Stokenchurch BT Tower, a cold war relic built to survive a nuclear attack on Britain

Stokenchurch BT Tower is a cold war relic built as part of Britain's 'Backbone' telecommunications network. The Backbone network was conceived by the GPO in the 1950s, it was a South-to-North UK microwave relay chain designed to bypass vulnerable urban telephone cables for defense and civilian communications in the event of a nuclear attack on Britain. The tower is made of reinforced concrete and is one of the fourteen built in this design known as the 'Chilterns' type. Although originally planned purely for defense, delays and funding shifts caused the Backbone concept to merge into a broader commercial and defense GPO microwave system. Long-distance microwave links became largely redundant with the rise of optical fiber cables. Today, the Stokenchurch tower is mostly redundant, though parts are utilized for mobile phone network masts. The concept was that the tower network would handle traffic from the land-based telephone network if it was obliterated in an nuclear attack. The tower's reinforced concrete base is engineered to endure a significant explosion, a design choice informed by studies conducted after the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. #stokenchurchbttower #backbonenetwork #coldwaruk