Jodrell Bank gets star treatment

JODRELL Bank buildings that played a pioneering role in radio astronomy, including its 125ft telescope, have been given heritage protection.

The Mark II radio telescope, the smaller of two steerable dishes at the Cheshire observatory site, is now Grade I listed.

It joins the 250ft Lovell telescope, originally known as the Mark I, which was awarded the status in 1988.

The new listings – which also include four Grade II buildings and part of a converted ex-Army radar antenna – were announced on the 60th anniversary of the Lovell telescope collecting its first radio signals from the universe.

Jodrell Bank Observatory, bought by Manchester University in 1939, was pivotal to developing radio astronomy, which captures light at invisible radio wavelengths to ‘see’ celestial objects that would otherwise be hidden.

Historic England’s Crispin Edwards said it was ‘a remarkable place where globally important discoveries were made’.