Radio Emma Toc

By the time of this project - 2016 - I was active in the world of amateur radio & a member of the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society. On various occasions we transmitted from an unusual wooden hut in Chelmsford's Sandford Mill Museum - a hut with a curious history... I was briefly aware of the '2MT' story over the years & subsequent research raised my interest & curiosity. The history of the hut & moreso the people who had worked therein intrigued me, & the idea of celebrating 2MT developed. 

In 1922 the team working at Writtle in a cold wooden hut in a sometimes waterlogged field appear to have been a fascinating group of enthusiastic, cheerful, high spirited, irreverent, young & very clever individuals. Not only did they go on to play major roles in the BBC & with Marconi, but they also - perhaps unintentionally - created the UK's first regular broadcast wireless station!

So - how about paying tribute to those Writtle hut pioneers with a radio project which revived the spirit of 2MT, & at the same time rekindled & brought to a new generation their passion for radio?

There are various links between 2MT & amateur radio. In today's world it is difficult to imagine how those young Marconi engineers felt in the early 1920's working in the new era of radio communications - a time of exploration, discovery & achievement. Radio & technology has now moved on to new levels, but many of the basic principles remain the same as in those early days.

2MT came about after the radio 'hams' of the day petitioned for a regular experimental wireless service. 'Hams' - amateur radio operators - shared the same passion for radio exploration & experimentation, & whilst 2MT has long ago passed into history, amateur radio is still alive & thriving.   

Discussions with Tim Wander during the latter part of 2016 culminated in plans for a three day radio service to celebrate the 95th anniversary of 2MT on 14th February 2017. We also looked on this as a trial for celebrating the 100th in 2022, although our ambitious plans for the centenary ended up being scaled down somewhat as far as radio programming was concerned, however in 2017 we were able to pay a fitting tribute to 2MT on their 95th birthday & above all - we rekindled the spirit of 2MT - & had fun!  

From Sunday 12th February to Tuesday 14th February 2017 we celebrated 2MT with an internet radio service including various live programmes from the original 2MT 'Long Low Hut' at Sandford Mill Museum here in Chelmsford, Essex, UK. Whilst in the hut, we were joined by members of the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society who were operating a special event amateur radio station using the callsign 'GB95 2MT'. We therefore for the first time in 95 years actually broadcast, & transmitted, from this historic building.

There were many high points during our broadcast including being interviewed on BBC 5 Live & BBC Essex, & a main highlight was at 7pm on Tuesday 14th February, exactly 95 years on from when 2MT started transmissions. At this time we raised a glass & drank a toast to (1) 2MT & all involved, (2) radio hams past, present & future, & (3) Captain Peter Eckersley. We were joined in the hut by amateur radio & museum friends & colleagues, & we are sure the spirits from the past were looking on...!  

A poignant moment during the 3 days was on Tuesday afternoon when we were visited by Shirley, the daughter of Tom Eckersley, Peter's elder brother. Now in her 80's, we enjoyed talking about family & history, & I was pleased to be able to play her a recording of an interview with Peter Eckersley, most likely from the 1950's, in which he credits his brother Tom for being the inspiration to him at school to 'be a wireless engineer'.

Throughout our 3 day broadcast we presented 10 live programmes, many from the Long Low Hut, & some from our home 'short high roof'... These are available here to listen again via our page on the 'Mixcloud' service or by clicking on the players below.

The 2MT 'Long Low Hut' now sited inside at Sandford Mill Industrial Museum

Tim Wander & Les Radley operating GB95 2MT & Radio Emma Toc set up in front of the replica 2MT transmitter

Murray Niman operating the 2 metre GB95 2MT station & Chris Chapman, Les & Murray operating HF GB95 2MT 

Bob Tokely, Jim & Pete Sipple (Tony Gilbey looking on!) & Chris interviewed on Radio Emma Toc 

Radio Emma Toc's studio location when not in the 2MT hut - home based, in a 'short high roof'

Tim Wander, Kathryn Sipple & Dave Monk from BBC Essex on Radio Emma Toc   

Dave Monk interviews Tim & Jim for BBC Essex 

Jim explains to Dave - 'this is how it used to work...!'  & Chris operating HF GB95 2MT

A look here at some of the publicity for our 95th celebration event. We were featured in the December 2016 edition of RadioUser magazine: 

Many radio related websites & social media pages published items about our broadcast, both before, during & after out 3 days of programmes. Thanks to all the following, & apologies to those we have missed out!

