Jodrell Bank awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status  

The observatory, which is owned by Manchester University, joins international sites including Stonehenge, Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China.

The award recognises the role that Jodrell Bank has played in transforming our understanding of the universe. The site has played a pioneering role in the development of radio astronomy, tracking spacecraft in the early space race, and carrying out research into quasars, pulsars and gravitational lenses.

It is most famous as the home one of the world’s largest steerable radio telescopes: the Lovell Telescope, which was named after its creator, the late Sir Bernard Lovell.

Completed in 1957, the dish was the largest of its kind anywhere in the world until 1973 and was the catalyst for the construction of many other large-scale satellite dishes. Its first act was to track the Soviet Union’s Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite.

At the time of its construction it was also something of a marvel of engineering. Reporting on the unveiling of the dish in 1957 The Engineer noted that “Civil, mechanical and electrical engineering techniques are all involved in the successful operation of the radio telescope, sometimes in an original manner.”