Winter Hill Transmitter

[MrFrancisH]

Presumably you mean the present tower was built in 1965?

I was allowed to tour the transmitting buildings in 1959 as best I can remember. The transmissions were in black and white and they kindly ran part of the Treasure Island serial on the film scanner with Robert Newton as Long John Silver.

Interestingly, the audio announcements of a video/visual/transmission failure were as individual tracks on a 12 inch 'shellac' record. The programs came via an underground coaxial and 'Edistone' receiver

[tomharding]

I live in Westhoughton and can see winter hill pretty clearly from my kitchen. When we're driving home from a distance, seeing the mast lit up always reminds us that we're not far from home. I love it.

[AndyJay15]

I'm in St Helens and I can see this. Looks nice when it lights up red at night :) Also walked up to it on Duke of Edinburgh, tried to cut through the site instead of having to walk round the fence but they wouldn't let us incase of falling ice aha :(

Was interesting though. It's huge when your only a few ft from it.

[L45hley]

cool dogs,bro

[TheRippingCorpse]

I can see this from my house. It looks great at night when it's lit up.

[GanEdenAustralia]

there pronounced as 'therr' LOL

[farty1000]

wow is this peter kay narrating??

[Chewbaxter]

Afraid not cocker... I'm from Wigan - he's from Bolton. Similar accent though i'n't it eh? :D

[coolghpoo]

where is this as i see it from blackpool

[Chewbaxter]

It's near Rivington/Horwich was isn't too far away from Bolton. Grid Reference - SD660145. You can only get 'so far' up to it now I'm afraid but you can still get pretty close. :)

[coolghpoo]

as ill be coming down on the train where best 4 me 2 get off and are the views gd

[Chewbaxter]

Trying to think where the best place would be.

For views - you'd be better going to RIVINGTON PIKE - there's lots of great scenery there, and although not right up to the transmitter, it can clearly be seen from there...

Perhaps if you got off the train at Bolton and then got a bus to Horwich?

Sorry, but I live in Wigan you see... when we go we drive there.

Hope those suggestions are of some use. :)

Neil.

[stealth1692]

@Chewbaxter u can get to the mast but there are signs that say no tresspassing but most of the time i cycle up there

[coolghpoo]

where is this i want 2 go i can see it from blackpool

[sian0151]

@coolghpoo i can see it from my bedroom in Liverpool its in Bolton its over an hours drive away from me

[sian0151]

@coolghpoo its in Bolton on winter hill

[Ilikeonions]

I live about 12 miles from it, I also want to ride up there on my bike.

[cav750]

Nice video. I've been there quite a few times - but its also nice to see it from the comfort of my front room (and its a lot warmer)!

[mike20021969]

what's that 2 yellow 'cylinders' that appear at 2m30s? they look like some sort of transmitters/reciever dishes.

and looking at winter hill from southport,to the left of the transmitter,you have what look like 'pylons' to the naked eye,but i'd imagine they are some sort of transmitters (do they have dishes on them and aerials)-so i couldn't see them in your video.maybe you were filming looking west which means they'd have been on the right as you viewed it.

[Chewbaxter]

Howdy Mike... they do look like pylons - on each there are numerous 'satellite dish' objects on them.

There are a few of these close to the base of the transmitter, but I don't exactly know what they do - I know s*d all about this type of stuff I'm afraid!

Cheers for replying though - hope yo lied the vid.

Regards.

Neil.

[AnthonyUK]

@Chewbaxter Some of those dishes are for microwave and satellite links to the transmitter, cheaper than landlines.

[saxtonrob]

They're feeder drums. They're huge coax cables we use to send the tv signal up the mast to the antenna.

[electricmoonmonkey]

Chewbaxter why don't you go to Emley Moor with your dogs its a transmitter its near Huddersfield.

[Chewbaxter]

Ah... reason is, Winter Hill is close by, so it's a doddle to get to.

Plus - I'm too tight to spend the money on petrol for going to Huddersfield... although I was there via train a couple of months back.

:)

N.

[Ironlord2015]

Good video. Me & some friends went up there a few summers back & I had a video camera with me, & we did exactly the same as you in the video there, but with slightly better weather, ie SUN! :D I got footage of the mast & almost broke my neck looking up from the foot of it as I did so :D bloody high that thing innit? Massive cables holding it in place too, we had a good look at those. It's a great place to go on a nice clear day & the view certainly is pretty spectacular & only minutes from town.

[stude]

good video. see its red lights clearly in leigh.

[Chewbaxter]

Cheers Stude - yep... visible from loads of places isn't it?

Something to look at on dark nights I reckon - and it's often better to see than the rubbish on telly!

:D

Seriously though... since they added the red lights it's certainly more visible.

N.

