Greenlands
From Lacey Green History
Click Amenities for others
click Roads in Lacey Green for others
click Greenlands no 10, Greenlands no.11, Greenlands no 12 and Greenlands no 6 for details of the houses.
Greenlands as recalled by Ted Janes
1951 – 1953. The first tenants to move into Greenlands in Lacey Green, a close built by the council, following the destruction of houses in the city bombings of WW2, were as follows:
1. Bungalow. Mr. & Mrs. Arch Adams. Moved from in Lacey Green.
2. Bunaglow. Nurse Shuttleworth (District Nurse).
3. Bungalow. Mr. & Mrs. Walt Lacey. Moved from Naphill.
4. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Gill & Rosemary. Moved from Gt. Hampden.
5. Semi-detached house. Mrs. Randall and boys. Moved from Rose Cottage, near Floyds Farm. click Harry & Edith Randall
6. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Maurice (Mosh) Saunders & Kay. Moved locally.
7. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert & Malcom. Moved locally.
8. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Mackay and Norman Watson. Moved from Saunderton.
9. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs Sladden and boys. Moved locally.
10. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Ted Janes & Carol. Moved from Speen. (cick Ted & Jean Janes for more)
11. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Don Hatt and Diane. Moved from Speen
12. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Ivy & Harold Janes and Roger. Moved from Speen. (click Harold & Ivy Janes for more).
13. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Rixon and Les. Moved from in Lacey Green. (click Gerald & Elsie Rixon)
14. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Ivor Kelloway and children. Moved from Princes Risborough. (click Ivor & Joan Kelloway)
15. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Winnie Carter & Glen. Moved from in Lacey Green.
16. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Harry Janes and family. Moved from Speen.
17. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Bill Attridge and family. Moved from Loosley Row.
18. Semi-detached house. Mr. & Mrs. Smith , Norah & John. Moved locally.
Hallmark March 1986. Planning Application. Erection of dwelling and garage at Greenlands.
Hallmark August 1984. The Radio Mast. Research by Miles Marshall.
No one living in the Village can be unaware of that rather gaunt piece of ironwork that dominates the western sky from anywhere in the neighbourhood of Greenlands – but who owns it and what does it do? A number of people in the Village have ideas about it – 'it belongs to Molins'... 'the Council'... ‘the Water Board', etc. but I was after facts. I had an Editorial mandate to find out all about it!.
With some misgivings at first, I turned to the telephone. Would they tell me to mind my own business? I started with a present employee of the Wycombe District Council, they didn't use it but... 'ask the Clerk of the Risborough Parish Council'... and so it progressed from one call to another and some interesting visits until the picture began Co come together. The highlight of my investigations was a visit to the new Thames Water Control Centre, but more of that later. All to whom I spoke or met were courteous, friendly and most helpful. I am grateful to them all.
The site of the Radio Mast, as many of you will remember, is in the lowest corner of the Greenlands housing estate, built in 1952 by the Wycombe R.D.G. and consisting of 12 bungalows and 6 houses. This was before the main sewer was run through the Village so a small sewage disposal plant was installed in that corner, to be scrapped in 1973. Meanwhile at their Sewage Works at Little Marlow, the W.R.D.C. needed a high sited radio mast which could command the area to control their maintenance vans. At that time the unfortunate Sewage Works Manager was obliged, at every emergency, to motor off in search of one of his vans to redirect it to the source of trouble. Small wonder that he covered between 1,200 and 1,500 miles a month in this pursuit.
After a series of mobile radio-reception tests, carried out by the Sewage Works Manager, Mr. R.S. Oldroyd, in collaboration with Pye Radio of Cambridge, the Greenlands site was found to be the most suitable for radio operations of any owned by the Council. So a simple pole mast was erected in 1963, 2 inches in diameter and 135 ft high, with wire bracing and two small aerials attached. Suitable equipment was installed to call the mobile units from Little Marlow via the mast. This immediately reduced the Manager's milage to around 400 miles a month and meant a very rapid response to emergency calls. Mr. Oldroyd recollects a phone-in from Stokenchurch on one occasion when a radio call to a van already in the area had a man on the spot with the manhole cover off before the caller had returned from the phone! But the system did nothing to advise the Works of impending trouble.
Plans were discussed in Council to install sophisticated equipment which would diagnose the trouble and signal the state of affairs to the control point, but this would have been very costly and on the Sewage Works Manager's insistence that a van must in any case be sent out, it was left to him to work out something practical with Pye. Together they evolved a 'Small Black Box' for installing at each danger point costing only £130 each. These were triggered off by a 3 inch rise in sewage level working on a small float. Immediately a VHF radio signal, via the Mast would send a numerically coded message to the control point where an audible alarm signal was received. Out of working hours this coded alarm was re–transmitted to radio controllers in the homes of supervisory staff, giving 24 hours coverage of the sewerage system, seven days a week.
