Chain Home RDF station, Rye

View NE looking along the line of the transmitter towers.

There are four concrete feet for each tower. The feet of two towers can be seen here, then the Transmitter Block, and beyond the feet of two more towers.

From its location this must be the T-block, but it doesn't look as it would have done in WWII. It would have been surrounded by a blast wall, on the outside of which would have been piled up earth. This blast wall seems to have been taken down and the grassy piles nearby suggest what happened to the earth. I think the top four foot of the building's height, indicated by the different coloured brickwork, would have been filled with gravel in an attempt to limit the damage of a direct hit. Originally I think there would have been fewer windows in the block.

It was decided at a meeting on 5th October 1938 (PRO AIR2/3487) with a view to completing fifteen RDF stations by 1st April 1939 that

All technical buildings to be protected against a direct hit with a 25 lb. bomb, gas proofed and protected by rivetments [sic] against the effect of blasts and splinters.

(revetment is actually spelt with an e)

In use this might have looked as below:-

The line of what look line telephone poles above right is, I think, a 600 Ohm balanced transmission line carrying RF signals from the transmitter in the T-block to the aerial array (see link and wikipedia).

And the transmitter towers would have looked like this, except there'd be four of them originally:-

Peter Facey, Winchester, England
20151017 originated

Home