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Old 30th May 2020, 12:24 am   #22
paulsherwin
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Default Re: BT 'Chiltern' telecom towers

Quote:
Originally Posted by fetteler View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
The government was always keen to play down the essentially military nature of the Backbone system, though I doubt if the Russians were fooled. The cover story was always that the network was needed to distribute 625 line (and, later, colour) TV signals.
I never heard that one before! My understanding is that it had always been a phone and comms infrastructure, nothing secret, (yeah, maybe some military/government stuff in there too)
All the Backbone towers were classified in the 60s and not shown on Ordnance Survey maps. Bizarrely, this included the Post Office Tower in London which was the tallest building in Britain at the time and had a high profile public restaurant at the top of it. There was and still is a very prominent tower in the centre of Birmingham too.
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