The Ham Nomads

23 Oct 2014. <GB-ENG> Horning, & Hevingham (Forest), Norf —

Today we left our little haven in the forest and went eastwards, only a few miles, to Horning. Here there is a Radar Museum, once the entire purview of the RAF, but now in the hands of an independent charity — albeit run almost entirely by people who once worked in the establishment before it was decommissioned in 2004. This is neither National Trust nor English Heritage, but English Heritage members get a two-for-one entry deal.

The old Type 84 radar at RAF Neatishead that may
eventually form part of the museum exhibits

The museum is at the site of RAF Neatishead, which was set up two years into World War II in September 1941 to house the new and secret radar system, and to provide a protective coverage for Norwich and the surrounding area. After the end of the war, and into the Cold War, the station was established as a Sector Operations Centre (SOC) and continued to be used as such until 2004. Today, the aim of the base at Neatishead is to “to provide radar, ground-to-air radio and data links coverage as part of the UK Air Surveillance And Control System (ASACS), in support of national and NATO air defence.”

The museum itself is a rambling place, typical of wartime military installations. For this reason, they run guided tours. We were fortunate in that, when we pulled up in the car park, Ruth (who was on the desk at the time) beckoned to us and said that a tour was just beginning, and if we hurried she could slot us into it. This was a superb piece of luck, as there were only six others on our tour (later tours had 3 and 4 times this many!), and all the others in our group were ex-workers at this or similar radar stations around the UK, and they were here for a tour of reminiscence. When, for example, our guide told us of a serious fire in the nuclear bunker which housed the control rooms in about 1966, one of the women piped up to say she was in the bunker when this happened, so we got first-hand stories — fascinating!

There are three main rooms covered in the tour (you are left to your own devices for the rest, but there are volunteers in each room to answer questions, or just to chat). The first is a mock-up of an operations room during the Battle of Britain, when the aim of the radar installations was to pinpoint incoming enemy aircraft and to ensure that the appropriate squadrons were scrambled in time to meet the incoming craft — at this stage, all control was passed over to the airmen once they were airborne. After the battle, radar was used in a different way to allow the airmen, who by now were usually severely geographically embarrassed, to find their way home by being given coordinates for an airfield by ground control, who could pinpoint each craft.

The second room shows how things were organized during the Blitz, when radar was considerably more sophisticated. Now all control remained with the radar controllers, who told the pilots where to go and who to engage. The control room was far more sophisticated by now.

The third room shows how things had progressed during the Cold War, and shows the operations Centre as it would have been in the 50s and 60s. Now it looks a lot like the control room at Cape Canaveral — and, in fact, it has a lot in common. The major difference is that the room was darkened, as the radar displays were on Cathode Ray Tubes which are more difficult to interpret in full light.

After the tour — which took about 90 minutes — we wandered the place looking at examples of radar technology over the years. We chatted with the guides, who were all too pleased to talk!

After quite some time here, we went outside to look at a couple of portable radar installations they had out there, and to look across to RAF Neatishead, which is still situated behind the museum. There are higher technology installations now, and RAF Neatishead hasn't been a functional base for the past ten years. It's rather a surprise to walk outside to find a Bloodhound Mk 2 Ground-to-Air Missile sitting on its launcher. Presumably it is not functional, and is there as an example of a radar-guided defence system.

This museum has resonances with Croome Park, that we visited a couple of weeks ago. During the war, part of Croome Park was requisitioned by the Government to become RAF Defford, an air base where top secret development of airborne radar took place.

Another interesting day where we learned a lot, not as much perhaps about the technical side of radar, but about how the radar-sourced information was interpreted and used to control the movements of defensive RAF squadrons.

After this, we adjourned back to Hevingham to refresh ourselves for tomorrow.

Distance driven — today, 18 miles ( 29 km ); to date, 9,123 miles ( 14,682 km )