Monument record MDO39550 - Possible modern radar station, Heath Road East, Hurn, Christchurch

A possible Second World War radar station to the northeast of Bournemouth Hurn airfield is visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The site was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

A possible Second World War radar station to the northeast of Bournemouth Hurn airfield is visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1). The site appears to comprise a right-angled building or structure within a circular hardstanding, located at the end of a trackway leading west from Matchams Lane. Halfway along the trackway on its north side are two small rectangular buildings measuring 12m by 5m with an 11m square enclosure to the west of these continaing a small rectangular structure measuring 2.8m by 4.2m. An aerial photograph of 1956 indicates that the site is in disuse by this time. The right-angled structure is no longer extant and the trackways overgrown (2). The two small rectangular buildings may survive and are situated within a rectangular enclosure by this time, indicating post-1946 alteration. By 1988 the site is lost beneath a new configuration of trackways and roads (3). The two rectangular buildings are still standing at this time. Current Google Earth imagery shows these are removed some time between 2002 and 2005, although their foundations may survive. The rectangular enclosure was still extant by 2017 (4). Current lidar imagery shows the battery structures to survive as relatively well-preserved and still distinct structures below the scrub (2). The site was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

Record last edited

Sep 29 2017 3:17PM