Portishead Radio

The UK's long-range maritime service commenced from a site at Morgan's Hill, Devizes, Wiltshire, in 1920. In 1925, a remote receiving centre at Highbridge, near Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, was opened, and in 1928 a transmitting station was opened at Portishead, from which the name "Portishead Radio" was derived. ==World War II==

The station played a vital role during World War II in maintaining communications with the British merchant navy and with patrol aircraft in the North Atlantic. During the war, all communications with ships were one-way in order to avoid revealing the ships' locations to the enemy. ==Post-war expansion and decline==

In 1948, the station was expanded again, adding two operating rooms with 32 new radio operator positions, a broadcasting and landline room, and a file of ship and aircraft positions plotted using magnetic indicators on a 36 by 16 ft steel map of the world. and Dorchester in 1979, the service – still called Portishead Radio – used transmitters at Rugby (Warwickshire), Leafield (Oxfordshire) and Ongar (Essex). The transmitter sites at Leafield and Ongar closed around 1990. ==Closure and redevelopment of the site==

In 1998, British Telecom Maritime Radio Services announced the planned closure of Portishead Radio. In September 2004, Sedgemoor District Council adopted a local development plan that proposed the site of Portishead Radio for future housing development. In October 2007, planning permission for a development of 190 houses and flats on the site was granted, and shortly afterwards the radio station buildings were demolished. In 2007, the buildings at the Highbridge site were demolished to make way for the Mulholland Park housing estate, named after former station manager Don Mulholland and his father Robert, who also worked at the station. == Commemoration ==

Around 2015, a sculpture by Rick Kirby of five female figures holding hands, titled 'Arc of Angels', was installed close to the Portishead transmitting site to commemorate the five radio towers and their role. In 2020, planned celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the long-range maritime service were put on hold due to COVID-19. However, a book on the history of the service was published titled Portishead Radio – A Friendly Voice on Many a Dark Night, and a special amateur radio station GB100GKU was activated, making over 2,500 contacts from 69 countries. In 2025, a small booklet was issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Highbridge receiving station. Efforts continue by former staff members to have the Highbridge receiving station formally acknowledged with a plaque and information board located on the site of the former station. ==See also==