Bawdsey Radar Group has carried out a full programme of activities through
the year. The Transmitter Block was opened on 27 occasions. 11 of these
were weekend openings for the general public and the other 16 were
openings by special arrangement for particular groups and organisations.
We have continued to provide tea and coffee in the Block and run a small gift
shop. A special effort was made for our younger visitors this year in the form
of worksheets to guide them round the exhibition and this proved to be much
appreciated. We intend to develop this in 2009.

As well as opening the Block we have been active in the wider community.
The Bawdsey Radar Group had a stall at Bentwaters Cold War Museum
Open Day, Bawdsey Fete, Woodbridge Regatta, Suffolk Local History
Council’s Societies’ Day and the Maritime Woodbridge Weekend. Talks have
been given to several organisations in the region and Phil Judkins, who gave
three talks at the Manor last autumn, kindly came and gave another talk on
‘Bawdsey - the untold story’ in the spring in Ipswich Library.
Work has continued on the Oral History project, ‘Shout and Whisper’. Last
year we spoke of this project being nearly completed, as it was, but the
subject is such that we now suspect that in one form or another it could go on
a lot longer.

In June I attended the Bawdsey Reunion Association lunch at Bawdsey
Manor. This was a very enjoyable occasion and one of the outcomes of it was
that the organisation of the Association is to be taken over by the Bawdsey
Radar Trust.

This year the Transmitter Block was open to the general public on fewer
occasions than in 2007 but these were well advertised and for the first time
there were AA signs giving opening dates up on the A12. The effect of this
was that, as hoped, we had many more visitors at each that the Block was
open. On several days we had over 100 visitors and on the last Sunday we
had 220 visitors. Thanks to the enthusiasm and commitment of all involved
we were able to cope with these increased numbers.

The options appraisal of the Block that was being carried out by the Morton
Partnership was completed earlier this year and we are in the process of
using its conclusions to help us identify the most beneficial options for the
future of the Block. Whatever the outcome of our deliberations for the long
term we are already taking bookings for visits and talks for 2009. Opening the
Block to the public and giving and arranging talks is the visible side of our
work but there will be no let up to the enormous amount of behind the scenes
work that has to go on from producing new publicity material to maintenance
of the Block.

It is very important that everybody who has played a part in the past year is
thanked. For an organisation with no paid staff we have been able to achieve
a tremendous amount. This can only be done because so many people are
willing to freely give their time and skills.
 

Mary Wain

Chair

The oral history project, called ‘Shout and Whisper’ and funded by the
Heritage Lottery Fund, began in July 2005 with the principal aim of recording
the memories of people who were involved with radar at Bawdsey. Most of
this project is now complete.

The Audio Interviews
In all we have now interviewed 52 people (with possibly two more in the
pipeline), about 30% of whom are female. Not all were involved with work
which was directly related to radar. Some were support staff to the RAF
including hairdressers, cooks, security staff, maids etc. More than half were at
Bawdsey before or during the war, the rest were there between 1946 and
March 1991 when the site formally closed. A small number were not at
Bawdsey but had relevant (usually wartime) experiences with early radar.
50 of these interviews have been stored on CD and DVD and archived. Four
of these sets of 15 disks have been lodged with Essex Record Office, Suffolk
Record Office, the ‘War-Experience’ in Leeds and since last year, with the
Imperial War Museum in London, and we have two sets with BRG at
Felixstowe and Chelmsford.
The scope of the project has broadened from the initial aim.

Video Interviews
Some 11 of the interviewees were recorded on video and there is the
possibility in the future that these will be part of a DVD, although additional
funding will be required to complete this.

The Booklet
Also short written extracts from the interviews are being incorporated into a
booklet with extracts from the text of the Magic Ear exhibition and further new
text to give them context. This is being written by David Robertson of
Technology Response’ and is now due to be published early next year – the
70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.

The Web Site
A further expansion of the project during the last year was a major
redevelopment of the BRG web-site to include over 50 audio extracts of the
interviews, over 30 photographs and several war-time and post-war stories
provided by the interviewees. This expansion was completed in two stages.
This makes parts of the project available to everyone on the internet rather
than only those people who can access the Suffolk and Essex Record Offices,
‘War Experience’ in Leeds or the Imperial War Museum in London.

The ‘Schools Pack’
The final part of the project was to produce a so-called ‘schools educational
pack’. Initially this was envisaged as using some parts of the material
collected to give primary school children information about a particularly
important time in our country’s history at the start of the Second World War,
and an outline understanding of radar.

This part of the project has now developed in three ways, the first two of
which are complete:

• The first was to buy a secondary radar antenna/receiver/decoder box
with software to produce live displays of secondary radar returns of
commercial aircraft, to give an impression of an Air Traffic Controller’s
screen and demonstrate how radar has developed since the time of
Chain Home.
• The second was to produce questionnaire leaflets on the material in
‘Magic Ear’ and at the T-Block. Both of these items are used at the Tblock
on all open days and have been used in visits and talks to
external groups (Scouts etc.)
• The third will be a computer simulation of a Chain Home radar receiver
and display. This quite adventurous undertaking is being produced by
Chris Brooking. It will allow participants to take the role of a Chain
Home radar operator by measuring range of simulated returns on a
computer screen and direction using the equivalent of a ‘gonio’, then
passing these aircraft position reports to a ‘radar plotter’. The intention
is to complete this before the first open day of the Transmitter Block in
2009.

David Heath, 15th October 2008