History

Unusually, Manchester - Leeds started as a telephony route, however television links were added in response to the introduction of a new ITV region. Initial development was the subject of contract 23576, awarded to GEC in May 1964. As usual for the period, this was to be a L6 GHz system. Completion was due by 1 May 1965, with the note: "Special attention is drawn to importance of completing work on time". GEC's bid of £96,536 was accepted, a lower offer from STC was rejected as their system would not be available until March 1966. Marconi bid £155,120 with completion October 1965.

Additional information shows the initial system "Link A" was to be an 1800-circuit system with protection channel and the contract also involved "re-equipment of part of Backbone with 2000 Mc/s radio equipment". The latter work was to resolve a conflict with frequency assignment in the Manchester area and was the subject of a separate contract in 1963 - the work was presumably co-ordinated for operational reasons.

No sites were built specifically for this link: the concrete towers at Heaton Park and Tinshill were part of wider network development and the intermediate site at Windy Hill had received a new steel tower as part of "Backbone". It is possible the L6 GHz system originally installed for the section Sutton Common - Windy Hill - Hunters Stones was recovered, modified and redeployed.

A further contract 300502 was awarded in September 1965 for "additional channels". GEC's price was £29,889 - this was a non-competitive contract, presumably on the basis that the additional channels were to be part of a system supplied by GEC. "Link B" was for a further 1800-circuit channel. The completion date was to be June 1967. The actual completion dates are unknown.

In 1967 the ITA created a new franchise for Yorkshire - previously the region had been part of a wider "North" franchise held by Granada (weekday programmes) and ABC (weekends). Yorkshire Television (YTV) established studios in Leeds, requiring an incoming vision circuit from "Network" and a feed to the transmitter at Emley Moor. Service commenced in July 1968. The BBC also opened a regional studio in Leeds in 1968, with similar provision being required. Vision circuits were added to the Manchester - Leeds SHF link and existing arrangements for BBC2 re-routed. A 1984 network diagram shows provision for the BBC was limited to an incoming vision circuit for each channel and feeds (via Tinshill) to the transmitters at Emley Moor and Belmont. Provision for ITV and Channel 4 was more extensive: three vision circuits from Manchester to Leeds and two in the reverse direction. The ITV circuits were extended to Newcastle as part of collaborative arrangements between YTV and Tyne Tees TV (at one point the two companies merged as "Trident Television").

In the 1980s, digital links at 11 GHz were added to the Manchester - Leeds route. Channel 4 and BBC migrated to BT and Energis resepctively by the mid-1990s and by 2002 only 11 GHz links were in operation over the route.