'Tails'
provides a vehicle for Occold folk to
have their say or to exchange their thoughts

The bright lights of Mendlesham TV Mast have not pleased many. They appeared over our horizon a year ago just in time for Divali or for early Christmas blingers The Mendlesham District Councillor is said to have compared it to a UFO.

As I recently discovered that you can just see it on the edge of Rendlesham Forest (‘World UFO Capital’), as well as near Bury St Edmunds and Thetford, we can no doubt expect some more sightings.

This contraption, the tallest in Europe at the time and as tall as the Chrysler building, went on-line in 1959. But by 1985 technology had caught up with this monster and 405 lines had to finally to give way to 625 which didn’t require the Mendlesham Mast.

Reception in Occold had been so good that some are said to have improvised aerials out of coat hangers. Albert Elliot didn’t seem to be convinced that they would turn off a perfectly good service and was left to watch the last white dot disappear from his screen.

The mast was due to be taken down within a few years, but came back to life as a radio mast in 1997 giving Radio Vibe such a good signal that it is sometimes picked up in Bristol! But it has proved that it is worth more than a ’bag o’ beans’ as it is now also used for a wireless broadband service called Beanstalk Broadband based in Wetheringsett.

In 2003 it looked as if this lanky lady would not stay forlorn and exposed for long, as eight wind turbines about one third her height were proposed. What a sight that would be. Like Snow White in her best red party frock surrounded by her eight (what’s been going on there then?) dwarves.

But it now appears that she is likely to remain lonely and unfulfilled, all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Andy Andrews