Craster Chain Home Low radar station and bits and bobs

[jonney]

Here we have the remains of Craster Chain Home Low radar station on the Northumbrian coast. At first I thought there was only 2 buildings left but on further inspection I found the bases for the domestic block built into an old quarry face not far from the site. A bit of history on the site is

The site of a Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low (CD/CHL) radar station at Craster. It was built by the British Army to detect approaching ships and aircraft during the Second World War. CD/CHL sites opened from spring 1941 and comprised a brick or concrete operations block with an aerial gantry mounted on the roof and a separate standby set house for the reserve power. Staff were billeted where possible, but some stations had a small layout of domestic hutting situated within one mile of the site. The site was upgraded in 1942 and fitted with a centimetric radar to become a Chain Home Extra Low station, called site K28. Aerial photography from 1972 shows two buildings surviving at NU 255 204 and these still appear on the latest 1999 Ordnance Survey vertical photography. Bases of Nissen huts providing accommodation and ancillary functions also survive. The site is referenced as being re-used as a prisoner of war camp for Italian and German prisoners at the end of the war and for a short time after.

Sorry about the picture quality it was pouring down and the light was terrible

I also did a few pillboxes so if no one minds another concrete overload from me I will post them on the end of this one

On with the photos

The generator building and the radar set house

Generator building

Generator bed (complete with very fresh sheep turd on the top - don't know who got the biggest fright me or him lol)

Plans for the radar set building

and how it looks now

internals

base for something

building base on top of a terrace down the cliff side to an old quarry

path down to the quarry and the domestic block

the domestic site (someone had torched the shrubbery which made it easier to see the site)

base for nissen hut there were 3 in total

looks like the base for a generator

building floor

original gate posts

water tank

pumping mechanism

to round the Craster stuff off there was this type 24 pillbox (marked on the DoB but no number) it was in conjunction with road block S0007252 which I am sad to say that after searching for it for far too long no longer exists

I found this little beauty on the way back to the car

Right I will leave it there for now still got a few more pillboxes to post up but I'll do that shortly
Thanks for looking
Jon

 

[Munchh]

Nice one jonney, really got your busy hat on at the moment. Unusual outcrop of shelf in the 24, any ideas what for?

 

[jonney]

Moving swiftly on and in no particular order we have another type 24 pillbox S0002280 at Embleton in Northumberland. There are another 2 pillboxes here but the rain got that heavy I decided to just do this one and save the other two for next time because there is a shed load of others I have to do in the area (looks like another concrete overload is in the offing lol) Anyway this one is on the edge of the cricket field on the road from Embleton to Alnwick and a bit over grown in places

internals, looks like the embrasures have been made smaller at some point

Next we have pillbox S0007933 a lozenge type pillbox at Boulmer just east of RAF Boulmer in Northumberland

This pillbox stunk like a slaughter house the reason being the dead sheep dumped at the side of it (the things I do for the love of concrete lol)

I found this next lozenge pillbox by accident (S0013362 the DoB position is wrong as it was at the side of the road almost hidden by the hedge) It is at Morwick in Northumberland and it is the cleanest lozenge I have ever been in, it's a beauty

Pillbox number still visible

Internals

Any ideas what this was for

the last port of call was Tynemouth on Tyneside for the coastal search light emplacement and road block both of which are not on the DoB sadly only one side of the roadblock remains and the searchlight emplacement has been sealed but hears the pics anyway

Roadblock

roadblock on the left searchlight on the right

searchlight emplacement

where the entrance should have been

well thats it folks hope you enjoyed another concrete overload from me
cheers for looking
Jon

 

[jonney]

Nice one jonney, really got your busy hat on at the moment. Unusual outcrop of shelf in the 24, any ideas what for?

I was wondering the same thing mate the only thing I could think of was that it looked as if it had been broken off (the ricochet wall was damaged as well - see photo) I'm thinking the shelves were not the usual one piece but made up of two and one half has been vandalised. That embrasure covered the road junction slightly to it's right so the left side of the shelf would have been needed

road junction

damaged ricochet wall

 

[RichCooper]

Another excellant overload mate some great stuff there

 

[jonney]

cheers mate the next trip is going to be a major pillbox fest as well by the looks of it

 

[WinchItIn]

Pure Quality jonney, well enjoyed your photo's, Looking forward to more of your pillbox porn.

 

[godzilla73]

That "base for something" in the orginal Craster set is probably for mast stays. The four bits of metal would each have held a guy wire that supported a mast. I would surmise that when the station moved from CHL to CHEL, an extra mast would have been erected (in addition to the one on the roof) and that this would have been here. It would be interesting to see where the base was in relation to the original radar set... Great photos though, despite the weather!
GDZ

 

[oldscrote]

What can I say.... except thanks Jonney

 

[jonney]

That "base for something" in the orginal Craster set is probably for mast stays. The four bits of metal would each have held a guy wire that supported a mast. I would surmise that when the station moved from CHL to CHEL, an extra mast would have been erected (in addition to the one on the roof) and that this would have been here. It would be interesting to see where the base was in relation to the original radar set... Great photos though, despite the weather!
GDZ

Cheers mate heres a map of the site

 

[godzilla73]

This link (last paragraph in particular)

http://www.radarpages.co.uk/mob/chel/chel.htm

Would seem to indicate that there was a 200 ft wooden tower here when it was transferred from CHL to CHEL when the type 14 was fitted, either in 1942 or 1943.
Interesting stuff!
GDZ

 

[smiler]

Thanks for that, not one of my favourite things to spend time exploring but I can easily understand the fascination in them and enjoy yours and other forum members’ enthusiasm in finding, photographing and then posting them up, Thank you for Sharing