Memories of Ilfracombe radio station preserved

AN oral history of the working lives of people at the Ilfracombe Radio Ship to Shore Station has been officially presented to the town museum. These days the station at Hoar Down near Mullacott is known as The Ariel Studios and run by the Channel Arts Ass

AN oral history of the working lives of people at the Ilfracombe Radio Ship to Shore Station has been officially presented to the town museum.

These days the station at Hoar Down near Mullacott is known as The Ariel Studios and run by the Channel Arts Association charity, but between 1959 and 1986 it provided vital Morse code communications for all types of shipping in the Bristol Channel and Irish Sea.

In September the building celebrated its 50th anniversary and to mark the occasion - and its own 21st anniversary - Channel Arts invited those who used to work at the station to record memories of their working lives there.

Recorded on to CD, the finished history is now archived at Ilfracombe Museum, where one of the consoles plus transmitters and photographs from the former station are on display.

The oral history is available for museum visitors to listen to on request, along with a variety of documents and photographs.

At its busiest in 1965 the station handled 21,000 messages and link calls and was in contact with 20,000 ships, with 10 operators working there, three on during the day and two at night.