Receiver Block and Tower Bases at Former RAF Stoke Holy Cross

Chain Home Receiver Block Type A, built 1939 to built to Air Ministry drawing 4238/38 from brick and concrete.

PLAN: The building is entered via a gas lock to a lobby which sits between a switchgear room (with a cubicle for a transformer) and a receiver room. Opening off the lobby are an office, a plant room and a latrine. At the end of the receiver room is a calculator room. The building is surrounded by an earth traverse supported by a concrete abutment.

EXTERIOR: The building is approximately 18m long by 9m wide and is oriented north east – south west. The building is built in brick laid in Flemish bond and has a parapet concealing a flat roof. In common with other protected radar buildings of this era the parapet contains shingle to a depth of c1.7m as an anti-blast protection and is covered in bituminous material.

The building is surrounded by an earth traverse revetted internally with concrete, is approached from the south west and north west where there are concrete blast wing-walls protecting the entrances. The main doors are of timber and an externally accessed plant room is accessed via a pair of iron doors marked DREADNOUGHT FIREPROOF DOORS (1930) LTD. The doors are dated 1939. Rainwater goods are of cast iron and a number of cable fittings survive.

INTERIOR: The interior of the receiver block is of painted render and has a wide cable pit (which housed the cables for the receiver towers) running through the centre of the building. While most of the main equipment has been removed, most of the fittings remain, including doors and architraves, lighting and associated cabling, a number of electrical circuit boxes, ceiling brackets (indicating the layout of internal cable conduits), plumbing and a large set of switchgear.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Three sets of concrete tower bases survive. They each comprise four concrete blocks with iron fittings on the centre. Two of the sets of tower bases have associated square brick structures associated with them, one of which may be a former Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) cubicle.