Jodrell Bank's heritage celebrated with listed status for telescope and buildings

Celebrating 60 years of the Lovell Telescope, Historic England has listed other parts of Jodrell Bank to honour the landmark research conducted at the site

It is 60 years since the first great Jodrell Bank telescope was trained on the skies to peer into the secrets of the universe. To flag up the international importance of this landmark in science history, a modest collection of nondescript industrial sheds, as well as the second of the giant radio telescopes they were built to serve and the remains of a huge aerial adapted from wartime technology, are being given listed building status by Historic England.

The Lovell Telescope has had the highest Grade I listing since 1988. The first giant telescope on the Cheshire site, it was built after Sir Bernard Lovell took his observatory from the murk and radio interference in the centre of Manchester to the clearer skies of Cheshire. The Mark I telescope - renamed the Lovell in his honour - was the first of its kind in the world, and with a height of just under 90 metres is still the third largest.