[FASTF0RWARD]

On a clear night it can be seen from junction 16 on the m6, Staffordshire/Cheshire border.

[andrewbarrett42]

IT can be seen from Blackpool aswell.

[bwfcdan]

its a great view, my family has a farm right below it and there's great views there aswell

[Chewbaxter]

Ye lucky beggar - I'd love that for me and my doggies - we're within 'driving distance' though so that's not too bad.

Thanks for the comments - appreciated!

[AidanLunn]

it's nowhere near as good as Emley Moor

[Chewbaxter]

Never been - so I'll have to take yer word for it!

:)

Neil

[ahmedrawat]

i was watchin your video of winter hill.. and i want to know what route did you take to get your car up there? i've been tryin for ages to go there but im always on the foot of the hill near the lake towards belmont and can never find a road that goes up there.

thanks for you help.

[madwebby28]

The wooden building thingy that surrounds the mast, does somebody live there or is it for workmen?

[Chewbaxter]

That's just where it's fenced off... there's a full brick building there... I assume it's where the engineers etc. go - I reckon it's the 'proper deal' and looks to have electricity and brewing up facilities etc.

But I've never been in - so there's something to speculate on.

:D

Neil.

[MyronSz]

Nice video. Got a question. There is a aign approaching on the road stating it's a private road and that CCTV camera are in use. I suppose the usual stuff to try to scare off the casual visitor. I assume no one on-the-hill has any problems driving up the hill to the mast?  Like, you was lucky not go get caught or is it truly safe to drive up to it and for no one to complain?

[andymartin86]

Ive been up there about 30 times in the car day and night and never been told to move etc.

At the moment they are recabling the mast which is what the cages are for, and security is pretty high as a guy is there 24/7 in a portakabin, however I cant see you getting in trouble for harmless observation.

[MyronSz]

Thanks the reply.

[jiraiya2006]

climbed up it today was amazing took a far while tho the view was amazing might camp up there in the future XD

[Chewbaxter]

There are some excellent views from there aren't there - on a clear day you can't beat it.

:)

N.

[drummerwoo]

eh what you expect...typical british weather...hail stone its lancashirs weather hell yeah!!

[Chewbaxter]

Very true - often you get Polar Bears around Winter Hill - even in summer.

Okay... a slight 'stretching' of the truth maybe... or to be honest, a total lie! Still, it's often 'brass monkeys' up there!

:D

N.

[Chewbaxter]

Someone else lives in Westhoughton eh? 'Wicker Man' territory I reckon, so I'll accept the 'weirdo' comment as a compliment considering that I feel I'm amongst 'natives' living there. :D

Yep... pretty random, but that's the beauty of having a mobile with a camera - you can film anything!

:D

Neil.

[AnthonyUK]

Probably because the area you are in somehow gets a signal from a welsh transmitter;parts of the Lancashire coastline gets Welsh terrestrial tv as does parts of Merseyside and Cheshire (these being close to the North Wales territory).

[Chewbaxter]

Cheers for that.

Another interesting thing about this location... you can go up there in winter and because it's high up, there's snow there even though nt seen anywhere else... also pretty spooky looking at times because you can get 'milky' sort of fog - very atmospheric!

:D

Neil.

[AnthonyUK]

It serves a large part of NW England and beyond at 500kW for BBC1/BBC2/ITV1/CH4 analogue and 12.5kW for Five(to disappear in 2009 as part of digital switchover),and lower power transmissions for DTTV Freeview and TopUpTV plus it carries all the BBC national stations/BBC R.Lancs/and local commercial stations Rock FM and Century 105.4 plus national commercial stations Classic FM on FM and local and national DAB digital radio stations.

[Chewbaxter]

And it's also jolly sceninc and a great walk - when the weather's okay.

Ta for the info. by the way Anthony.

:)

N.

[AnthonyUK]

Even North Wales and Douglas on the I.o.m. gets a signal from it and a good bit of South Lakeland gets reception from it especially near the coast and even some of the higher parts of the Yorkshire Dales(on the lancashire side)gets a signal from it. In the mid 70's when I was at Broughton Towers Special School Broughton-In-Furness(no longer exists as a school;is now luxury flats)we even got a signal from Winter Hill transmitter all that way! A fluke or what?!?!:)

[Chewbaxter]

Here... one question - how come we can get 'BBC Wales' when we let the telly autotune' for BBC2?

Hmm... mad stuff!

:D

Neil.

[SoundLad]

I found this intresting as its one of those things you dont think about i day to day life but when i watched this im quite amazed how far away from birkenhead it is as its our Transmitter and the only one that works in my location.. Cheers for the insight :D

[Chewbaxter]

No probs - thanks for the comment by the way.

If you type in 'Winter Hill' on a search engine, you'll find loads of info on the place.

:)

Neil.