Heritage Lecture 

19.30 – 21.00

80 years ago, on the late afternoon of 14th December 1945, Bernard Lovell was alone in a muddy field in the Cheshire countryside. The sign at the entrance read “Jodrell Bank Experimental Grounds”, a remote outpost of the University of Manchester botany department. The ex-army equipment set up outside the gardeners’ huts were transmitting radar pulses into space. Hunched over the cathode ray tube, an elated Lovell was transfixed by the echoes returning from high in the atmosphere.

He had been given permission to work at Jodrell Bank for two weeks. He never left.

Lovell had never intended to build an observatory, nor even a telescope, and he certainly wasn’t an astronomer. It was a series of chance events that changed his life, leading to the creation of one of the world’s great observatories.

As part of our 80th anniversary celebrations, travel back in time with Professor Tim O’Brien on a fascinating journey through history. Illustrated with rare photographs and archival documents, he’ll explore how one man’s fascination with technology and a determination forged by war transformed a small botanical site into a window to the Universe.