More than 200 radar stations were dotted throughout Britain during the Second World War, although very few survive intact today. A number of these were Chain Home Low, or CHL stations, so named because they could detect enemy aircraft flying at very low altitudes, often as little as 500 feet from the ground.
These stations used radar, then still very much in its infancy, to scan for enemy aircraft and ships, reporting their observations to a nearby central operations room. In providing early warning of German aerial attacks, they played a crucial role in the air defence of the country during the Battle of Britain.
The remains of the former CHL station pictured here are located on a coastal escarpment just a short distance north of the village of Craster, in Northumberland. At the end of last year, the Craster station was awarded Grade II- listed status by Historic England, in recognition of its role as a ‘physical reminder of wartime tensions and fears, and the need for a national defence system’. The ruins of a very different form of national defence, the 14th-century Dunstanburgh Castle, are visible in the background.
