Which ever way you look at it the Telephone Exchange at the top of Bay Hill is not an Architectural highlight of the village.
From this side it is positively forbidding, more like a prison than anything else. There is little information that I can find on the Internet about the Exchange or its history. It does get a mention when the GPO brought forward the date for broadband in the area, and from that point of view it is a major factor in the my ability to manage this blog.
The most recent information I can find is a planning application for three radio masts but I'm not clear if this is still a live issue. I can find nothing about the history, so if anyone reading this has information, or can point me to it I would be pleased. I'd like to know if there is any connection between this exchange and the early link across the channel. In the meantime I will keep checking the Gulls on the roof, hoping that a rarity takes up residence one day!Bird News This evening I heard that a Wryneck had been seen at lunchtime near Hope Point, along with two Redstarts, a Spotted Flycatcher and seven Wheatears.
2 comments:
there is a nuclear bunker under the exchange
Been doing a bit of research about this myself and came across the following information. April 1st 1891 marked the first cross-Channel subsea telephone cable between England and France being opened to the public.
It was the first subsea cable linking two countries.
The crew of GPO cable ship HMTS Monarch braved snowstorms and high seas to lay the cable from St Margaret’s Bay, Dover, to Sangatte, Calais
The submarine cables to France were re-laid in 1930, coming ashore at St Margaret’s bay beach. In 1932, a large repeater station was completed on Bay Hill, St Margaret’s Bay.
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