Peter Crooks (G4KGG)
Leicestershire, Beaumanor Radio Club

Beaumanor Hall, is a stately home in Woodhouse, Leicestershire. It was the headquarters of the War Office Y Group. This group consisted of hundreds of secret listeners, who would intercept enemy signals and send information back to Bletchley Park for decoding. Most of these listeners
were amateur radio operators.

This was an extensive ground covered with huts filled with banks of receivers. There was a huge system of dipoles, and rhombic antennas. The intercepted messages were received by Beaumanor Hall and sent to encrypted to Bletchley where they were deciphered and graded on a scale of importance.

Beaumanor Hall is situated approx. 3 miles South of Loughborough, and 8 miles North of Leicester. The house and grounds were used as an intercept station during W.W.II, and in 1946 the Ministry of Defence purchased the estate to carry on work of a similar nature during peace time.

In 1974 the Ministry sold out to Leicestershire County Council, and in 1977 the Hall opened as a conference centre for teachers.Many of the original huts still remain in habitable condition, and children attending educational courses at the centre use them as dormitories.  During the war time period many huts were built to house the numerous receivers to carry out the intercept work, including direction finding. Initially the sets would have been operated by civilians, but the scope of the operation soon became apparent, and much of the intercept work was then carried out by women of the A.T.S. None of the staff were allowed to sleep on site, and as at Bletchley much ferrying to and from the outlying villages took place, with as much secrecy
as possible.

During the early part of 1999 a suggestion had been made to celebrate the millennium with a ham radio connection.  Later during that year Beaumanor agreed to host us, and the GB2MM project took off. They were so impressed, that in the course of events I suggested that we re-activate the old call sign used by the staff in the immediate post war years of G3BMR . This was immediately agreed by the executive at the Hall, and the Beaumanor Radio Club is being re-formed with the call sign G3BMR.The club will be there for the benefit of the many children who come to the Hall to take part in curricular activities, of which World War II is part.  The G3BMR project is very much in its infancy, and for the occasion on the 8th.May,we shall be
using a Marconi antenna, and crossed fingers hi.The rig for the GB2MM project was a TS870 loaned by Kenwood, and they have agreed to loan a rig for the period covering this event of a model not yet known.
I am unable to advise on the dates of operation but certainly on the 8th.May we would hope to be fully up and running from the Hall.If the authorities are unable to accept us on the 6th.& 7th. my idea was to operate as G3BMR/P to at least check out the freqs etc.and possibly land line GB2BP with results afterwards.