Southgate Amateur Radio News / CARS - Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society / MARTS - Medway Amateur Radio and Transmitting Society / MARS - Meirion Amateur Radio Society / Marconi Veterans Society / Marconi Science Worx / Chelmsford City Council / CRHnews / BBC Essex / The SWLing Post / Shortwave Central / Big Wave PR.

We also received much coverage through Twitter & Facebook, with many 'likes' & 'retweets' of our own postings, together with many direct messages of support. It has been fascinating to promote our celebration of 2MT, the cutting edge technology of its day, by using today's social media technology.           

A collection of photos spanning 90+ years...    First - some of the few photos taken in 1922, of the people & the hut. 

...and so to the present day - a collection of photos taken in October 2015, when we retraced the steps of those early pioneers from the Cock & Bell pub to the site of the 2MT hut in Lawford Lane... 

The Writtle village sign on the green & the sign acknowledging the village's radio history 

The Cock & Bell & a short walk to the site of the 2MT hut originally on Lawford Lane, now with the unusually named 'Melba Court' after redevelopment of the Writtle Marconi site

Yours truly, at the Marconi Hut sign, & holding an important reference book! & the original 2MT hut position, rear of Melba Court 

Lawford Lane bridleway, looking north, - looking south... 

The Marconi Hut Writtle sign, in Lawford Lane at the entrance to Melba Court, giving a good description of the significance of the hut & the people involved 

The Chelmsford City District signs, acknowledging our historical significance, & Eckersley Road - named after one of the 2MT pioneers - near to the Marconi Company New Street works 

A selection here of more pictures & news items. First - from the Essex Chronicle & the Essex Weekly News, Friday February 17th, 1922.

So the first song transmitted live from the 'long low hut' in Writtle on the evening of Tuesday 14th February 1922 was Mr. Robert Howe singing 'The Floral Dance'. Listen here to a 78rpm gramophone record of the same singer, same song... 

The  'Press Release'  12 months later,  and the transmitter circuit diagram... 

We recently re-visited All Saints Church, Writtle, to view the special stained glass window added in 1992 which includes a commemoration of the radio works of Guglielmo Marconi.

Details below from the All Saints History and Guide booklet...

Further detail is given by Tim Wander in his 2010 publication '2MT Writtle - The Birth of British Broadcasting':

On Monday 15th June 1992, the Directors of GEC-Marconi Communications and Baroness Platt of Writtle hosted the dedication of a stained glass window in All Saints Church, Writtle ... The service was attended by Marconi's grandson Prince Guglielmo Giavanelli Marconi.

The Artist, Jane Grey describes the window:

'At the heart of the design is the Sun. Its radiance can be interpreted as divine Love spreading outwards to all people, while at the same time the widening rings depict radio waves travelling in every direction. The colours of the circles symbolise the earth, sea and sky.'

It would be lovely to discover a cache of 2MT recordings hidden away in a secret vault somewhere, but - in 1922 we had no reel to reel tape recorders, cassette players or mp3 recorders!

As far as we know there were no actual broadcast recordings made, however there are various documentary & interview recordings of Peter Eckersley recreating the sound of 2MT at a later date & also of other hut members telling the 2MT story.

We have collected a variety of 2MT & radio related documentary programmes & you can listen to these by visiting our page on the Internet Archive which can be easily accessed via 'Links' in our Menu. Here's details of some of the recordings: 

Sounds from the Ether - A BBC Essex documentary circa 1986, detailing the invention of the wireless & the birth of broadcasting, & covering the 2MT story. 

