I passed it on the train down from Manchester, entirely unexpectedly. Jodrell Bank. The name is probably meaningless to most of the people reading this; and its particular legacy, even more. But the great dishes at Jodrell Bank were British icons of science and the future, once upon a time. It once operated the largest radio telescope in the world. They tracked space probes, satellites and moonshots, a piercing gaze unmatched across the planet for many years. You’d see it in DOCTOR WHO from time to time, because it was obvious. Jodrell Bank meant the stars to us. The dishes of Jodrell Bank were cultural touchstones, vast megalithic signs that we could still do The Future even in grey 1970s Britain.

My heart leapt to see them. Still standing. Faces still turned to the stars.