Month: May 2022

Bit quieter this weekend but so many interesting questions more than made up for the lower visitor numbers. More arrivals from the Netherlands and Germany were the furthest this week, but many locals still attending, many of which have never had the opportunity to visit the tower before.

John G: Impressed by extent of technical description – well done (ex Plessey & EMI Electronics)

Mr & Mrs Herron: Very interesting, great history to show my children.

Ron W: Excellent! very interesting, keep up the good work.

Next open day will be Sunday 29th May 11am to 3pm. If you would like to visit on another occasion or arrange a group visit we will try to accommodate as best we can, subject to availability. Look forward to meeting you soon 🙂

On the 6th April I was lucky enough to be interviewed on BBC Radio Essex to highlight the Radar Tower in Harwich, Essex. A small part of the war effort but an important early step in a system that is still widely in use to this day. Radio Direction Finding, as the British called it, became better known as RADAR. This was the American term that has become better known over the years. The system was being developed in 1935 at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk so when the tower opened in April 1941 it was one of the first uses of land based RADAR in the world.

The tower will be open on Sunday 15th May between 11am and 3pm and entry is free. All donations will go towards the restoration of the tower and other historic structures opened on behalf of the Harwich Society. We open every other Sunday until the end of October. Hope to see you there 🙂

May 1st, nice bright but chilly day, and a lot of interest in the RDF tower. 49 visitors through the door and some very interesting questions. Also our furthest visitor today, one which will be hard to beat. Last year our furthest was from Perth, Scotland. Today they came from Perth, Western Australia! We also had a guy from Poland and two groups from the Netherlands. News of the tower is clearly going beyond Tendring.

Viv & Colin – Amazing. Particularly appreciated the ‘What can you see?’ board

Mavim (?) – Ciekawe (Polish) Interesting (English)

Nick – Fantastic presentation of our history

It is great to get such positive feedback each week and it encourages us to continue researching and presenting this fascinating building. We open again on Sunday 15th May, 11am to 3pm. Hope to see you there