K (Stable) Wwii Communications Hut

K (Stable) WWII Communications Hut, Woodhouse, Beaumanor Park

This is a Second World War communications hut built in 1941-2 and disguised as a stable to conceal its military function. It is constructed of red brick with a corrugated asbestos roof.

The building is single-storey with rear outshuts. The front elevation displays four stable doors applied to solid brick walls; when the upper parts of these doors are opened, they reveal windows behind them. The right end contains a genuine door with a roundel above it, possibly representing a fictive pitching hole, and bears the original K hut sign. The left end has a low later twentieth-century addition. The rear features very small thin horizontal windows positioned up at the eaves, which appear to be original openings in part, although the actual windows are recent. Additional windows are found in the various outshuts.

The interior retains minimal subdivision from its original configuration as a single large space.

Historically, Beaumanor became a highly important Strategical Intercept Station during the Second World War under War Office Y Group, tasked with the collection of enemy Morse-code radio signals. These signals were processed at Beaumanor and then sent to Bletchley Park for decoding. By the war's end, some 1,300 wireless operators worked at the station. In 1941-2, the existing nineteenth-century buildings were supplemented by specially constructed huts disguised as various estate buildings. K hut was one of four set rooms, each equipped with 14-inch blast-proof walls extending 8 feet up from ground level. The civilian operators manned H hut while the Auxiliary Territorial Service manned the other three. Each hut contained 40 positions served by 36 operators, with four control sets for search work. A supervisor sat centrally, positioned near the access point and close to a pneumatic tube device that sent intercepted messages to the teleprinter room for onward transmission to Bletchley Park. K hut was designed to resemble four stables with stable doors to the front and an outshut to the rear, a disguise that remains substantially intact. Since 1974, Beaumanor has been owned by Leicestershire County Council and used for educational activities. The hut is now used for youth group accommodation, with only minimal internal subdivision.