Wartime radio hub linked to sinking of German battleship up for sale

One of Britain's key wartime radio stations is up for sale for nearly half a million pounds.

Criggion Radio Station in Powys was used not only to transmit messages to warships and submarines during World War Two and the Cold War, but to connect Britain to the world before satellite communication.

Part of the station, named Shortwave A, is now on the market for £495,000 - though neither the original radio equipment nor the station's distinctive 600ft (182.9metres) towers remain.

Robert Pearce, a retired Royal Air Force radio engineer who owns another part of the former station, said: "It's very, very sad we've lost it. We were the absolute leaders in technology."

The radio station, first used in 1942, was built quickly as a back-up to the main communications centre in Rugby, Warwickshire, amid fears that it could be bombed.

Planners needed a location that was flat and isolated, with a hill to provide anchor points for the radio station's aerial system.

They found this in Criggion, a quiet village on the Shropshire border.

With miles of buried copper wire to boost radio signal, the inventive use of Criggion's 900ft (274.3m) Breidden Hill to hold up its large aerial system and its Eiffel-style towers, the site was a feat of engineering.

To keep essential communications running, staff even used an amphibious military vehicle, which is a cross between an armoured truck and a motorboat, to get to work during floods.

During World War Two, the station relayed messages from the Admiralty - the government department responsible for the command of the Royal Navy.

Employees at the station had no idea what the content of these coded messages was.

However, Criggion is reported to have relayed orders to sink several warships, including Scharnhorst - which was one of Nazi Germany's most dangerous and successful battleships.

Criggion was at its busiest during the Cold War, when reports suggest between 120 and 160 people worked at the station.

During this time, Criggion relayed Very Low Frequency (VLF) messages to Britain's submarine fleet.

Before the widespread use of satellite communication, the station was also used for civilian traffic.

Advancements in technology made Criggion's Shortwave buildings obsolete in the 1970s.

However, two of its buildings remained in use by British Telecom (BT), the privatised successor to the General Post Office's telecommunications branch.

The station was formally decommissioned in 2003, bringing 60 years of radio operations in Criggion to a close.

In the years that followed, the radio station became a rundown location visited by urban explorers.

In 2014, Powys councillor Graham Brown expressed disappointment that the station had been "left to rot" after the decommission and called to turn the site into a historical attraction.

Instead, the four main buildings of the station were bought by separate buyers.

Shortwave A was purchased by The Studio People, an acoustic design and studio installation company, and turned into its office and workshop until 2026.

One of the other buyers was Pearce, who grew up in Shrewsbury, not far from the site.

His idea when he bought Criggion's Low Frequency (LF) building was to turn it into a radio museum.

However, without permission to change the purpose of the building, Pearce joked it had instead become "a very expensive garden shed".

Despite this, Pearce studied to get his amateur radio licence and he now broadcasts daily from the historic site to others on the amateur radio band.

"We talk, we give signal reports, see what the weather is like, or what you're building."

His radio callsign even ends in GBY, one of the callsigns used by Criggion while in operation.

Though Pearce believes it is "very, very sad" that much of the technology from the site has been lost, he continues to broadcast from Criggion and gives tours of his building to fellow radio enthusiasts.