Month: June 2023

I took this photograph in 1964 when the 443 ft Emley Moor television transmitter on the left was replaced by the 1,256 ft mast on the right. Five years later, in March 1969, this new mast collapsed because of strong winds and accumulated ice.

The original transmitter had been constructed in 1956 to broadcast the new commercial ITV channel. When the new mast came online it was dismantled and reconstructed at Craigkelly, Fife, to the north of Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth. It’s still in use today.

Unfortunately one of my photograph of one of the anchors for the supporting cables is a double exposure but you might be able to make out the shape of a concrete block.

The double exposure is unfortunate but as a bonus you get a rare photograph of our bathroom windowsill in 1964. I might have accidentally pressed the shutter button as I prepared to remove the film from the camera. I developed my own films at the time – as you might guess from the uneven development of this shot – so I might have been using the airing cupboard in the bathroom as a makeshift darkroom when loading the film into the developing tank.