Rowena Cade exhibition centre, coffee shop and theatre are open to visitors for most of the year except during performances. A small headland to the west of the Minack Theatre called Pedn-men-an-Mere, which
6900-438: The southwest as until January 1983 there was no BBC Local Radio in the southwest so these news bulletins and its weekday morning regional programme, Morning Sou'West , continued to be broadcast from the BBC studios in Plymouth on VHF and on the Radio 4 medium wave Plymouth relay until 31 December 1982. The launch of Radio 5 on 27 August 1990 saw the removal of Open University , schools programming, children's programmes and
6992-684: The station controller since 2010. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM , LW and DAB , and on BBC Sounds , it can be received in the eastern counties of Ireland , northern France and Northern Europe . It is available on Freeview , Sky , and Virgin Media . Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after BBC Radio 2 . BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as Today , The World at One and PM heralded on air by
7084-568: The station was transferred to the new British Broadcasting Company which in 1923 took up the nearby Savoy Hill for its broadcasting studios. At midnight on New Year's Eve 1923, the twelve chimes of Big Ben were broadcast for the first time to mark the new year. In 1927 the company became the British Broadcasting Corporation . On 9 March 1930 2LO was replaced by the BBC Regional Programme and
7176-567: The summer months from 1922 to 1927 in Porthcurno. BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC . The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House , London . Since 2019, the station controller has been Mohit Bakaya . He replaced Gwyneth Williams , who had been
7268-458: The telephone network. The stations that followed the establishment of 2LO in London were therefore autonomously programmed using local talent and facilities. By May 1923, simultaneous broadcasting was technically possible at least between main transmitters and relay stations , the quality was not felt to be high enough to provide a national service or regular simultaneous broadcasts. In 1924, it
7360-407: The tunnels. The construction work progressed relentlessly day and night, taking nearly a year, and the completed tunnels were opened in May 1941 by Lady Wilshaw who was the wife of Sir Edward Wilshaw , Chairman of Cable and Wireless at the time. The concrete defences around the tunnel entrances and the nearby buildings were camouflaged with the help of a local artist: the design, when viewed from
7452-528: The warm Gulf Stream sea current crossing the Atlantic Ocean from warmer seas around the Gulf of Mexico . The local area has some of the highest average annual air temperatures of the United Kingdom. In common with much of the south Cornish coast, summer daily maxima rarely exceed about 25 degrees Celsius (77 °F) and below-freezing temperatures and frost are uncommon. The lower valley and beach enjoy
7544-470: The weight of one adult. Cornish wrestling tournaments, for prizes, were held in Porthcurno in the 1800s. Pedn-men-an-Mere overlooks the small secluded tidal beach of Porth Chapel to the west. Porth Chapel beach is named after the remains of a Christian site and medieval chapel visible next to the footpath about 30 metres (98 ft) above the beach. There is a spring known as the St. Levan Holy Well up on
7636-440: The west is the Minack Theatre , a unique open-air theatre with a unique stage backdrop of Porthcurno Bay and the Logan Rock headland. It is an unusual setting for plays staged during the summer months ranging from the traditional Shakespeare to the more contemporary. The theatre is accessible on foot from the coastal footpath by a rugged path in the cliff face or more easily by road taking the steep narrow hill leaving Porthcurno to
7728-474: Was bored into the granite valley east side by local tin mining labourers, starting in June 1940, to accommodate the essential telegraph equipment. Each of the two main entrances was protected by offset double bomb-proof and gas -proof doors. To provide evacuation for staff in case the defences failed, a covert emergency escape route was provided by granite steps cut into a steeply rising fifth tunnel leading from
7820-465: Was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC restructured and renamed its domestic radio stations, in response to the challenge of offshore radio . It moved to long wave in November 1978, taking over the 200 kHz frequency (1,500 metres) previously held by Radio 2 - later moved to 198 kHz as
7912-421: Was designated a Vulnerable Point and was heavily defended and fortified as a part of British anti-invasion preparations . At the beginning of the war a small guard of special constables was put on duty at the cable office and cable house, later superseded by a platoon of soldiers who camped on a former bowling green . Porthcurno Valley was declared a protected place and as many as 300 troops were deployed in
8004-471: Was felt that technical standards had improved enough for London to start to provide the majority of the output, cutting the local stations back to providing items of local interest. Each of these main stations were broadcast at approximately 1 kilowatt (kW): Each of these relay stations were broadcast at approximately 120 watts (W): The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967. It had regional variations and
8096-502: Was founded at Porthcurno, initially with a staff of 16 young men. Often in early days, these young men were badly behaved and ill-disciplined. Further cables to Newfoundland, France, Spain, and Gibraltar were landed at Porthcurno, which became the gateway to the Empire. At the outbreak of World War II , the existing surface installations were thought to be far too vulnerable to attack, and in 1941, miners were employed to cut tunnels into
8188-471: Was laid to Porthcurno but this was terminated in the Cable Hut at the top of the beach a few hundred yards to the west where it remained in operation until 1962. The Logan Rock headland, about 30 minutes' walk from Porthcurno to the east along the coastal footpath around Porthcurno Bay is famous for the 80 ton granite rocking stone (Logan Rock) perched at the top of the middle outcrop of rocks on
8280-484: Was now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts took precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast , carried since Radio 4's move to long wave in 1978 because long wave can be received clearly at sea. Initially the power was 100 watts on 350 metres (857 kHz ). 2LO was allowed to transmit for seven minutes, after which the "operator" had to listen on the wavelength for three minutes for possible instructions to close down. On 14 November 1922
8372-434: Was possible for the main Radio 4 service to be transferred from LW to FM, and this took place on 16 September 1991 with opt-outs - extra shipping forecasts, Daily Service and Yesterday in Parliament , joined in 1994 by Test Match Special . Longwave also occasionally opted out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010 . On 30 May 2023,
8464-753: Was provided by the Clore Duffield Foundation for the development of a new, flexible educational centre; the Clore Learning Space. As a result of this extensive capital project, the museum closed to the public in September 2013 and reopened in summer 2014. In 2020, it was rebranded as PK Porthcurno: Museum of Global Communications . In March 2022, the museum was the subject of an episode of BBC Radio 4 's series The Museums That Make Us , presented by Neil MacGregor . The museum’s collection has designated status . It consists of
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