"We don't want another mast built on the same site" said the villagers of Emley in 1969, when ice and high winds brought down the 1,200ft high steel television mast, wrecking the local Methodist Chapel, and miraculously causing no injuries.

But the villagers now live without fear.

Engineers designed this stronger, concrete structure, which has stood the tests of time and weather. It is now a familiar and accepted landmark in the lush countryside occupied by the transmitting station.

The high hills of the Huddersfield area make ideal locations for television masts.

The Emley Moor Mast towers above the rural village of Emley to the south east of Huddersfield town centre.
The mast is a well known local landmark which dominates the skyline.

Its elegant concrete tower is now an accepted part of the landscape but it is, in fact, the third television mast to be located in the Emley Moor area.

The first mast was constructed in 1956 to broadcast television transmissions across the Yorkshire area.

The steel structure was 445 feet high and resembled the Eiffel Tower in shape.

The mast served the area for less than ten years before being given a new home in East Lothian, Scotland. In 1964 it was replaced by a new structure which was able to transmit colour television and sound radio.
The new tubular steel mast stood at a height of 1,265 feet.

However, it soon proved to be more trouble than it was worth and was to wreck havoc in the local area and fill nearby residents with fear. Their fears were justified. The design of the mast meant that during the cold winter months ice was able to accumulate on its steel sides.

When the thaw set in chunks of ice began to fall off the mast often hitting buildings and narrowly missing a number of people. Nearby Emley Moor Methodist Church was severely damaged as blocks of ice smashed holes for local residents and those who worked at the site.

By 1969 the Independent Television Authority had begun to negotiate rehousing settlements with those who lived closest to the mast and had agreed to build a protective canopy over the Methodist Church, but before any of these projects could be completed the problem was resolved in a dramatic and potentially disastrous manner.

On 19th March 1969 the weight of the ice and the severe winds caused the mast to buckle and collapse. The crash of the falling structure could be heard from miles around as the building at the foot of the mast was completely destroyed and the Methodist Church was so badly damaged that it later had to be demolished.

Amazingly no one was killed or seriously injured in the accident.


Unsurprisingly, local people were at first adamant that they did not  want another television mast on Emley Moor and certainly not one that was so close to where people lived. However, this was a prime location for television transmission.

Concerns about the safety of having a steel mast on the windswept and exposed moorland forced engineers to think hard about the design of the replacement. They came up with the current, stronger, curved tower of concrete which now stands out as a familiar landmark in the area.

Emley Moor is the tallest television mast in Britain and the tallest structure of its kind in Europe, standing at a height of 1,083 feet or 330 metres.

With a weight of 11,000 tons, at its base the mast has a diameter of 80 feet or 24 metres, tapering to 21 feet and 3 inches or 6.5 metres at a height of 900 feet (275 metres).

At this level there is an observation room which is reached by a maintenance lift passing through the hollow centre of the tower. At the top of the tower is a 180 feet steel lattice mast which transmits signals and serves one of the biggest coverage areas in the country, made up of over four million people.

Although the tower is not open to the public trips to the viewing platform have been offered as prizes in local competitions.

Emley itself is a former mining community which in 1998 received national fame when its non-league football club made it to the third round of the FA Cup Championship. The team of part-time players travelled down to Wembley to face Premier League West Ham, who defeated them by two goals to one.

In the run up to the match, the normally sleepy village was visited by the national media eager to see the home of the giant killing football club who beat a number of league sides to get to the third round.