History
Tinshill, around four miles north west of the centre of Leeds, was originally part of the 1951 Manchester to Kirk o'Shotts television route [link to feature]. The site was chosen to provide the option for local links to studios or transmitters in the area although no such facilities existed initially. The adjacent sites for the 1951 link were Windy Hill and Arncliffe Wood and the installation comprised a relatively short steel tower with two dishes facing each way and a brick building for the equipment and power supplies.
The current concrete tower and "standard" building were consrtucted in 1967. At that point the "old" tower appeared not to have any additional dishes so it seems the upgrade at Tinshill was a proactive measure. (It is possible the 1951 link had been withdrawn from service by the mid-1960s.) The new tower is of the "Chilterns" type [link] with four "galleries" to accept horn and dish antennas but a relatively short base section. The upper section of steel lattice was the subject of a planning application in 1985: "19.7m high extension to support 9 dish aerials, to existing radio tower". The top of the tower was originally to the same pattern as the others from the same era, with built-in crane. No trace of the 1951 installation remains - it was immediately south of the current tower and to the east of the "new" building.
It appears height above ground was not an important factor here, but there was a requirement to support several antennas in a compact form and to provide for multiple routes. Archive photos show Tinshill did not receive a full complement of horn antennas - only one for each of the major routes - perhaps reflecting projected traffic levels. Provision was made for the new route to London via Peterborough although problems at Farley meant this was slow to develop. A photo in Leeds Past dated 1967 shows three horn antennas. Two, of the "large" size, appear to have faced Upton and Windy Hill and the third was of the "small" type facing Hunters Stones. Only one (very small) dish is visible and may have been a temporary installation. A further route to Hull was added in the early 1970s - one of the first multi-hop 11 GHz analogue routes.
Development of television studios for Yorkshire Television in 1968 and the transfer of the Emley Moor transmitter from Granada to YTV led to a Television Network Switching Centre being established in Leeds - Tinshill provided links to and from the rest of the ITV network. The BBC regional studio in Leeds opened in the same year and the linking arrangements were similar. At this stage all TV links were via Manchester with no direct route north or south from Leeds. From the mid-1970s the feed to the Belmont transmitter was arranged to run via Tinshill and Farley. The formation of Trident Television, incorporating YTV and Tyne Tees Television later also led to direct links being required between Leeds and Newcastle, over part of the 1951 TV route.
The nearby site at Hunters Stones was established as part of the "Backbone" scheme. One of the principles was to avoid centres of population however the "rural" sites in the scheme were used to carry other traffic. Analysis of the available information suggests that Tinshill and Hunters Stones operated almost as a single site for general traffic, at least in later years. Between Windy Hill and Arncliffe Wood traffic would pass via Tinshill and Hunters Stones, with only the "Backbone" route running direct between Windy Hill to Hunters Stones. Information from the National Archives indicates the number of telephony circuits provided via "Backbone" was quite low and probably required only one SHF channel.
A report by the National Radiological Protection Board in 2002 lists the bearings and frequency allocations then in use at Tinshill. These were on bearings which correspond to Stillingfleet, Upton, Emley Moor, Windy Hill and Hunters Stones, all of which used 3 m or 3.7 m dishes. All links except those to Emley Moor were on 11 GHz with a quoted power of 30 W - these would have been 140 Mbit/s digital systems. The links to Emley Moor were at 4 GHz (24 W) and 6 GHz (20 W) - very likely still "legacy" analogue systems since conversion of TV links to digital appears to have been a slow process. There were two minor routes on 18 GHz with smaller dishes and lower power, assumed to be for local links.
The link from Tinshill to Hunshelf Bank is unconfirmed - this would have been part of a mid-1980s route which ran south towards Leicester (Copt Oak). There is, however, no mention in the NRPB report of any dishes facing in the direction of Hunshelf Bank. It is possible the dishes for this route were added to the steel lattice at the top of the tower (other levels were most likely full) but were already removed by 2002 to make room for some of the numerous smaller links.
A series of photographs was taken by Hull News & Pictures in January 2013 when the MP for Leeds North West visited the site and show the site largely unchanged when compared to the images in the 2002 NRPB report. The large dishes were removed in February 2016.
