What have a roman road and two Herefordshire villages in common?

Maureen writes .......

"COMMUNICATIONS"

• Was it a Roman Legionnaire or a Anglo Saxon Farmer on his way to market who dropped some silver coins as he walked along a road in Herefordshire many many years ago.

• In 1941 a RAF wireless operator’s training school and airfield. Its aim was to train ground and aircrew for the RAF during WWII.

• Today, the site is home to what is probably the largest Satellite Earth Station in the World, Antenna 1, the first 'dish', was operational in 1978, and measures 32 metres in diameter. There are a further two of the same size and a total of over sixty in various sizes.

• Also present day Madley Environmental Study Centre (MESC)

I mention the Romans first as over the years some Roman coins and artifacts have been discovered along side Stone Street they are now housed in Herefords Library Museum.

Could there be more just waiting to be found, who can tell ! We shall have to wait and see.

In the early days of WWII arable land adjacent to the villages of Madley and Kingstone was turned into 3 full size runways a sewage farm and hundreds of buildings to accommodate over 3000 people. The population of Kingstone village grew from 292 taken from the 1931 census to over 5000 during the years of the war.

To give you some idea of the scale and size of the site here a few figures to show the considerable achievement that happened during the one short year it took to build equip and open the school.

Mowlem the building contractor, who did the bulk of the work, brought in 36 busloads of workers each day. They arrived at 7o’clock in the morning and finish work at 6 o’clock in the evening 7 days a week. Hardcore was delivered by train to Vowchurch station and local drivers and farmers with tractors trailers were hired to bring thousands of tons of this hardcore to the site in a non stop stream of foundation materials for the builders to use. The rate for this job was 5s 6d (28p) per hour. As there was no mains electricity or sewerage was available for the site a generating power plant and sewerage farm were built to provide lights, power and drainage for a very large area. When completed the No. 4 Signals School as it was known, had such facilities as barrack huts, a NAAFI, a barber shop, a tailor, shoemaker, a cinema, gymnasium and a church annex. There was also a large medical block, which was called into action many times dealing with the casualties from aircraft crashes, and accidents that happened in the surrounding area such as the welsh mountains. By 1943 a properly trained mountain rescue team was on call at the station fully equipped for all emergencies. In October of 1943 the RAF converted the grasscovered airfield into a reinforced airstrip adding various types of aircraft hangers at the same time. Some of these hangers are still in use today as part of the industrial site development that happened after the RAF closed down the station in the 1950’s. For the plane buff amongst us here are some of the aircraft that were used, Dominies, Lysanders, Tomahawks, Hurricanes and Mustangs all had a presence at the station over the years the RAF were in charge.

What the locals did not know that the infamous Rudolph Hess, Hitler’s deputy was imprisoned locally for a short time before he was flown from the airfield in 1946 to stand trial for his war crimes in Nuremberg, where he was found guilty as charged and imprisoned for life.

As previously stated the RAF pulled out of Madley in the 1950’s leaving the airfield to revert back to farmland and market gardening.

In the 1970’s the Post Office was looking for a suitable site to expand their newly developed satellite communications technology. Madley airfield was judged to be an ideal site situated as it was in a perfect geographical position mostly protected from high winds by the valley and free from interference both electrical and industrial guaranteeing high quality reception. So in 1974 the post office as it was then purchased 180 acres of runways and adjoining land on both sides of the roman road that is Stone Street. Building of the 1^st satellite dishes and buildings began in 1976 and was completed and in service by 1978, transmitted international telephone calls by satellite to USA, Europe and the Far East. When the post office became BT in the 80’s the earth station continued to expand and develop now transmitting and receiving not only telephone calls but also facsimile messaging and satellite TV program’s. In 1989 an international switch (telephone exchange) was added to the site making it the largest communications centre in Europe if not the world. Starting with dishes which measured 32 meters in diameter, BT have now developed new technology so that the dishes can now be much smaller in diameter with out losing any quality in service. So in some case size is not that important now… The centre has never used more than the original 60 acres first developed. At this time there are over 50 antennas in use at Madley Comms. Centre.

A minor fact is although christened Madley Communications Centre the site actually straddles two parishes with some of the building and dishes sited in the ancient parish of Kingstone, a foot in both camps so to speak.

MESC is an education centre located on land owned by BT but run by a charity. The purpose of this charity is to educate both children and adults in learning about their environment. The charity provides this facility for Herefordshire the only one in the county doing this type of work. We are at present going through the process of obtaining a lease for the land we use from BT, along with an additional 6.5 acres to increase our site. This will enable us to expand our facilities and to provide a new building to the highest environmental specifications. We wish to become a centre of excellence within the country for this sort of sustainable educational

So here we are up to the present day, Madley, which was once a centre of learning how to communicate, is now a centre for communications. Sitting quietly in a beautiful glacial valley in the Herefordshire countryside just getting on with its job as it has done for the last 60 years.

So next time when you are watching a news report from some far off country, or you tune in to watch the tennis from Wimbledon, the Olympics games or the World Cup Football, it is probably being broadcast through Madley. If you are not a Herefordian you possibly have never heard of such a place let alone its history.

From the Romans to Present day. Communications has been the watchword for this area.

By road, By Radio, By satellite and now By education.

My thanks to all those who have helped me to compose this brief history of a small but important piece of countryside.

Information provider: Maureen Venn November 2003