On 13 May 1897, Guglielmo Marconi sent the world's first radio message across open water, and he did it while visiting a seaside resort in Somerset. Marconi came to Weston-super-Mare looking to experiment with what he called "telegraphy without wires" - known to us now as radio. He was initially interested in contacting ships, but his work led to a communications revolution.

It paved the way for the radio and television broadcasts that we take for granted today. n 1896, Marconi came to the UK to conduct his experiments after trying, and failing, to get interest in his work from the Italians. His assistant, George Kemp, was from Cardiff, and suggested the Bristol Channel would be the perfect place to test it out.