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Lavernock () is a hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, lying on the coast south of Cardiff between Penarth and Sully, and overlooking the Bristol Channel.
The very first message transmitted in morse code was "ARE YOU READY". This was immediately followed by "CAN YOU HEAR ME" to which the reply was "YES LOUD AND CLEAR". The morse recording slip for the first message is on display in the National Museum of Wales.
Following the initial opening exchange there followed detailed technical messages in both directions indicating each end's equipment settings and receiving sound levels. Marconi indicated that he was using a spark on his equipment.
The successful test followed several days of trials and failure while adjustments were made to aerial length. Extensive trials were carried out over the remainder of the week in various weather conditions and with different settings on the equipment at each end. Marconi benefitted from the active encouragement of then Mr. William Preece (later Sir William Preece) who was Engineer-in-Chief of the Post Office and had himself transmitted radio telegraph morse signals across Coniston Water eight years earlier. Preece had been previously acted as a consultant to the Bristol Corporation's Electricity Department between 1883 and 1893. The Post Office engineers, including George Kemp who kept a detailed diary of these events, had been experimenting for some months at Lavernock Point. Kemp recorded the following in his diary of the experiments:
Marconi's new equipment was therefore used in conjunction with that already adopted by the Post Office. The initial tests were so successful over the stretch of water that it was quickly decided to relocate the telegraph equipment from Flat Holm to Brean Down Fort, near Weston Super Mare increasing the distance to nearly from the Lavernock Point transmitter.
Following these successful trials, Marconi subsequently vested his new patent rights in his 'Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company', which unfortunately prevented any further co-operation with the Post Office engineers. However, George Kemp immediately resigned from his Post Office position and joined Marconi's new company as head of engineering development.
In 1948, to mark the 50th anniversary of the experiments, a bronze plaque was unveiled by the Rotary Club inside the courtyard of the recently closed church of St.Lawrence, Lavernock, commemorating the historic radio transmissions over of open sea. The small stone hut that Marconi used to contain his experimental radio telegraph equipment still stands on the cliff edge at the end of the lane near Lower Cosmeston farmhouse.
Lavernock started settling back to quiet seclusion in the late 1960s when the railway line closed down under the Beeching Axe. Some modern day trippers arrived by car, to the degree that the lanes and the Swanbridge car park were often jammed, but visitor numbers had dropped off to such a degree that falling profit margins meant all the food outlets, the Golden Hind pub and eventually even the Bay Hotel closed down and the decline was accelerated even further.
Some sources treat Lavernock Point as the boundary between the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, although definitions of these areas are varied and often ambiguous. It is used as the boundary between Marine Character Areas 28 and 29, named Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, and the Living Levels Partnership use a definition of Severn Estuary that draws the line between Lavernock Point and Sand Point, marked by Steep Holm and Flat Holm islands.
Various proposals have been put forward to construct a Severn Barrage for tidal electricity production from Lavernock Point to Brean Down in Somerset and the provision remains under discussion by the various agencies.
In 2015 Nick and Rob Hanigan discovered a fossilised skeleton belonged to a dog-sized creature, a theropod dinosaur, and a "cousin of the giant tyrannosaurus rex". Now named Dracoraptor hanigan meaning "dragon robber", the latter name in honour of the brothers, it was described as "the best dinosaur fossil Wales has ever had" by Steven Vidovic, a palaeontologist at Portsmouth University. The skeleton is now on display at the National Museum Wales in Cardiff.
A two unit searchlight battery was added during the Second World War. The World War II gun emplacements formed part of the Fixed Defences, Severn Scheme and protected the Atlantic shipping convoy de-grouping zone between Cardiff, Barry and Flat Holm. Today the remaining main section of the gun battery has been listed as an Ancient monument, which includes the gun emplacements, director-rangefinder observation position, crew and officers quarters. The structure is still commemorated through Lavernock Point's main access road being named 'Fort Road'.
In early 1962 a protected nuclear fallout shelter (or bunker) was completed at Penarth Clifftop for the ROC (OS Grid Ref: ST 1858 6903), who by the 1960s had switched from above ground aircraft spotting to underground operations with instruments to detect nuclear explosions and warn the public of approaching radioactive fallout in the event of nuclear war. The post members were mobilised later that year and volunteers spent nearly ten days underground during the Cuban Missile Crisis as the government prepared the country for potential outbreak of war.
The Penarth cliff top nuclear bunker was closed down and abandoned by the ROC in 1975 after repeated destructive break-ins by local vandals, but the concrete entrance hatch and ventilator tower can still be observed next to the cliff walk near Lower Cosmeston farmhouse. The Royal Observer Corps itself was disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change review of UK defence.
Lavernock and the nearby Cosmeston Lakes continue to be an important landing point for migrating birds. Many bird migration routes across the Bristol Channel cross the reserve, and Steep Holm and Flat Holm islands act as staging posts. Bird sightings vary through the year, with visiting summer migrants, off the coast and resident breeding birds.
The reserve is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales who state that their aims are "To create and maintain the ideal balance between grassland, scrubland and woodland at Lavernock Point Reserve."
Lavernock, St Mary's Well Bay and Swanbridge can still be reached along the clifftop path from Penarth.
The old cafe car park at Swanbridge was developed as part of the newly opened Captain's Wife public house in the mid-1970s.
The Marconi Holiday Village near Lavernock Point, is run by the Lavernock Point Holiday Park and consists of chalets, fixed caravans and touring berths. The licensed Marconi Club at the holiday village is open to non-residents.
The small parish church of St. Lawrence is a Grade II listed building with medieval, possibly 12th-century, origins. It closed in 2008 and the building is currently being restored and maintained by a volunteer group, consisting of friends of the church. The group has established a charitable trust intended to maintain the structure, allowing continued access to and enjoyment of the historic building. Church services are still currently held along with occasional public open days. Penarth Times
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