Former Royal Navy Wireless Station

Former Royal Navy Wireless Station

This wireless station became operational by April 1913 for the Royal Navy and is now a domestic property. The building materials comprise a tall plinth of red brick in English Bond up to window sill level, with pebble-dashed render above, and a plain tile roof.

The original building consists of four irregular bays facing south east with a gabled roof, projecting eaves and verges. Reading from left to right, there is a large window that formerly lit the operations room, followed by a window with a raised sill lighting a corridor, then the entrance with an inset door and lancet window to the right, both sheltered by a roof canopy extension, and finally a window lighting the original kitchen. A late-20th-century brick extension with a lowered roof forms an additional fifth bay to the right, which is not of special interest.

Two squat, square chimney stacks sit on the roof ridge, one between bays three and four and another between bays one and two. A third chimney stack that originally stood between these two has been removed. The south east gable displays a late-20th-century inserted ground floor window and retains an original semi-circular attic window with original joinery. At attic floor level, four square patches are visible within the render, marking the original openings for cabling from the radio masts. The rear elevation preserves four original window openings that formerly lit the operations room, an office, officers' bunk room and ratings' bunk room. The former pantry window at the north east end has been enlarged into a back door. The roof of the central two bays has been heightened to form a flat-roofed attic extension containing three windows. All external joinery apart from that to the gable ends of the attic is a later replacement and is not of special interest.

The ground floor is thought to largely retain parquet flooring, partly designed to provide electrical insulation. The original attic window and doorway to the north east gable survive within the roof space, now covered by the north east extension.

The generator house is a small three-bay building with a hipped roof and a fourth bay extending under a catslip roof at the south east end. It is similarly detailed to the main building and retains its original small-paned casement windows and planked doors, with three main rooms accessed from an open porch inside a round-arched opening central to the north east side. The central section to the south east end has been bricked up.

The mast base consists of a square concrete base approximately 2.5 metres across surrounding a central iron base originally for a mast, with a further smaller square concrete base of approximately 1.2 metres extending from the south west corner. Two smaller concrete anchor points of approximately 0.3 metres lie just to the north and north west.

Three rectangular ground anchor bases for cable stays, each approximately 1 metre by 3 metres, line up with the mast base. Each base holds a vertical metal plate lying to the north, east and south east of the main building.

Standard 7 feet tall spiked railings mark the garden boundaries to the north and north east. The concrete bases to at least some of the uprights are reported to be marked with the Admiralty anchor symbol.