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Heaton Park BT Tower

The Heaton Park BT Tower is a 238-foot (73 m) tall concrete telecommunications tower located next to Heaton Park Reservoir in Manchester, England. Heaton Park BT Tower is one of the few British towers built of reinforced concrete, and one of seven BT towers of the 'Chilterns' design. During the Cold War, the British government proposed a communications network that (it was hoped) would survive a nuclear attack. Radio stations (including the Heaton Park Tower) would maintain national and international communications before, during and after a nuclear emergency, transmitting microwave radio signals in a network known as Backbone. Spurs feeding into the network were provided at three locations: London, Manchester (Heaton Park Tower) and Birmingham. Whether or not the Backbone network plan was realised is classified, but HM Government denied in Parliament that the tower's function was secretive. Beside the tower was a monitoring station (one of hundreds across the country) to record the blast and fallout in the event of a nuclear war. The station provided for three men from the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) to live underground whilst recording what was happening above ground in the event of a nuclear strike.

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551 m

Heaton Park

Heaton Park is a public park in Prestwich, Bury, Greater Manchester, England, covering an area of over 600 acres (242.8 ha). The park includes the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall. The hall, remodelled by James Wyatt in 1772, is now only open to the public on an occasional basis as a museum and events venue. It is the biggest park in Greater Manchester, and also one of the largest municipal parks in Europe. Heaton Park was sold to Manchester City Council in 1902 by the 5th Earl of Wilton. It has one of the United Kingdom's few concrete towers, the Heaton Park BT Tower. The park was renovated as part of a millennium project partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund and Manchester City Council at a cost of over £10 million. It contains an 18-hole golf course, a boating lake, an animal farm, a pitch and putt course, a golf driving range, woodlands, ornamental gardens, an observatory, an adventure playground, a Papal monument and a volunteer-run tram system and museum, and is listed Grade II by Historic England. It has the only flat green bowling greens in Manchester, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
551 m

Parklife (festival)

Parklife is an annual two-day music festival in Manchester, England and takes place in June each year. The festival predominantly features dance and electronic music, as well as pop and hip-hop artists. Jointly organised by a number of groups, including Manchester's The Warehouse Project and Live Nation, the festival started life as Mad Ferret Festival in Platt Fields Park, Rusholme, before moving to Heaton Park in north Manchester in 2013 in order to accommodate the increased numbers attending. By 2023 the non-camping festival has a capacity of 82,500 people over the two days.
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572 m

Heaton Park Reservoir

Heaton Park Reservoir is a granite sided reservoir in the North-West of England, on the border between the City of Manchester and Bury and is owned by United Utilities, and can be found within the grounds of Heaton Park. Heaton Park BT Tower lies on the banks of the reservoir, which is close to Junction 18 of the M60 motorway. An aqueduct carrying water from Haweswater, in the Lake District, to Manchester terminates at Heaton Park Reservoir. The aqueduct was inaugurated in June 1955, is 82 miles (132 km) in length and carries up to 100 million imperial gallons (450,000 m3) of water per day under the force of gravity. In 2008, a £3.5 million Ultra-Violet (UV) disinfection plant was installed at Heaton Park water treatment works to meet water quality requirements. The UV building was designed to nestle within the embankment of the existing service reservoir.
790 m

Parrenthorn High School

Parrenthorn High School is a comprehensive school located in Prestwich in the English county of Greater Manchester. The school was rated "Good" in all categories in its 2023 Ofsted inspection. The head teacher is Mr C. Bell, replacing Mr M. Fitzgerald who retired in 2016 after 12 years in post.