RAF Bawdsey, Bawdsey, Suffolk
Author(s): Roger Thomas
The Air Ministry Research Station at Bawdsey was established in 1936 to develop Radio Direction Finding (RDF) equipment. The site became the first operational RAF Chain Home (CH) RDF station in 1937 and a training school was also established in the same year. A variety of other equipment was added during the Second World War and the site remained operational until 1952. Following the closure, a new radar station with an underground operations room was built to the north of the former main site. The new station became operational 1953/54 and was re-equipped on several occasions before being closed in 1975. The radar arrays were dismantled two years later, and most radar plinths were demolished to make way for a Bloodhound Mk II missile site, which opened in August 1979. The missile site remained active until July 1990, and the station was officially closed in March 1991. Structures and features survive from all of the station's phases, these include: the footings of the transmitter hut and an aerial tower base (c1936), a truncated 'Self-Supporting Steel Transmitter Tower, the bases of three transmitter towers, the bases of two receiver towers, a transmitter block, a receiver block, a stand-by set house, a central heating station, a research block, a filter school, nine married quarters, (c1937-39); an Identification Friend or Foe (1FF) cubicle, a gas decontamination block, a 2pdr (40 mm) ammunition store, nine pillboxes, and various ancillary structures (c1939-45); two guardrooms, a R3 underground operations block, a guardhouse, a post office, a sub-station, and a sewage works (c1953-59); a R17 Type 84 modulator building (1962); twelve missile hardstandings, two radar heads, two offices, a dog section, a garage, two ready-use missile stores, an Explosive Fitment Bay, three generator buildings, a store, and two emergency water supplies (c1979-90).
- Report Number:
- 120/1999
- Series:
- Other
- Pages:
- 57
- Keywords:
- Modern Second World War Cold War Research Establishment Radar Station Bloodhound Missile Launch Site
