History

The cross-channel link from London to Lille was built in two stages: the section between Tolsford Hill and Fiennes entered service in 1959 to provide a permanent television circuit in the 4 GHz band. The original equipment was manufactured by STC and their French counterpart LMT. A 600-circuit telephony link was added in 1960, with another 600 in 1965 and a further 960 in 1971. Together with the associated "protection circuits" these systems would have used all available channels in the 4 GHz band.

Contract 21807 was awarded to STC in 1957 on a non-competitive basis with estimated cost of £70,000 for "Folkestone - Lille" - it's unclear how the overall cost of building and running this link was split between the parties involved: UK and French telecommunications bodies and the European Broadcasting Union. At this stage only one site was built in the UK, at Tolsford Hill. A square-section stayed mast was provided, together with a permanent building derived from one of the standard repeater station designs. The cost was reported as £78,316 10s by April 1965.

Initially the "inland" circuits between London to Tolsford Hill were carried over the London to St Margaret's Bay (Dover) cable route. On some occasions the BBC set up ad-hoc links to and from Tolsford Hill using outside broadcast equipment. A more permanent, but still interim, SHF link was set up for the 1966 World Cup, running from the BBC at White City, via Fairseat then direct to Tolsford Hill. This operated on the 7 GHz broadcast links band, possibly to avoid problems in commissioning the permanent link via Flimwell. This operated on the Lower 6 GHz band and entered service at the end of 1969. The contract was awarded to STC at a cost of £xxx. A 4 GHz system was added a few years later, this contract also being awarded to STC.

The two intermediate sites at Fairseat and Flimwell were each provided with a "Standard Tower" and building of the standard type. At Tolsford Hill a stayed mast was installed for the 1959 link - this remained in use until 197? when the current concrete tower of one-off design was completed. A temporary gantry had been provided to carry dishes facing Flimwell.

The reason for late completion of the inland section is unclear. The tower at Fairseat was in use by 1966, as was the "new" London tower, however archive photos show the building at Flimwell still under construction during late 1967 and the first antenna installed in November 1969. With a direct path possible between Fairseat and Tolsford Hill the "dog leg" via Flimwell may seem unnecessary - but the site is likely to have been included to avoid potential "overshoot" interference and to keep path lengths within normal limits.

The section between London and Tolsford Hill carried a number of vision circuits for Southern Television and successor companies TVS and Meridian: the Dover ITV transmitter formed part of a franchise covering the south and south east, with studios at Southampton and Dover. The ITA rented vision circuits to allow the output from Southampton to reach Dover (via London) and vice versa. After franchise changes in the 1980s the Kent studio transferred from Dover to Maidstone and a spur was provided at Fairseat to allow access to the transmitters. The addition of Channel 4 required a further vision circuit from London to Tolsford Hill to serve the Dover transmitter.

Further expansion of telephony occurred in 1974 and 1975 when two new 1800-circuit systems were added to the Tolsford Hill - Fiennes link, operating on L6 GHz. This contract is assumed to have been awarded to GEC - STC had withdrawn from the market. It is likely additional capacity would have been added on the London - Tolsford Hill section at the same time. A map of international circuits dated 1974 shows 6,000 circuits available between London and Tolsford Hill via SHF. Other cross-channel circuits were provided on a number of cables but the capacity of the SHF route was more than six times that of the cables landing in France. The original cross-channel 4 GHz telephony equipment from the 1960s was replaced around 1982, increasing the capacity in that band from 600 + 600 + 960 to 3 x 1260 circuits. Thomson CSF solid state equipment was used but the links remained analogue at this stage.

Plans were also made in the early 1980s for a new London - France link, crossing between Archers Court (Dover) and Bolougne. This became operational around 1986 and was an 11 GHz digital system. It is unclear whether the route via Tolsford Hill and Fiennes was subsequently migrated to a digital system.

Little is currently known of the history of the French section of the route. The original link ran via an intermediate site at Casell to Loos (5 km south west of Lille) and probably continued via an existing (1951) link to Paris.