Radar Recollections - A Bournemouth University / CHiDE & HLF project
 
 
 
Work at Bawdsey Manor (March 1936- September 1939)
 
 
Transmitter Receiver Towers

The Treasury earmarked one million pounds for the continuation of the research at Orfordness in December 1935. The constant lobbying of Tizard, Winston Churchill and Lord Swinton (Secretary of State for Air) was a major factor in securing this vital funding.

 

Goniometer

If a chain of 5 new stations was to be built, then the facilities for the small team on the little island of Orfordness were totally insufficient.

Wilkins remembered seeing some useful high ground in the nearby Bawdsey area. Within weeks, the Manor had been purchased (£23,000). Staff began to arrive in March and Watson Watt was appointed as Superintendent.

For the next 3½ years this establishment acted as the working model for all the CH stations that were built along the east and then the south coasts of Britain.

 

The first successes here were:
  • Watson Watt solved the target bearing problem by using a device called a'crossed dipole' which, when connected to both receiver aerials could give a ratio reading between the two. Mathematics and Geometry did the rest.
  • Wilkins then discovered that signals from two sets of dipoles (left / right and top / bottom) could be used to give a target elevation by means of a Goniometer, the knob of which became a prominent feature of the operator's console.
Mr J. A. D. Cotton (1)
Cotton (2)
Cotton (3)
Mr A. E. Bennett

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