History

Commissioned in 1914 by the Marconi Wireless and Telegraphy Company, the original purpose of the building was as a Wireless Transmitting station to send messages to the USA.

It cost the Marconi Company £50,000 to build, and 100 men were employed in the construction.

8000 tons of materials were hauled up to the site by means of a light railway (now the road access to the Beacon) using a steam haulage engine and steel wire rope. 6000 tons of concrete were used for the bases and supports of the ten 400-foot steel masts, now gone, which stretched up the Cefn Du hillside above the station to hold the vast wire aerial system.

Transatlantic signals were sent during World War 1 (1914-1918). Returning messages were being received by another station at Towyn, 40 miles to the south. However, the building’s main claim to fame is that, from here, the first ever Morse code wireless message was sent to Australia on 22nd September 1918.

During the 1920s both the building and the aerial system were extended, the station then operating by remote control and handling further signals to Spain, Egypt and Gibraltar. The operating equipment was constantly updated and the building extended, and by 1932 pictures were being transmitted to the USA.

New technology finally took over and the aerials were eventually dismantled in 1939. Since then, the building has had a surprising variety of uses before becoming a climbing centre in 1994, the most notable being a strip club in the 1970s!

Photos courtesy of the Marconi Company.