Jodrell Bank to open major new national visitor attraction

Monday, 14 March 2022 11:32

Jodrell Bank will unveil The First Light Pavilion, a major new UK visitor attraction, on 4th June 2022.

The stunning new building is at the heart of the £21.5m First Light Project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aims to open up the inspirational history of Jodrell Bank by engaging visitors with the fantastic stories of its pioneering scientists and their ground-breaking feats of science and engineering.

The launch of the new Pavilion will firmly establish the Jodrell Bank site, which is part of The University of Manchester, as a major UK cultural destination, fitting for its uniquely multi-dimensional status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, national visitor attraction, cultural icon, and globally significant scientific research facility.

The concept for the new building was an original idea developed by Jodrell Bank’s Professors Teresa Anderson and Tim O’Brien, who have passionately spearheaded the project since its inception.

Professor Anderson, Director, Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement, said: "After years of planning, we are thrilled to finally be able to announce the opening of First Light. This moment will mark a whole new chapter for Jodrell Bank and we're looking forward to welcoming our first visitors through the doors and in to this beautiful new space."

The First Light Pavilion was designed by the award-winning architects HASSELL Studio to respond sympathetically to its unique surroundings. The striking building takes the form of a grass-topped 76m-diameter dome, which cleverly mirrors the shape and scale of the landmark Lovell Telescope.

By maintaining an age-old tradition of building structures that express our relationship to the skies above us, the building also makes reference to ancient sites, such as Stonehenge and Newgrange, by aligning with the sun via a meridian line cut through the dome’s entranceway. Facing due South, a slim vertical window right in the centre of the building invites the sun to shine through a finger of light that moves across the entrance foyer as the day goes on, acting as a giant sundial.

Inside the new Pavilion, visitors will be able to engage with the site’s rich heritage in a brand new permanent exhibition. Created by leading exhibition designers Casson Mann, the First Light Exhibition will bring to life the Jodrell Bank story, which dates back to 1945 and the birth of a whole new science: the exploration of the Universe using radio waves instead of visible light.

Professor O'Brien, Associate Director, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, explains: "That transformational development in this quiet corner of Cheshire completely opened up humanity's understanding of the universe and allowed us to discover previously undreamt of things such as pulsars, quasars, and even the fading glow of the Big Bang."

The scientists at Jodrell Bank proceeded to build the world’s largest radio telescopes in succession. The 66m Transit Telescope made the first ever identification of a radio object outside our own galaxy – the great nebula in Andromeda. It was superseded by the famous Lovell Telescope in 1957, the first act of which was to track the carrier rocket of Sputnik 1 by radar, witnessing the dawn of the Space Age.

Jodrell Bank's story continues through the height of the Space Race and the tensions of the Cold War to today's new discoveries and world-leading research. Professor O'Brien adds: "The site has remained at the forefront of radio astronomy since its inception and, today, the Jodrell Bank team are world leaders in pulsar research."

Exhibition audiences will be able to see a range of fascinating archive materials brought together for the first time, including audio, film, diaries, letters, plans, notebooks and photographs. Highlights include a number of personal items belonging to Jodrell Bank’s founder, Sir Bernard Lovell, and the ‘Blue Book’ detailing the original proposal for the Lovell Telescope. While mostly digitised, physical items will also be on display, including a large section of the telescope gear rack and one of the telescope’s control desk panels.

The actual fabric of the exhibition will make innovative use of parts of the iconic Lovell Telescope. Fifteen 4m-high panels taken from the underside of the Telescope during its recent renovation will serve as the backdrop to interactive projected animations created by the award-winning digital media studio Squint/Opera, in partnership with exhibition builders Realm and software developers ISO.

Far from traditional displays of words, pictures and static objects, this highly interactive exhibition will weave archives and artefacts together with animations, projections and experiences. Visitors will be able to sit back in a deckchair to experience the thrill of a meteor shower, crawl into a black hole or see like a snake, and even try ‘driving’ a radio telescope.

