One year later (minus a week) we revisited Jodrell Bank in order to see the new First Light Pavilion which is located within the arboretum. It was still under construction on our previous visit.

Inside the First Light Pavilion will be a spectacular exhibition,  in which visitors can engage with the stories of the amazing scientists and engineers who have worked at Jodrell Bank over the years, and whose stories continue today.

This innovative and interactive new gallery will include displays, objects and artefacts from the site’s rich history and will incorporate the fabric of the original 1957 surface of the Lovell Telescope. Archive footage and large-scale projections will animate the exhibition and bring the past to life.

A beautiful new 130 seat auditorium will also feature, housing an immersive projection space where visitors will be able to watch an animated history of Jodrell Bank. *

Our first stop was Oswestry to pick up a friend of Mr C. The in-car SatNav then took us on an unexpected (un)magical mystery tour through never ending traffic queues. The conversation and laughs we had made up for the inconvenience but I regretted not picking up my portable SatNav which is far better at route planning. When we arrived at Jodrell Bank, 45 minutes later than we planned it was time for lunch, which we enjoyed in the First Light café.

After lunch we walked to the Lovell Telescope and explored the Space Pavilion before it was time for our pre-booked Dome Show. We all thought that the show was rather bland and lacked something. The interactive gallery and display in the other half of the Dome made up for this, the exhibits drew us in to explore the history of the Lovell Telescope and explorations of Space. We will be back to explore the gallery in more detail on a future occasion.

We had afternoon tea including ‘naughty cakes’ and browsed the shop before leaving (empty handed) on our homeward journey. The SatNav behaved itself and took us in the direction we had expected to travel on our outward journey!

*Quoted from the Jodrell Bank website in 2021