Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 19651 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| RADIO MAST FOR POLICE HEADQUARTERS, AYKLEY HEADS, DURHAM | 1968 | 1968-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Sound Duration: 5 mins 22 secs Credits: Turners Film Productions Genre: Sponsored Subject: Architecture |
| Summary A sponsored film made by Turners Film Production for Durham County Council that records the installation of a new concrete radio mast at Aykley Heads in Durham City, designed by Ove Arup and completed in 1968. |
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Description
A sponsored film made by Turners Film Production for Durham County Council that records the installation of a new concrete radio mast at Aykley Heads in Durham City, designed by Ove Arup and completed in 1968.
Title: Radio Mast for Police Headquarters, Aykley Heads, Durham.
Title: Designed by Ove Arup’s and Partners Consulting Engineers for Durham County Council, J.L. Parnaby A.R.I.B.A. County Architect.
Title: Contractors Bierrus and Partners Ltd.
The film begins with a view of Durham...
A sponsored film made by Turners Film Production for Durham County Council that records the installation of a new concrete radio mast at Aykley Heads in Durham City, designed by Ove Arup and completed in 1968.
Title: Radio Mast for Police Headquarters, Aykley Heads, Durham.
Title: Designed by Ove Arup’s and Partners Consulting Engineers for Durham County Council, J.L. Parnaby A.R.I.B.A. County Architect.
Title: Contractors Bierrus and Partners Ltd.
The film begins with a view of Durham Cathedral.
The film cuts to an overhead view of the construction site at Aykley Heads showing the three concrete tripod leg units in place surrounded by scaffolding. Two large Cole Centurion cranes stand on two sides of the legs.
General views of the concrete mast unit laid on the ground. A workman bolts a crane hoist into position onto the mast. Workmen stand around the end of the mast, which is beside a third smaller mobile crane.
The mast unit is lifted into the air and maneuvered into position over the leg units. Two men standing on the scaffolding help to position the mast as it is lowered onto the leg assembly.
General views of the completed mast with aerials and an aluminium lightning conductor attached. At the base of the unit a bulldozer dumps a load of soil into a lorry.
The film ends with a view of the mast standing next to the Durham Constabulary headquarters building.
Context
A beautiful Brutalist sculpture in concrete rises at Durham County Police Headquarters in the 1960s.
A slender modernist icon on the Durham City skyline, the elegant concrete County Police Communication Tower was designed by Ove Arup, one of the great twentieth century structural engineers and ‘a bit of a dreamer’. This technical film, aimed at planners and architects, records the radio mast’s construction between 1965 and 1968, built in the spirit of Harold Wilson’s ‘white heat of...
A beautiful Brutalist sculpture in concrete rises at Durham County Police Headquarters in the 1960s.
A slender modernist icon on the Durham City skyline, the elegant concrete County Police Communication Tower was designed by Ove Arup, one of the great twentieth century structural engineers and ‘a bit of a dreamer’. This technical film, aimed at planners and architects, records the radio mast’s construction between 1965 and 1968, built in the spirit of Harold Wilson’s ‘white heat of technology’ speech when a bright techno future was imagined for Britain. Ove Nyquist Arup was born in Jesmond, Newcastle, in 1895. He pioneered the use of new materials in the built environment, the ‘liquid stone’ of concrete his favourite. Ove Arup worked on many ground-breaking projects, such as the Sydney Opera House, the Barbican Centre in London, and the sweeping Byker Metro Bridge in Newcastle. In 2003 the Communication Tower at Aykley Heads in Durham was granted Grade II listed status by English Heritage. On his death in 1988, Ove Arup’s ashes were scattered from Durham’s Kingsgate Bridge, which he considered to be his finest architectural achievement. |
