The early prototype for the steerable ‘big dish’ telescope, possibly circa 1950.

Building the tower-arms, early 1950s.

The telescope under early construction, mid 1950s.

The telescope dish under construction, mid 1950s.

The telescope frame and dish begins to take shape, though still under construction.

The completed telescope stands ready at dusk.

Sir Bernard Lovell, the project’s master-mind, turns on the power.

A growing advanced-research station on the Cheshire Plain, by the late 1950s.

Sir Bernard Lovell, head of the project.

Sir Bernard Lovell, examining data on paper tape. In those days punched and graphed paper-tape was the most efficient way to stream and record massive amounts of data from the stars. Possibly mid 1960s.

The giant dish becomes a local landmark in the countryside.

In the 1960s, new additional telescopes.

In the 1960s, new additional advanced radio telescopes.

An older Sir Bernard Lovell and others, listening for messages from a Venus probe in the 1960s. Even aged in his 90s, he was still going into Jodrell every work day.

Early layout with control buildings. Very little fencing (pre IRA terrorists) or cars.

Later layout. By the late 1960s, with the first Space Race well underway, the place was becoming something of a tourist destination as well as a growing and widening research centre stretching out around the giant telescope. This mix continues today, in public events such as the sci-art Blue Dot Festival which returns in summer 2023.

Throughout the late 1960s and into the 70s, the small but fascinating visitor centre helped to enthuse the new young ‘Space Race’ generation — who were already well enthused by the manned Moon missions and by humanity’s pioneering exploration of the Solar System. In 1971 a new Planetarium was added. I remember the visit well, and especially the reels of punched data-tape — some of which interested children were allowed to take home.

Secret messages from the stars!

Today Jodrell Bank is home to one of the most powerful telescope arrays in the world, created by linking together all the UK’s seven radio telescopes to work as one. Jodrell Bank is also home to the HQ for the Square Kilometre Array, an even larger multi radio telescope project that will do the same for sites in Africa and Australia.

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Further reading:

Sir Bernard Lovell’s accessible book on the early history is The Story of Jodrell Bank (1968), and this was revised as Voice of the Universe: Building the Jodrell Bank Telescope; Revised and Updated (1983). The Out of the Zenith: Jodrell Bank, 1957-70 (1973) is a more technical book for astronomers, from Oxford University Press. The technical aspects of the telescopes themselves were later covered in the book The Jodrell Bank Telescopes (1985). All these are now on Archive.org.

Children’s publisher Corgi/Carousel also appears to have issued the Story of Jodrell Bank (1972) for children in middle-childhood, and this can still be found used in paper form on eBay and Amazon. At a guess, this is perhaps Lovell’s accessible 1968 book heavily adapted, condensed and illustrated for intelligent children? Surprisingly, there appears to have been no subsequent children’s book on the topic. Time for a graphic novel?

Sir Bernard Lovell also appears to have had at least three book-length biographies.

There appears to be no large modern coffee-table history book on the history of Jodrell Bank, but there is likely room in the market for one — perhaps even in conjunction with a new Ken Burns-style documentary film. In the meanwhile there’s a two-hour YouTube Playlist of available documentaries.