The Washford Radio Museum, Somerset

The Washford Radio Museum is attached to Tropiquaria, a wildlife park and tourist attraction which is housed in the redundant part of the Washford Transmitting Station, a grade 2 listed example of industrial Art Deco architecture. The museum was opened in 1993 by Neil Wilson, a lifelong radio enthusiast and engineer, and aims to describe the building's history as well as offer an insight into radio broadcasting in Britain from the 1920s onwards. Opened in 1933, the BBC West Regional Transmitting Station at Washford Cross was the first high-power broadcasting station in the south west and the museum contains photographs and information about the station from the 1930s through to its present use by Arqiva to broadcast BBC Radio Wales, Absolute Radio and TalkSport.

Many items of early BBC equipment and ephemera are on display, some rescued from the Washford station before its re-engineering in the late 1970s, along with a collection of radios, televisions and related artifacts and literature.

Some of the microphones in the museum collection. The one in the bottom left corner is a carbon granule type constructed by Neil Wilson from bits to resemble those used in the very early BBC studios. All the other microphones shown are described elsewhere on this site. From left to right we see a Marconi-Reisz carbon granule (1927), an STC 4017 (1930), and an STC 4021 - often called the apple and biscuit (1935). Just in front of that is an STC 4017A (a variant of the 4017 with a different connector) and a BBC Type B (1937). Behind that is a pair of STC 4035s (1949). In the centre is the classic BBC AXBT (1944, developed from the original Type A of 1934). Then come an STC 4038 (mid-1950s) and a BBC PGS from which the 4038 was developed (1953). Partly hidden by the body of the PGS is an STC 4037B. Finally an STC 4105 (c.1955).

source:The Washford Radio Museum, Somerset