A new exhibition to mark 100 years of Rugby Radio Station has been unveiled, showcasing artefacts from the historic site a century after it started broadcasting to the world.
The exhibition at Rugby Art Gallery & Museum was launched at a special event organised by Urban&Civic attended by dignitaries including the Mayor of Rugby, councillors and officers from Rugby Borough Council, and members of the community with links to the radio station. On display until October, it features apparatus, models and images dating back to 1926 from the museum’s social history collection, including one of the well-recognised lights that sat on top of the former 800ft masts at the site.
The exhibition is part of ongoing celebrations this year to mark the 100th anniversary of Rugby Radio Station, which was once the world’s most powerful radio transmitter, and now been transformed into Houlton School.
Urban&Civic, the master developer behind Houlton, home to a community of more than 1,250 families, is proud to ensure the site’s historic significance lives on through , by naming it after the first transatlantic broadcast made in 1927 to Houlton, Maine, USA, to road and building names throughout the community.
Urban&Civic is also supporting a range of celebrations throughout this year and next. These kicked off with a transmission by Rugby Amateur Transmitting Society (RATS) from just outside Houlton School which broadcast across the world to mark exactly 100 years since Rugby Radio Station’s GBR transmitter opened for service in 1926 .
They have also supported the curation of photographic tapestries, created by assembling thousands of images relating to the radio station submitted by members of the community and printed onto acrylic tiles. The tapestries have now been installed at schools in Houlton, but versions are also on display as part of the new exhibition.
The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Rugby Art Gallery & Museum and Urban&Civic, which organised a VIP event to mark the opening on Wednesday evening (March 16th) to bring together people who played a part in ensuring the legacy of Rugby Radio Station has been preserved in Houlton.
The event featured live music as well as cocktails inspired by Rugby Radio Station created by local distillery Rugby Gin, while a special video was played to commemorate the event featuring morse code as was first transmitted by the station. Copies of a heritage book on the radio station by local historian Malcolm Hancock - relaunched this year including a new chapter by Urban&Civic’s Community Development Lead for Houlton, Elly Hemus - were also on sale, with proceeds going to Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.
The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Rugby Art Gallery & Museum and Urban&Civic, with a VIP event to mark the opening being held on Wednesday evening (March 16th). This brought together people who played a part in ensuring the legacy of Rugby Radio Station has been preserved in Houlton.
The event featured live music as well as cocktails inspired by Rugby Radio Station created by local distillery Rugby Gin, while a special video was played to commemorate the event featuring the morse code that was first transmitted by the station. Copies of a heritage book on the radio station by local historian Malcolm Hancock were also on sale, with proceeds going to Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.
Attendees at the event included Mayor of Rugby Barbara Brown and upcoming Mayor Nooria Sayani, former Rugby MP Mark Pawsey and local councillors and officers from Rugby Borough Council, as well as representatives from Urban&Civic.
Opening the exhibition, Cllr Barbara Brown, Mayor of Rugby, said: "Communication is in our DNA in Rugby. This exhibition and celebration involves so many people and shows how we remain a centre for communication and contact. It’s quite a unique thing to have a totally new community that you can bring on, yet keep that touchstone with the past and take it into the future, so it’s great to be able to celebrate that.”
James Scott, Group Director of Strategy and Planning at Urban&Civic, said: “We’re delighted to have partnered with Rugby Art Gallery and Museumon this wonderful exhibition. The new community of Houlton has been built around collaboration and partnerships and this exhibition and event exemplifies that. The history and heritage of Rugby Radio Station, interwoven into a dynamic new community reminds us of what we can do when we work together”
Notes:
Rugby Radio Station became operational on January 1st, 1926, with its GBR transmitter - then the most powerful radio transmitter in the world - sending news broadcasts and telegrams across the globe. A year later, the station started transmitting the iconic time signal 'pips' from the Royal Greenwich Observatory and launched the world's first transatlantic telephone service - with calls costing £15 for the first three minutes (the equivalent of more than £600 today).
During the Second World War, Rugby Radio Station operatives supported the RAF during bombing missions in Germany before the post-war telecommunications boom saw the radio station expand in the 1950s, with its total of 57 transmitters making it the biggest station in the world. Technological advances led to the station's GBR transmitter being decommissioned in 2003 and four years later all transmissions from the station came to an end.
Rugby Radio Station's grade II listed 'C' building has been transformed into the award-winning Houlton School at the heart of the community.
100 Years of Rugby Radio runs until Saturday 3 October.