At the heart of the impressive space will sit a ‘control desk’ from where visitors will be empowered to take charge of the displays themselves and even set off a ‘digital Sputnik’ to traverse the length of the exhibition. The nature of this kind of high-level interactivity means that every single visitor will experience their own completely unique version of the exhibition. Meanwhile, visitors will also be able to experience vivid planetarium-style shows in a custom-built auditorium, complete with a curved projection screen and an impressive nine digital projectors.

The state-of-the-art Space Dome will offer every visitor an immersive audio-visual experience with a specially commissioned film about the history of Jodrell Bank. Audiences looking for a more traditional planetarium show can add on the exhilarating ‘Journey through Space’, which takes in the beauty and wonder of the universe. The return of such shows, which were hugely popular at Jodrell Bank since the removal of its old planetarium in 2003, are expected to be a big attraction.

A new temporary exhibition gallery with an opening show all about the realisation of the First Light project will also feature in the new building. Here, visitors will be able to learn more about the building’s ambitious construction processes, including how the team at Kier carried out the largest continuous concrete pour in 25 years to create the building’s domed roof. Further details of the build, such as how the telescope panels were removed and restored to form the backdrop of the main exhibition, will also be revealed.

A new guided tour that takes visitors to previously inaccessible parts of the Jodrell Bank site will also be launched later in the year. Professor Anderson said: “That story of the emergence of radio astronomy is written across the landscape of Jodrell Bank and it is the only remaining place in the world that retains traces of the development of this branch of science from its earliest days to the present. Our new guided tours will take visitors outside of the building and behind the scenes to the ‘South Side’ of the site, where they can discover for themselves those physical reminders of Jodrell Bank’s quest for understanding."

A series of preview and pilot activities for First Light will begin from March 2022 onwards, with the public opening set to take place on 4 June 2022. The launch will be complimented by a celebratory summer-long season of community-engagement activity, public events, and a new formal education programme.

A 130-cover café, complete with a terrace overlooking the Jodrell Bank Arboretum and a fresh menu using seasonal and sustainable produce, will also open. Serving breakfasts, lunches, cream teas and more, the First Light Cafe will champion a host of local and artisan produce – from Goostrey gooseberries to Cheshire cheese.

All this complements Jodrell Bank’s existing visitor offer and audiences will still be able to enjoy the thrill of getting up close to the giant Lovell Telescope, experimenting with the science of radio astronomy in the site’s current indoor and outdoor exhibits, exploring the extensive Jodrell Bank Arboretum, and browsing the ever-popular Jodrell Bank Shop.

Eilish McGuinness, CEO of The National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “Jodrell Bank is truly a unique heritage site, of national and international importance, with an inspirational story of Britain’s role as a leader in the science of the exploration of the universe, set in a landscape of great beauty and with iconic heritage at every turn. The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded £12.5 million to the First Light Project so that the site’s powerful human stories of curiosity, exploration and discovery could be shared with the public. The stunning new building, its exciting exhibition, and an incredibly diverse and inclusive engagement programme, will all have a fantastic impact, delighting and inspiring every visitor, including the next generation of scientists following in the footsteps of Sir Bernard Lovell.”

David Rutley, MP for Macclesfield, added: “The opening of the First Light Pavilion will be a remarkable moment not just for Cheshire and the North West but for the whole of the UK. Visitors from across the nation will be able to come here and celebrate the pioneering spirit of endeavour that this much-loved site has come to represent.”

Diana Hampson, Director of Estates and Facilities at The University of Manchester said: “This is a truly visionary build and a wealth of brilliant people have come together to bring it to life. The ambitious design has been expertly realised by the construction team at Kier and we couldn’t be more proud. We can’t wait to see it open to the public.”

First Light at Jodrell Bank is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the UK Government (DCMS), The University of Manchester, and a number of kind donors, including the Wolfson, Garfield Weston, Denise Coates, and Stavros Niarchos foundations.

Jodrell Bank to open major new national visitor attraction

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