RAF Bawdsey

Royal Air Force Bawdsey or more simply RAF Bawdsey is a former Royal Air Force station situated on the eastern coast in Suffolk, England. Also known as Bawdsey Research Station , the first Chain Home radar station was built there, characterized by eight tall masts, four for transmitting and four for receiving. When the research group moved to Dundee in September 1939, the radar station was left active under the name RAF Bawdsey. The site later hosted a Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missile station until 1990.

Bawdsey Manor, dating from 1886, was taken over in March 1936 by the Air Ministry for developing the Chain Home RDF system. The station's Superintendent was initially Robert Watson-Watt, later followed by A.P. Rowe. The experimental radar station was located just northeast of the Manor, about 200 yards distant. When war was declared in September 1939, fears of a possible commando raid on the group led to the development activities being relocated, first to Dundee, Scotland, and later to Worth Matravers near Swanage in Dorset on the southern coast of England, where they became the Telecommunications Research Establishment .

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