Archive for April 2025

Banbury Radio Station was constructed in 1921 as the British receiving station for the first link in the Imperial Wireless Chain. The site received signals from a transmitter in Egypt at Abu Zabal, the British transmitter site was located about 17 miles from Banbury at Langley near Leafield, together the stations were known in the 1920s as the 'Oxford Station'. As technology developed and the requirements of the Imperial Wireless Chain changed, Banbury became redundant in the late 1920s and was only in occasional use up until WWII when evacuees from the GPO's Dollis Hill site arrived. Much of the work during WWII was related to the production of crystals for radio equipment. In the post-WWII period the site became known as Banbury Radio Measuring Station and was involved in the organisation and monitoring of the radio spectrum. The site closed in the late 1960s and shortly after was demolished ahead of the construction of housing at the south eastern edge of Banbury.