Ravenscar - 1940s Chain Home Radar Station

History

Constructed as part of a coastal defence radar system in 1941, the station continued in use until after the Second World War. Today you can still see the intact remains of four brick buildings: a transmitter/receiver block, fuel store, engine house and a communications hut with a distinctive barrel shaped corrugated roof. In the corner of the same field, the footings of a complex of about a dozen barrack blocks and other domestic buildings are visible, though it takes a little more imagination to picture them in their heyday.

 

Following the end of the war, the buildings were sadly neglected for many years. It seems likely that most of the domestic/barracks structures were demolished when the station was decommissioned although one or two were kept, possibly for agricultural use. In this exposed and windswept spot livestock certainly appreciate any form of shelter, as proved by the several inches of muck found covering the floors of the remaining structures.

 

The run-down buildings eventually became a bit of an eyesore and proposals for their demolition were seriously considered. Thankfully, their value has been better recognised in more recent times. They were surveyed by a volunteer and a National Trust Consultant Archaeologist in 2000; both the radar buildings and the remains of the barrack complex were given Scheduled Monument status by English Heritage in 2002.