Chain Home tower at Great Baddow

Chain Home tower, originally erected at RAF Canewdon in south-east Essex in 1937, relocated to Great Baddow in 1956.

MATERIALS: galvanised-steel frame; timber and steel mesh flooring to the mid-level platforms; reinforced-concrete foundation pads.

PLAN: rectangular in plan.

DESCRIPTION: a Group II self-supporting transmitter tower, originally built by Radio Communication Ltd, based on an Air Ministry design by Mr Norman Garnish. The tower is of bolted galvanised-steel construction, attached to four reinforced-concrete foundation pads. It stands approximately 109.12m high, with three pairs of cantilevered working platforms at low (15.2m), mid- (62.2m) and high (107.9m) levels. The mid-level has timber flooring to its north platform, and late-C20 wire mesh flooring to its south platform; the flooring material of the low-level platforms has been removed. The metal ladder and landing stages, of which there are approximately 12, were replaced in the late C20.

Three detached single-storey huts stand under the tower, and the site is bounded by a late C20 or early C21 wire-mesh and barb-wire fence; both are excluded from the listing.