Lizard Wireless Station England, UK

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

LANDEWEDNACK

292/0/10012 PEN OLVER 17-JUN-04 Bass Point The Lizard Wireless Station including base of aerial mast to north [formerly known as Marconi Bungalow]

II Wireless station, now Marconi museum. Built 1901. Weatherboarded timber-frame. Felt-clad roof with gabled ends; small wooden finials to gables of accommodation hut. PLAN: Two detached huts adjacent to each other; the radio hut to the east and the accommodation hut to the west. Became holiday house in about 1920 and by 1934 it had been extended, the two huts joined together, a kitchen added and a garage built at the rear of the wireless hut. In 1999-2000 the National Trust restored the two huts, but adding an outshut at the rear of the accommodation hut; the radio hut was refitted with radio facilities by the Trevithick Trust. EXTERIOR: 1 storey. Radio hut on right [east] has 2-window south front with small 4-pane windows, outshut on left end and plank door at centre of rear [north]. Accommodation hut on left [west] has 3-window south front with 1-, 2- and 4-light mullion-transom casements and circa 2000 outshut at rear with porch canopy in the angle. INTERIOR: Walls and ceilings lined in matchboarding. Interior of radio hut re-equipped with radio transmitters and receivers to recreate original state. HISTORICAL NOTE: The Lizard Wireless Station was one of a series of coastal stations established by Guglielmo Marconi for ship to shore radio communications. On 23rd January 1901 the Lizard Station successfully received a radio signal from the station at Niton, Isle of Wight, some 190 miles away, breaking the distance record for wireless communication, proving that wireless telegraphy over the horizon was possible in spite of the Earth's curvature and culminating in the trans-Atlantic wireless transmission from Poldhu to St Johns, Newfoundland. SOURCES: [1] Johns, C., The Lizard Wireless Station, An Archaeological Survey for the National Trust, 1998; Cornwall County Council. [2] Thomas, N., The Marconi Wireless Station, A Report for the National Trust, 2000; Cornwall County Council.