This week’s activities include a Word Search, you can download here, an online quiz and a bit of information what the word ‘home’ meant to people during World War Two.
Home – what does it mean?
The word ‘home’ can mean several things – our home where we live or the home screen on our mobile phones.
In the World War Two the word ‘home’ was used in several ways.
On the ‘home front’ was first used in World War One and describes how the war affected ordinary people at home and how they worked together to win the war ‘on the home front’. The threats came from Zeppelin aircraft which dropped bombs and from shortages of food.
In World War Two, ordinary people again worked together to help win the war. They helped by working in factories, growing their own food, looking after children who had been evacuated from cities and making their clothes and food last as long as possible.
‘Chain home’ describes the chain of protection that radar stations made around our home country, the UK, in World War Two.
Radar stations, including Bawdsey, were usually built near the coast and they created a defensive chain of protection by identifying enemy aircraft and ships and directing the Royal Air Force and the Navy to the right place.
Bawdsey Radar chain home station was the very first one in the world! Search on the internet to find an image of the chain home stations built around the British Isles.
An activity sheet will be available each week of the school holidays, five in total, with a new one to try each week. Free and suitable for all the family – try a word search, identify some aircraft or make some paper planes.
The first Summer Holiday Activity sheet is called:
‘How tall is it?’
Do you know how tall a Transmitter Tower was? Watch the film below to help you fill in the activity sheet which can be downloaded here for printing.
Bawdsey Radar has launched its own podcast series.
This series of podcasts tell the story of Britain’s earliest radar systems.
It also tells the story of the people involved with radar – the scientists, the women who were on the front line in the operation of the radar, the decision makers and the politicians.
‘The first podcast in the series looks at the world’s first wide-area radar system in war time operation called Chain Home. Chain Home radar was developed principally at Bawdsey after initial work at Orfordness and made an essential contribution to winning the Battle of Britain in 1940’.
Podcast contributors in this first series are: Dr Phil Judkins and Dr David Heath.
New podcasts will be available on the 10th of each month currently via Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google, Breaker and RadioPublic. Additional platforms will be coming on stream shortly.
On Sunday 28th June at 11:30am Liz Trenow was interviewed by Rachel Sloane (Radio Suffolk presenter).
Liz Trenow’s latest novel Under a Wartime Sky draws on real life events just before the Second World War, when some of the country’s brightest minds were gathered at Bawdsey Manor. They have been tasked by Churchill to develop an invention, shrouded in secrecy, that will change the course of the Second World War. An unusual relationship develops between a brilliant scientist and a local Felixstowe girl, with potentially disastrous consequences.
We are so pleased to say we’ve received Emergency Funding from the National Lottery!
‘Thank You’ to National Lottery players for your support and for making it possible for Bawdsey Radar to get through this difficult time and look ahead.
Here’s the the Mason family enjoying the museum gallery, taken a couple of years ago. We look forward to better times to come.
Felixstowe & District Amateur Radio Society will be activating call sign GB2BRS (Bawdsey Radar Station) over this coming weekend to commemorate International Museums on the Air Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 June 2020. Radio is even more important at the moment helping us to stay in touch.
Thank you to the Society for supporting Bawdsey Radar and we hope you have an enjoyable weekend in conversation with the world!
Fuzzy Duck who assisted us with some of the design and provided the animated videos used in the exhibition in the Transmitter Block have been running a colouring competition online. Bawdsey Radar was asked if one of the illustrations used as part of the project could be included. The competition was promoted via Twitter.
The winners have now been announced and Bawdsey Radar are pleased to say our illustration, sent in by a five year old named George won 1st prize. Well done George!
Below are examples submitted of the Bawdsey illustration, including the winning entry.
Bawdsey Radar are pleased to announce the Arts Council has informed us we are eligible for Museum Accreditation and is now recognised as ‘Working Towards Accreditation’. Once we achieve this status, it ensures high standards for visitors, volunteers and potential funders. The Museum Accreditation schemeis the UK industry standard for museums and galleries. It tells everyone involved with a museum that they’re doing the right things to help people to engage with collections and protect them for the future.
