Transmitter Block At Tm 3412 3828, Bawdsey Manor

TM 33NW 09-JUL-1997

BAWDSEY Transmitter Block at TM 3412 3828, Bawdsey Manor

GV II*

Transmitter block. 1937. Brick construction with flat reinforced concrete roof enclosed by wall containing flint shingle to disperse blast. Rectangular plan building, with southern entrance to east transmitting room divided by central filtration room and WC from substation and workshop to west. Iron grilles to vents and lit by timber windows to side walls. Surrounded by concrete blast walls banked with earth (which has partly been removed). INTERIOR: has retained plain doors and architraves, glazed wall tiles, filtration plant and original switchgear, by Ferguson Pailey Ltd of Manchester, which controlled the conversion of power to the transmitting beam.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Bawdsey Manor was chosen as the site of the experimental station where radar's application to air defence was first developed, by Robert Watson-Watt and his team of scientists. When it was handed over to the RAF in May 1937 it was the first radar station in the world, and the prototypes established here formed the model for the "Chain Home" system of radar defence which underpinned victory in the crucial Battle of Britain in summer 1940. The development of radar here had an enormous impact on the outcome of this vital stage of the war, and upon post-war developments in electronics and defence systems. The transmitter block survives as one of the most important buildings anywhere which relate to the scientific-technical revolution of the C20.

Listing NGR: TM3411838282