Dunwich Chain Home Low (CHL) Radar Station

[HF Dave]

Station number 28A, initially equipped (December 1939) with modified gun laying radar, and soon after with Chain Home Low. The site stood on Dunwich Heath, to the west of the road which now leads to the National Trust car park. The radar and operations building was in the centre of an approximately square enclosure of anti-tank blocks, cut through by anti-glider ditches (RAF photo 106G/UK/929 4166, 16th October 1945).

Remains on the ground are pretty scanty, and the concrete platform for a building beside the road (presumably the guard hut?) is probably the clearest – recent photo shown below:

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There are also some hints of hard standing in the area of the operations building / radar tower (OS ref TM 47556830):

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Careful examination of recent aerial photographs suggests other remains may still exist under the heath.
In places the anti-glider ditches can still be made out, as shown in the (not very clear) photograph below. After I had visited the site, I realised that there are probably better preserved sections of the ditch which I did not examine.

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There were a number of buildings outside the enclosure, sitting near the cliff edge to the east (TM478684), but I am not sure if they were related to the radar site or not. There may be a few hints of these buildings left as well (the triangulation pillar is in the middle of this area).

Also of interest in the area is a 1940 emergency Battery Observation Post built into the seaward end of a row of coastguards cottages (photograph below). It is now used by the National Trust and is open to visitors.

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Finally, to the north of the Chain Home Low station is the site of Greyfriars Fighter Direction radar (TM 477695). This became live in May 1943 with a Type 16 system. In 1944 a Type 26 (using an American transmitter) was also installed at Greyfriars. Judging from recent aerial photographs there may be some substantial remains at this site (now in a Caravan Park), deserving of investigation.

[HF Dave]

Just found there is extensive information about the Dunwich radar sites in the Dunwich museum. See:

http://www.dunwichmuseum.org.uk/libr...0Dunwich11.pdf

[HF Dave]

A building used to billet staff (presumably those working on the Greyfriars fighter direction radar) has been renovated and is now available as a self-catering let:

http://www.towerbungalow.co.uk/default.htm

[Carnaby]

Just found there is extensive information about the Dunwich radar sites in the Dunwich museum. See: LINK

Wouldn't let me in but on visiting the site and entering 'radar' into the search box some excellent stuff appeared.

http://www.dunwichmuseum.org.uk/reslib/index.php