RAF Ventnor (Isle of Wight)
So I was preparing for a pleasant holiday to the Isle of Wight with Mrs UrbanX, and my mouse started to pan around the Google landscape surrounding our B&B. Now no urbexer in their right mind would see a couple random doorways leading into the side of the Earth and not go for a little poke around.
Walking for miles, and reaching the top of the hill several hundreds of feet above the sea, I was glad to see that access wouldn’t be that difficult.
The first door aerial view doorway in reality looks like something like this:
The second doorway on the aerial view looks like this:
Now there’s LOADS of technical documents online about what radio equipment was used there, but that bores me to tears, so I’m just going to touch on the history and the building:
First building, looking out:
Speaking to the locals revealed a massive sense of panic when the first towers went up. The whole town had been told to keep quiet about the towers. They were not included on any maps, and even a local painter was asked to omit them from any water colours he painted.
The main rumour among the residents was that the towers were ‘death rays’ to shoot down Nazi planes.
Second building:
Such odd fenestration, any ideas?
During the mid 1930's, the Air Ministry established a programme of building radar stations around the British coast to provide warning of air attack on Great Britain. A survey was undertaken in 1938 to assess the suitability of the local terrain for Air Defence Radar operations with the first of these new stations coming on line by the end of the year.
Looking down the access gap:
In their final form these stations were designed to have equipment housed in protected buildings with transmitter aerials suspended from 350' steel towers and receiver aerials mounted on 240' timber towers.
The view from the station:
On 12th August 1940, four CH stations were selected for attack by the Luftwaffe. After causing damage to the radar stations at Dover, and Rye the bombers headed for Ventnor where they were intercepted at the start of their raid. The station suffered considerable damage which forced it off the air and most of the buildings were damaged or destroyed; casualties were however light with only one soldier being injured. Following this raid a mobile installation was brought on to the island and set up at Bembridge. It was operational from 23rd August 1940 and remained in use until the station was repaired.
The second building on the aerial view:
Again, inside there was nothing of interest, except a brand new pair of trainers & sunglasses?
Map:
Walking for miles, and reaching the top of the hill several hundreds of feet above the sea, I was glad to see that access wouldn’t be that difficult.
The first door aerial view doorway in reality looks like something like this:
The second doorway on the aerial view looks like this:
Now there’s LOADS of technical documents online about what radio equipment was used there, but that bores me to tears, so I’m just going to touch on the history and the building:
First building, looking out:
Speaking to the locals revealed a massive sense of panic when the first towers went up. The whole town had been told to keep quiet about the towers. They were not included on any maps, and even a local painter was asked to omit them from any water colours he painted.
The main rumour among the residents was that the towers were ‘death rays’ to shoot down Nazi planes.
Second building:
Such odd fenestration, any ideas?
During the mid 1930's, the Air Ministry established a programme of building radar stations around the British coast to provide warning of air attack on Great Britain. A survey was undertaken in 1938 to assess the suitability of the local terrain for Air Defence Radar operations with the first of these new stations coming on line by the end of the year.
Looking down the access gap:
In their final form these stations were designed to have equipment housed in protected buildings with transmitter aerials suspended from 350' steel towers and receiver aerials mounted on 240' timber towers.
The view from the station:
On 12th August 1940, four CH stations were selected for attack by the Luftwaffe. After causing damage to the radar stations at Dover, and Rye the bombers headed for Ventnor where they were intercepted at the start of their raid. The station suffered considerable damage which forced it off the air and most of the buildings were damaged or destroyed; casualties were however light with only one soldier being injured. Following this raid a mobile installation was brought on to the island and set up at Bembridge. It was operational from 23rd August 1940 and remained in use until the station was repaired.
The second building on the aerial view:
Again, inside there was nothing of interest, except a brand new pair of trainers & sunglasses?
Map:
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