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We left the city quite early to head to what i thought was a ROC R3 ROTOR bunker that was not too far away, I was wrong on both counts!
So there we were, four explorers fueled with nicotine and coffee on the road armed with cameras,tripods and enough light to blind
any low flying aircraft that might be flying over head!
I have no doubt that there are reports on here about this place but this is a bit of history of it from Wiki for those who have not seen it!
RAF Bawdsey was an RAF station situated on the eastern coast in Suffolk, England. Bawdsey Manor, dating from 1886, was taken over in March 1936 by the Air Ministry for developing the Chain Home RDF system. Wikipedia
The radar site lies about 600m. from Bawdsey Manor itself along the top of the cliffs going in the direction of Shingle Street.Apart from the radar scanners which were above ground, there was a large underground command center built in the late 1950`s. It incorporated an up lit radar display showing the whole of South East England and on which would have been projected any aircraft.Around the walls of the command post was a gallery with the status boards of all the fighter command and other RAF airfields in the area.The command center was self-supporting for a limited time and included living quarters, and air filtration to make it capable of operating during nuclear attack
Wikipedia
The first two pictures are from google images and the first shows the most of the base from the air
And the second photo shows the type 86 Radar in use sitting on top of it's plinth
And now the plinth is all that remains of the radar and the base had two of these.
At this point the bunker was the unspoken goal of the excursion so we made a bee line to the entry point.
This was when i noticed these pads which i later learned were for the Bloodhound SAM
Once in we were looking down in to the darkness and for me i really did not know what to expect so we moved down the stairs
One of the first main features we saw was this which was part of the air filtration system, This was the first real indicator of the size and age of this bunker for me as i had no real knowledge of this site!
A closer view at the large fans.
The view past a set of reinforced doors leading in to the rest of the bunker
At about this point i encountered another explorer who appeared at the far end of a corridor like this one with a few touches and started to walk towards me so i got the rest of the group to join me in facing whoever it was!
Turned out that he was know to one of our group so he joined us from there on!
This picture was of some kind of plant room but i could not tell you exactly what it was for but i did find myself thinking about what it must have been like to be working in there with everything running!
One of the interesting things that i have always found when i visit sites are the things that are left behind.
When we found this switchboard i found myself thinking once again about what it must have been like in here with an officer connecting calls around the base and off site.
What to do in the event of a.......
We continued our excursion deeper in to the bunker finding rooms like these which gave little to no clues as to what they were used for.
A few rooms that gave no clue what so ever!
These two rooms being prime examples.
I would think that this told the bunker crew information on power output for the radars or indeed the bunker but that is just a guess, for some unknown reason i quite liked this, !
I did not see it at the time when i had taken the picture but when i showed a friend he could see a man, as soon as he said it i could see it!
As we were leaving we past this which we had past on the way in without even noticing it but the funny thing for me was that it was still full!
We continued to make our way out of the bunker.
Once outside this was the view in land from the base and what a view it was.
we decided to have a quick look at the guardhouse.
A quick look at the dog section and i found this on the wall which made me smile!
And on to the WW2 bunker and the first signs that there was or used to be something there was these.
So we made entry to the second bunker of the day.
Although this bunker was much smaller than the one we had just left, it still had things to see even after all these years,
I am guessing it was something to do with either power or heating for the bunker.
Not that the current occupants would need it!
Now i must stress something at this point, This was the original entrance to the bunker but should any future explorer see this post and decide to visit the site, do NOT use these stairs as they really were in a really bad condition, in fact it would be safer to simply jump as although it would not be a nice landing it sure beats having the whole stair case follow you down which was what it looked like it was ready to do at any moment!
After managing to get out of the WW2 bunker in one piece which i admit i did have some doubts about, we felt that we had been here long enough and saw what we wanted to see we decided to make our way home!
So there is my report on RAF Bawdsey and this also marks my first report on Oblivion state!
I hope you enjoyed it and if there is any improvements then please let me know.