60 Years of Radio - An Essex Radio documentary circa 1982, detailing the start of British broadcasting & the history of Guglielmo Marconi, & covering the 2MT story.    

The Wireless Sings by Tim Wander - A Hosiprog Production. Tim's play recreates the time before & after Dame Nellie Melba's first concert in 1920 from the Chelmsford Marconi New Street Works. 

Two Emma Toc Writtle by Tim Wander - A Hosiprog Production. The 2MT broadcasts are recreated in this radio play, letting us listen in behind the scenes of the first 2MT transmissions. 

Radio Lives - Peter Eckersley - A fascinating insight into the talented & complicated life of Peter Eckersley, in this 1994 Radio 4 documentary. 

Tuning In - Archive on 4 -  A look at early BBC history & the development of wireless, including the important role played by Peter Eckersley. Radio 4 2012. 

The First Pirate - Radio Normandy & Captain Plugge. A look at Captain Leonard Plugge & the transmissions from Radio Normandy to the UK. Radio 4 2000. 

The Eccentric Entrepreneur - A further insight into the life of Captain Leonard Plugge & his role in early broadcasting. Radio 4 2014. 

A Brief History of TIM - An affectionate look at the history of 'TIM' - the speaking clock. BBC Radio 4 documentary 2016. 

The Lincolnshire Poacher - The fascinating & strange story of the Numbers Stations. BBC Radio 4 documentary 2005. 

THE PRE-2MT STORY       

A look at how 2MT came about...​

With grateful thanks to author Tim Wander for permission to provide this abridged version of text from his publications -

'2MT Writtle - The Birth of British Broadcasting' 

'From Marconi to Melba - The Centenary of the First British Radio Broadcasts'            

Further details    marconibooks.co.uk

​

THE EARLY DAYS OF UK WIRELESS

When we look at the history of the UK's first regular, licenced, entertainment broadcast service, 2MT, and look at why 2MT was established, we need to step back a few years before their first transmissions in 1922.

In late December 1919 the Marconi Company installed and began testing a 6kW telephony transmitter at its main Chelmsford New Street factory. Operating under an experimental Post Office transmission license, and using the radio callsign MZX, its sole purpose was to investigate the properties and problems associated with long distance speech transmission.

The new Chelmsford transmitter fed into a huge 'T' shaped wire aerial that was suspended between two massive 450ft high masts, set 750 ft apart, known locally as the 'drainpipes'. The huge cast iron tubes dominated the Company's New Street works and the town.

The content of the first Chelmsford transmissions left much to be desired, with Marconi engineers Bill Ditcham and Henry Round simply following the company prescribed format for telephony transmission. But weeks of continually repeating railway station names from Bradshaw's train timetable, broken only by the occasional time check, became boring, and the Marconi engineers decided to do something totally different.

On the 15th January 1920 they started the first ever true 'broadcasts' in Britain by transmitting a programme of speech and gramophone music, including what was to become Ditcham's regular news service.

This all could have gone unnoticed, but 214 appreciative reports soon arrived from amateurs and ships operators alike who had listened in. The radio amateurs were enraptured to finally hear words and music on their radio sets, and they reported this in glowing terms to the Marconi Company. The Chelmsford station had been heard from Norway to Portugal, with the greatest reported distance being 1,450 miles. The engineering team realised they had stumbled on something quite extraordinary and it was time to become more ambitious. The 6kW transmitter was quickly replaced with one rated at 15kW.

Now for a brief period from 23rd February until the 6th March 1920 their continuing tests became a regular, scheduled series of 30 minute broadcast radio programmes. These were aired twice daily at 11am and 8pm and were designed from the outset to be a regular wireless telephony news service which would take up to 15 minutes, leaving time for three or four short musical items.

