History
Butser Hill is an early example of a "takover site" - by the early 1960s the site was used for a microwave link between the radar station at Ventnor and the London Air Traffic Control (Heathrow, later West Drayton). This was itself appears to be successor to an earlier facility as documents in the CPRE archive suggest a "mast" was present by the early 1950s. A T-shaped building appears on the 1962 OS map, just west of the Post Office site. BT Archives has a sketch (see below) showing a version of the "standard tower" and an unusually large building. In practice a one-off tower design was adopted - a triangular structure constructed from steel tube. Some features are similar to the much later "Type 8A" tower. It appears the intention was to consolidate all dishes onto the Post Office structure and remove the existing tower(s). Photos showing progress as of 1965 show at two other structures with one dish for the radar link mounted on the roof of the existing building.
The "new" tower was designed primarily to carry two horns (of the "large" type) facing Bagshot and another two ("small") facing Thornhill, forming part of a new route between London and Southampton. The initial traffic was television feeds, replacing the earlier link via Golden Pot and to 625-line colour standard. Provision was also made for one dish facing Ventnor and another to Stone Hill (near Farnham) for the radar link. Due to delays at Bagshot it appears a temporary link via Golden Pot and Stokenchurch may have been used to allow BBC2 to launch from the Rowridge transmitter in July 1967. The OS plan dated 1967-70 shows the new tower and two others labelled "wireless mast" which are assumed to be those in the 1965 and 1867 photos below. These structures were dismantled on final completion of the Post Office site.
Traffic to Southampton was constrained by the section between London and Bagshot which was shared with the Bristol route. Images from 1984 show the addition of two dishes, of 1970s style, plus the exchange of one large horn for a dish, but do not support the development of a new route which is understood to have been planned to run via Goodwood, eventually reaching London from the south, via Tatsfield. It may be the new link was eventually equipped on a limited basis but the Goodwood site was not developed on the scale originally proposed. By 1999 only the two 70s-style dishes remained - any digital links installed in the 1980s appear to have used relatively small dishes, or had already been removed.
