Craster radar station

At the time of the Munich crisis in October 1938, Britain had eleven radar sites, which were mostly located on the eastern coast. The concern over the rise of Nazi Germany prompted a wider development of the radar system. The site at Craster was built in 1941 and opened in April 1942 under the auspices of the British Army's chain of radar stations, operating as a Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low station (CD/CHL). It was built on an escarpment some 150 m from the shoreline and 50 m above sea level. The escarpment is an outcrop of Whin Sill which has a gentle slope towards the sea, giving the radar station an "..uninterrupted sweep of the coast from a relatively elevated position." The prefix…

Two buildings remain on the site, the former transmit/receive block (TxRx) and the standby set house. The standby set house was used to provide emergency power to the TxRx block in case of electricity supply issues. The buildings are now maintained by the National Trust and are recorded as 10355 / MNA124708. Both buildings are 3 m high and the site is listed as grade II with Historic England. The TxRx building was a set design, measuring 50 ft by 18 ft upon which was mounted an aerial which could turn continuously. The footprint of the radar base including the TxRx, standby set house and accommodation buildings, covered an area of 230 m by 170 m.