Despite the enthusiasm generated by the Chelmsford radio 'events', the Marconi Company still believed at this time that the future of wireless telephony lay solely with commercial speech transmission and not entertainment. However, Ditcham and Round were given a free hand to continue.

Additional entertainment was soon arranged, with regular programmes now transmitted to the nation during the early summer of 1920 consisting of readings from newspapers, gramophone records, and for the first time live musical performances from a young local lady Miss Winifred Sayer.

This new concept of speech and music crackling over the airwaves into the front rooms of ordinary people was poised to revolutionise the world of entertainment, and was enthusiastically greeted by radio amateurs and newspapers throughout Europe. The transmissions from Chelmsford, and from station FL in Paris, were joined by the new Dutch broadcast station PCGG, which started broadcasting special concerts for English listeners on April 29th 1920.

It appeared to all that the future of broadcasting looked very bright indeed, and Ditcham and Round's lively series of concerts and news programmes transmitted from the Marconi New Street works had also not gone unnoticed by the established print media. It was a newspaper that started the next phase of the story, brought about by the proprietor of the Daily Mail newspaper group, Lord Northcliffe, and he now commissioned the first radio broadcast by a recognised professional artiste of international standing, choosing none other than the famous Australian operatic soprano Dame Nellie Melba.

On 15th June 1920, Dame Nellie Melba travelled to the Marconi factory works in New Street Chelmsford, and - despite problems with cable links and transmitter valves - at shortly after 7pm went on to perform seven songs over the MZX transmitter. The response was tremendous, with hundreds of listener reports received just for reception on simple crystal sets, and for those using more sophisticated valve receivers, reception was successful across Europe and as far away as Canada and Northern Persia.

The wireless concert from station MZX Chelmsford was deemed a great success, and for a short while similar broadcasts continued with concerts from Lauritz Melchior and Dame Clara Butt. However the writing was on the wall for station MZX's 'special test' transmissions. Each experimental music programme from the Chelmsford New Street site had to operate under a special Post Office permit, and in November 1920 the Postmaster General announced that the Marconi broadcasts from the Chelmsford Works were to be suspended on the grounds of 'interference with legitimate services' and there were to be no more permits. Whilst such 'legitimate' services had been affected including the new air traffic control system at Croydon, other factors were at play with the Post Office seriously worried about its long held communications monopoloy in the British Isles.

The Marconi Company duly complied with the Postmaster General's order and MZX lapsed into silence.

However - the seeds for the future of broadcasting had been sown and the enthusiastic listeners, including many of the new radio hams, were to play a significant part in the next chapter of British radio broadcasting.

WE WANT MORE!

The Chelmsford broadcasts had focused the attention of both the press and the public on the possibilities of using wireless telephony as a means of bringing entertainment into the home. Unlike the total chaos that would soon beset the American airwaves, broadcasting in the United Kingdom was to follow an ordered and logical course, with the future now returned to the small but growing band of amateur radio enthusiasts. They were furious at the closedown of the Chelmsford station as it had been a vital reference signal operating on a precisely known wavelength and declared power.

As a small compensation for the amateurs after the earlier complete wartime ban on radio amateur communications, experimental amateur radio transmitting licences were finally granted again on 1st August 1920. Soon, more and more amateur telephony 'broadcast' stations began to appear on 1,000 metres and 180 metres, despite severe restrictions being placed upon their operation, including a maximum output power of only ten watts and operation limited to only two hours per day.

All over Britain low powered radio broadcast stations came on the air, with at least twenty in the London area transmitting speech and music. For example, Station 2UV Harlesden London produced complete 30 minute programmes, including transmission of gramophone records and also live, local talent. One radio enthusiast, Harold Walker, even had his own theme tune for his amateur station, call sign 2OM, with 'three o'clock in the morning' crackling into his listeners' headphones.

Reports on these amateur stations soon began to appear in the press, as did the professional concerts transmitted from the Hague radio station PCGG. Britain now needed its own broadcast station.