Take care to you all and regards from the one and only seeker1701
I felt i could not end my report without this....
So there we were, four explorers fueled with nicotine and coffee on the road armed with cameras,tripods and enough light to blind
any low flying aircraft that might be flying over head!
I have no doubt that there are reports on here about this place but this is a bit of history of it from Wiki for those who have not seen it!
RAF Bawdsey was an RAF station situated on the eastern coast in Suffolk, England. Bawdsey Manor, dating from 1886, was taken over in March 1936 by the Air Ministry for developing the Chain Home RDF system. Wikipedia
The radar site lies about 600m. from Bawdsey Manor itself along the top of the cliffs going in the direction of Shingle Street.Apart from the radar scanners which were above ground, there was a large underground command center built in the late 1950`s. It incorporated an up lit radar display showing the whole of South East England and on which would have been projected any aircraft.Around the walls of the command post was a gallery with the status boards of all the fighter command and other RAF airfields in the area.The command center was self-supporting for a limited time and included living quarters, and air filtration to make it capable of operating during nuclear attack
Wikipedia
The first two pictures are from google images and the first shows the most of the base from the air
And the second photo shows the type 86 Radar in use sitting on top of it's plinth
And now the plinth is all that remains of the radar and the base had two of these.
At this point the bunker was the unspoken goal of the excursion so we made a bee line to the entry point.
This was when i noticed these pads which i later learned were for the Bloodhound SAM
Once in we were looking down in to the darkness and for me i really did not know what to expect so we moved down the stairs
One of the first main features we saw was this which was part of the air filtration system, This was the first real indicator of the size and age of this bunker for me as i had no real knowledge of this site!
A closer view at the large fans.
The view past a set of reinforced doors leading in to the rest of the bunker
At about this point i encountered another explorer who appeared at the far end of a corridor like this one with a few touches and started to walk towards me so i got the rest of the group to join me in facing whoever it was!
Turned out that he was know to one of our group so he joined us from there on!
This picture was of some kind of plant room but i could not tell you exactly what it was for but i did find myself thinking about what it must have been like to be working in there with everything running!
One of the interesting things that i have always found when i visit sites are the things that are left behind.
When we found this switchboard i found myself thinking once again about what it must have been like in here with an officer connecting calls around the base and off site.
What to do in the event of a.......
We continued our excursion deeper in to the bunker finding rooms like these which gave little to no clues as to what they were used for.
A few rooms that gave no clue what so ever!
These two rooms being prime examples.
I would think that this told the bunker crew information on power output for the radars or indeed the bunker but that is just a guess, for some unknown reason i quite liked this, !
I did not see it at the time when i had taken the picture but when i showed a friend he could see a man, as soon as he said it i could see it!
As we were leaving we past this which we had past on the way in without even noticing it but the funny thing for me was that it was still full!
We continued to make our way out of the bunker.
Once outside this was the view in land from the base and what a view it was.
we decided to have a quick look at the guardhouse.
A quick look at the dog section and i found this on the wall which made me smile!
And on to the WW2 bunker and the first signs that there was or used to be something there was these.
So we made entry to the second bunker of the day.
Although this bunker was much smaller than the one we had just left, it still had things to see even after all these years,
I am guessing it was something to do with either power or heating for the bunker.
Not that the current occupants would need it!
Now i must stress something at this point, This was the original entrance to the bunker but should any future explorer see this post and decide to visit the site, do NOT use these stairs as they really were in a really bad condition, in fact it would be safer to simply jump as although it would not be a nice landing it sure beats having the whole stair case follow you down which was what it looked like it was ready to do at any moment!
After managing to get out of the WW2 bunker in one piece which i admit i did have some doubts about, we felt that we had been here long enough and saw what we wanted to see we decided to make our way home!
So there is my report on RAF Bawdsey and this also marks my first report on Oblivion state!
I hope you enjoyed it and if there is any improvements then please let me know.
Take care to you all and regards from the one and only seeker1701
I felt i could not end my report without this....
