Radar Station Receiver Site, Including The Receiver Building, Receiver Mast Bases And Light Anti-Aircraft Gun Site

This radar station receiver site comprises a receiver building, four receiver mast bases, and a light anti-aircraft gun position. It was probably built in early 1939 and was certainly operational by September 1939. The structures are constructed of red brick and reinforced concrete.

The site is arranged with the rectangular receiver building at the centre of a diamond-shaped layout formed by the four mast bases, with the light anti-aircraft gun position to the west.

The Receiver Building

The receiver building is a rectangular structure approximately 18 metres long by 8 metres wide, oriented south-west to north-east. It is built of red brick laid in Flemish bond. A deep darker red-brick parapet conceals the flat reinforced concrete roof, which would originally have been filled with shingle to a depth of approximately 1.7 metres to disperse blast (this shingle has since been removed). Two drainage spouts pierce the parapet in each of the long elevations. Some windows and doors retain their original timber frames, while other openings are boarded up. Air bricks provide wall ventilation.

The south-west elevation has two windows to the north-west and a door to the south-east. The north-west elevation features four windows to the north, along with ventilation and cable holes. The north-east elevation has a single blocked window. The south-east elevation contains two doors and one blocked window to the north-east. Receiver buildings usually had external embankments for blast protection, but there is no evidence of this at Rye.

Internally, the building is broadly divided into three sections: large rooms to the north and south, a smaller central entrance room to the east, and WC facilities to its west. Glazed-tile wall and floor coverings survive, along with original painted colour schemes—dark green to dado height and yellow above—and some simple wooden architraves and solid wooden doors. The main east door has been removed from its hinges but is present and has a security inspection hatch. No plant survives. The south room shows scars of missing partition walls, and an infilled pit in the centre of the building marks the location of the cable duct, which would have had a suspended floor over it.

The Receiver Mast Bases

Four mast bases for the receiver masts are located north-west, north-east, south-west, and south-east of the receiver building. The masts themselves have been removed but would have been timber to limit interference with incoming signals. Each base has four concrete "feet" of square plan (approximately 3 square metres), slightly tapering to a maximum height of 1.7 metres.

The Light Anti-Aircraft Gun Position

The concrete gun position consists of two square compartments with solid concrete walls and a shared T-shaped blast wall at the entrance. It follows a pre-war Expansion Period design intended to house and protect a pair of Lewis light anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on telescopic pintle mountings. It is not known whether the mountings survive.

Historical Context

The introduction of the aircraft as an offensive weapon provided the rationale for strategic air defence systems adopted by Britain from the early 1920s. These systems initially involved early warning based on visual spotting and tracking of aircraft, but developed through acoustic detection devices to radar. The principles behind radar were widely recognised by the 1930s, but British technicians were the first to translate the science—that an electromagnetic pulse reflected from an object betrays that object's position to a receiver—into a practical means of defence.

Following experimental work at Orfordness and Bawdsey Research Station in Suffolk, radar developed through the initial Home Chain, a small group of stations in the extreme south-east of the country. Ultimately, six major types of radar station were established in the United Kingdom by the end of the Second World War, which evolved with advances in radar technology combined with operational need. Rye was a Chain Home station—the first type of radar station to be developed and built—of which there were eventually 32 sites nationally.

Radar stations were designed for raid reporting, passing information to a central operations room which in turn directed fighters to intercept enemy aircraft. This system proved vital during the Battle of Britain, and radar was constantly evolving and also played a significant role in alerting and deploying night fighters during the Blitz of 1940-41. Radar, through Coast Defence and Chain Home Low stations, could also detect enemy surface shipping. Range and accuracy improved during the war and aided Fighter Command in their offensive sweeps over occupied Europe from 1943. Many radar stations were reused during the Cold War period for Rotor, a later development of wartime radar.

The site at Rye is one of a chain of radar sites along the south-east and east coasts which were operational by September 1939. Radar sites of this early pre-war period were essentially divided in two, with one part of the site housing receiver functions and the other transmitter functions. The layout of the receiver and transmitter buildings relative to their masts was different: receiver masts were arranged in a broadly square plan with the receiver building at the centre, whereas the masts of the transmitter site were arranged in a line. The receiver building would have received signals identifying the position, numbers, and formation of planes and was also able to distinguish between allied and enemy planes through the use of aircraft-mounted IFF (Identification Friend or Foe). Information would then be passed to Fighter Group Headquarters at RAF Bentley Priory, where enemy aircraft locations were plotted and a response was coordinated. With a range of approximately 150 miles, Chain Home stations were a vital part of the country's defence.

A German reconnaissance aerial photograph dated to January 1940 identifies Rye radar station, with its receiver and transmitter sites and four masts at each, as a potential target. It was subsequently bombed on 12-13 August 1940 as part of an attack on southern radar stations. This was known as "Adlertag" or "Eagle Day" and was a long-planned attack on Britain by the Luftwaffe. Radar stations were a key target, with Dover, Pevensey, Ventnor, Dunkirk, and Rye all being damaged to varying degrees. At Rye, it is understood that all the buildings, other than the receiver and transmitter buildings, were hit and the station was temporarily out of action. Damage to radar stations allowed the Luftwaffe to successfully attack a number of key airfields in southern England such as Hawkinge, Manston, Eastchurch, and Detling, and it also attacked other military targets such as an aircraft factory in Rochester. Such attacks must have prompted increased provision for defence. A document of 20 May 1942 indicates that by that time Rye had four light anti-aircraft gun sites for its protection (at grid references TQ964232, 977238, 975224, and 961223).

The Rye site is also recorded as having had a later use during the Cold War under the "Rotor" system. This use must have been relatively short-lived, however, as the land was sold off by the Air Ministry in November 1958.