By March 1921 there were 150 amateur radio transmitting licences and 4,000 receiving licences issued in this country, with some 1,700 requests or enquiries remaining unprocessed. The amateurs thought that it was high time for action and representatives of the 63 wireless societies which had now been established, with some 3,000 members, gathered in London on 21st March 1921 for the Second Annual Conference of Affiliated Societies. The following item on the agenda was discussed after suggestions from several wireless societies:

'The possibility of regular telephone transmission from a high power station to include all matters of interest to amateurs and to be on different definite wavelengths for calibration purposes'.

The meeting also decided to form the Radio Society of Great Britain, elect officers and a committee, and resolved to ask the Post Office for a special wireless transmission service with which to test and calibrate their sets.

On 15th August 1921 it was announced that the Postmaster General had authorised transmission by the Marconi Company for 30 minutes each week of calibration signals from a new station to be established in the Chelmsford area with the call sign 2MT. However, this could not include telephony (speech), and transmissions were to consist of the name of the station and its current frequency continuously repeated, but only in Morse code.

It was a start, but the amateurs were not satisfied. They still wanted to hear speech. On 29th December 1921 the Affiliated Radio Societies presented another petition to the Post Office signed by their officers, now representing more than 3,300 members, complaining about the slow progress made in negotiations and demanding the reinstatement of telephony transmissions.

Suddenly the battle was over - and had been won. On 13th January 1922, less than a month after the petition was presented, the new Postmaster General now authorised the transmission of a 15 minute programme of speech and music, to be included within the weekly half hour calibration transmission.

The task of making it all happen, to build a transmitter and operate the station, was given to the Marconi Company's Airborne Telephony Research Department, established in anticipation of a new market in airborne telephony. This team was based in an ex-army wooden hut, parked unceremoniously on the edge of a large, partly flooded Essex field in the small village of Writtle. The hut was staffed by ex Royal Flying Corps officers who had worked on the science of airborne speech transmission for years, and who probably knew more about speech transmission than any other engineering team.

The new 'broadcasting job' landed unannounced on the desk of 'PPE' - one Captain Peter Pendleton Eckersley - on the morning of 12th February 1922.

At first it was thought that doing 'broadcasting' was just another job from head office, that would probably get in the way of the proper work. It was an inauspicious beginning, but with 'PPE' at the helm this small acorn would soon grow.

The station callsign was simply 2MT, and the 2MT Writtle station was to become the birthplace of broadcasting in Britain. The young engineers in their wooden hut were to write the next chapter in the history of British radio.

This Radio Emma Toc project was great fun & also an extremely interesting look at the history of British broadcasting. I must emphasise the importance of Tim Wander's research over many years into this fascinating story, & I believe much would have been forgotten or lost without his informative writings, lectures, passion & enthusiasm for this subject. Thank you Tim.

We originally hoped to do greater things to celebrate the centenary of 2MT in February 2022, although for various reasons some of our plans did not come to fruition. We were however able to celebrate in a different way with a live video broadcast streamed over the internet, during which I was able to interview Tim in the 2MT hut & also Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society who were operating a special event amateur radio station from Writtle. I also had a chat with Paul Kerensa - broadcast historian & creator of 'The British Broadcasting Century' podcast, & later in the evening we had a live link up with Pete from Essex Ham who was operating an amateur radio station from another hut - the East Essex Hackspace in Hockley Essex. At 7pm we raised a glass & drank a toast to 2MT & all involved with this pioneering station. 

So - all in all we were still able to provide a fitting tribute to 2MT on their 100th birthday & celebrate this wonderful story!

Over 400 people tuned in to our video broadcasts on the 14th February 2022 from across the globe. If you would like to see the video broadcasts from this day, pop over to our Radio Emma Toc World Service page (RET WS in the top Menu or click on the screenshots below) & scroll down to the Live Streaming section.  

I am not sure whether we will celebrate future 2MT birthdays although somehow I think we will!