The system worked so well that Pye were able to adapt it for other users. Its Silent operation making it particularly suitable for security firms as it could Signal the presence of an intruder without his knowledge. The coded number being all that was required to identify the trouble spot and a van could be directed there at once. This was not to satisfy the GPO however who could not understand the messages and eventually decreed that all such devices must transmit speech! The adaption of the little black boxes to make them talk was to cost the ratepayers £400 a time. Such is the cost of progress.
Some time in 1966/7, Molins of Saunderton approached the R.D.C. to allow them to use the mast as a direct radio link with their factory in Deptford, S.E. London. Pye were again consulted but it was found that a large dish-type aerial would be needed to beam the transmission direct to Deptford. This the pole could not support so Molins entered into a leasehold tenancy of the land om a mutual agreement that they should stand the cost of a new mast and share its use with the Council. The pole mast had to be dismantled to make room for the new girder type and both sets of aerials were fitted to the new mast. When in 1973 Molins no longer needed the facility, the mast became the property of the Council.
In 1974 when the new Wycombe District replaced the old W.R.D.C., the control of all water supplies and sewage disposal was taken over by Thames Water and the mast and its radio equipment passed into the hands of the Northern Division, based at Rickmansworth, whose territory included the little Marlow Works. Lacey Green actually lies just over. the dividing line so that our water is controlled by the Western Division based at Aylesbury and Oxford. Much of the water we use however is ‘exported' to us from Thames Water Northern Division, which will become more important to us on completion of the Lacey Green Reservoir, as will be seen.
The Mast, today, is a very important link in a new control system for water supply and sewage management centered at Bourne End Pumping Station, which I was kindly shown round by the Supply Manager, Mr. M. Parker. This is a most impressive set-up which has a direct UHF radio link with our mast from where it is not only in touch with their mobile units by VHF radio but it also continuously monitors and controls 42 unmanned pumping stations and monitors, a large number of unmanned sewage stations and treatment works.
The system, which only became fully operational in April 1983, is unique in the British Water Industry and is attracting worldwide interest. The Control Room, in restful light–green decor, fully air conditioned and with specially designed (non–flourescent) lighting, is manned 24 hours a day and comprises a radio telephone desk, Telemetric receivers and computers which interpret and log all the information received.
The radio equipment is still supplied by Pye Telecommunications, and the other instrumentation and computers by Serck. Once again the man on the spot, this time Mr. Parker, has been largely responsible for the design and layout. At. £750,000 it seems a far cry from Mr. Oldroyd's little black boxes at £130 each, but the larger figure does include the building; at todays inflated prices it seems a – comparatively small sum to pay for such a system.
Each control operator has before him a large television screen which in response to a special keyboard can throw up diagramatic images like 'Ceefax' pages giving instant data on any desired unit. Unlike the Old Post Office, it seems that British Telecomm don't feel the need to listen to speech messages for today all signals are transmitted in an electronic Morse Code at immense speed, around 600 pieces of information a second; this is changed into sound tones, like ‘Space Invader' noises which the computer is able to translate into English for the operator and to record continuously on the log. Levels, pressures, flow rates, etc. are continuously under surveillance and faults are immediately signalled. On receipt of an alarm signal, the operator can, within half a second, 'consult' with the unmanned station and either stop or start a pump, open or close a valve or get the radio operator to direct the nearest mobile engineer's van to the trouble spot.
Mr. Parker showed me that provision has already been made to monitor the Lacey Green Reservoir, work on which is now in hand. As many readers will already know, this is the small paddock at Small Dean Lane crossroads round which the old road runs. It will hold 8 million gallons of 'drinking' water – ready for use. Half – of the reservoir will be below ground and half in a grassed-over mound. The spoil from the hole is being spread on the field opposite, all to be landscaped afterwards to comply with local planning requirements. The water, which is entirely for domestic purposes, (nothing to do with the 'bunker') will come up from Saunderton Valley mains, which already supply Lacey Green up Woodway via the new booster pump. The water will come up the hill in large pipes in a separate trench.
The Mast, which of course is unmanned but has its own automatic stand-by generator in case of power failure, has in addition been rented out to other organisations who each need their own Telecom Licence and individual frequency. It is now, however, for security reasons, only let to public utilities such as Central Electricity Generating Board, Eastern Electricity, Gas Board etc. It has been used by the Bucks County Council Highways Dept; but not now.
It is regularly visited by radio engineers who service and maintain the equipment of the various users.
Our Mast has therefore increased both in importance and usage, much more than most people realised. But it can be a source of annoying interference on TV and Radio equipment locally. Forthright engineers' comments have been known to obtrude at high volume even on a record player! If interference of this kind is experienced, ask at the Post Office for Telecom pamphlet (A6385) ‘Good Radio and Television Reception’ and fill up the form on page 3. The more detailed information you can give about the interference, the more help you are Likely to get.