Wood Norton Hall is a Grade II listed Victorian stately home near Evesham, Worcestershire, England. It was the last home in England of Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who claimed the throne of France. Used by the British Broadcasting Corporation during World War II as a station for listening to enemy radio broadcasts and an emergency broadcasting centre, it became the accommodation for the BBC's engineering training college that grew up in its grounds. The BBC retained purpose-built facilities in the grounds for technical training after selling the Hall, which became a hotel. The hotel has now been bought and is currently being cleaned ready for opening in 2012.
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The site of a dwelling since medieval times, Wood Norton was once the home of Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1869–1926), the last pretender to the throne of France.
Its position - hidden within acres of remote woodland on a hill facing south - made it ideal for official use in the event of war. In early 1939, the BBC bought the site so that it could relocate its operations away from London and other urban centres in the event of hostilities. A number of temporary buildings were quickly erected around the hall to provide an emergency broadcasting centre.[1]
A dozen studios were built, and by 1940 Wood Norton was one of the largest broadcasting centres in Europe with an average output of 1,300 programmes a week.
It was the home of the BBC's Monitoring Service[note 1] from August 1939 until early 1943, when Monitoring moved to Caversham Park and Crowsley Park, near Reading. The move was made to release space at Wood Norton so that it could become the BBC's main broadcasting centre, should London have to be evacuated because of the threat from Germany's V-weapons.
A fire during the war destroyed the Hall's upper storeys.
After the war, Wood Norton became the home of the BBC Engineering Training Department. During the Cold War it was designated as a broadcasting centre in the event of a nuclear attack.[2]
In 1966, and into the late 1960s, Bredon Wing was built as an addition to the training centre, containing a 175-foot-long (53 m) nuclear fallout bunker beneath it.[3] A mast was constructed on top of the hill behind the hall and was fitted with an SHF dish (microwave link) to Daventry radio transmitting station (referred to in 1975 cabinet papers released 30 December 2005).
Two VHF yagi aerials were fitted to receive signals from the transmitters at Holme Moss and Llandrindod Wells. Later, another SHF link was fitted to the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham, to provide reliable TV reception for the technical training facilities as the local terrestrial TV signal was poor.
The bunker (known as PAWN - Protected Area Wood Norton) and mast, and many other installations, were referred to as "deferred facilities" within the BBC. Few staff knew their full extent and those that did had to be vetted by the Ministry of Defence and sign the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Some secrecy surrounds the bunker to this day.
The "deferred facilities" were modified many times over the years. In the 1970s they were extended and updated to be able to provide the "Wartime Broadcasting Service".
The estate has been the home of the BBC's Engineering Training Department since the war, now branded the BBC Academy. It is well known for the quality and depth of expertise in all aspects of broadcasting. Training is provided for technical and engineering staff from most UK broadcasters and telecommunications companies, with some sales of training overseas. Training staff run residential courses on-site, travel to deliver courses at other sites in the UK, and design interactive courses for use on the BBC's internal network.
Because of its convenience as a BBC facility, Wood Norton was used for some of the filming of the Doctor Who serial Spearhead from Space.[4] It was later used for all of the location filming of the Robot series of Doctor Who .[5]
Under the leadership of Greg Dyke and Resources director Mike Southgate, the BBC sold off the residential accommodation used by trainees, which had been built by the corporation 20 years previously.
Wood Norton Hall itself was a privately owned hotel and conference centre, but closed in 2005, reopening under new management the following year. The hotel finally ceased trading in 2010. The BBC retains its Technical and Operational Training Centre in the extensive grounds.