Receiver Block and Tower Bases at Former RAF Stoke Holy Cross

The site contains a Chain Home Receiver Block Type A, constructed in 1939 to Air Ministry drawing 4238/38, along with the bases for three radar receiver towers. The receiver block is of brick and concrete construction.

The building’s plan features a gas lock leading to a lobby, which separates a switchgear room (housing a transformer cubicle) from the receiver room. Further rooms accessible from the lobby include an office, a plant room, and a latrine, with a calculator room located at the end of the receiver room. The building is surrounded by an earth traverse supported by a concrete abutment.

The building measures approximately 18 metres long by 9 metres wide, aligned north-east to south-west. It is built with brick in a Flemish bond pattern, concealing a flat roof behind a parapet. Consistent with other protected radar buildings of the period, the parapet contains shingle to a depth of around 1.7 metres for blast protection, and is covered with bituminous material. The earth traverse is revetted internally with concrete. Approaches from the south-west and north-west are protected by concrete blast wing-walls safeguarding the entrances. Main entrances use timber doors, while an externally accessed plant room is accessed through a pair of iron “Dreadnought Fireproof Doors (1930) Ltd.”, dated 1939. Cast iron rainwater goods are present, and several cable fittings remain.

The interior features painted render walls and a wide cable pit running centrally, originally housing cables to the receiver towers. Though most equipment has been removed, many original fittings remain, including doors and architraves, lighting and associated cabling, electrical circuit boxes, ceiling brackets indicating cable conduit layout, plumbing, and substantial switchgear.

The three sets of concrete tower bases each comprise four concrete blocks with iron fittings. Two sets have associated square brick structures; one of these may have been a former Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) cubicle.