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In 1936 an enormous investment was made here in this quiet corner of Dorset. In what is now the vegetable garden of Knitson Farm house, two Nissen huts and an Arcon, and a toilet block and cesspit were assembled to house an establishment of secret radio listeners and administrators. Electricity was provided long before the neighbours were to receive such services!
The two Nissen Huts that were built in the field adjacent to Knitson farm house still survive. We believe they were built in 1936 for purposes related to the listening station.We have yet to establish the particular role of this accommodation.
The back door of the hut is a little overgrown since its last use from the immediate post war period as a dwelling.
The hut is in excellent condition internally considering its date of construction and many uses before its present role as superior garden shed.
Mark Helfer the present owner of these relics and the farm house, stands outside the wartime toilet block, two cubicles drain into the cesspit beyond.
A little distance up the hill remains the entry to the unit telephone exchange.
Two Nissens and three small square rooms, all protected by immensely strong concrete and buried in the hill. Glazed pipes conducted communication cable [lead outside with paper-insulated copper wires] linked this structure with three similar "dugouts" on top of the hill. The cables also led down to the farmstead and along the roadway underhill in both directions, presumably to HQ or other installations.
On top of the down were three buried and concreted double-Nissens, with steps leading down from brick doorways above ground, and the cables linked them all.
12 or 15 yard-cube blocks of concrete with big steel rings on top were deployed around the field where the communications station is now. They were obviously anchors for guys for masts and are now lined up on the north boundary of the field for future archaeologists to puzzle over. On the horizon is the Studland peninsula and in the far distance Sandbanks and Bournemouth.
Two 6' RSJ's that must have been the bases of wooden masts remain in their original locations, they were just too heavy and too well concreted in to be shifted. On the horizon is Swanage. The site has provided these spendid views of the South Dorset coast for millennia to the various civilisations who cherished this high ground for various purposes. The secrets of the distant past cannot be unlocked but what went on here as a radio listening station must still be known by the survivors of that period and we hope that these pictures will come to their attention and stimulate them to communicate with us.
The surviving buried double nissen bunker is still in use as a communications facility equipped these days with the latest satellite and terrestial transmtting and radio receiving equipment.
The full extent of today's aerial mast decked with antenna of many wavelengths is a fitting memorial to the critical years when this station formed a key part of the defence of our nation between 1936 and 1948.
We invite any members of the armed services who served here during the years of its operation to contact us so that we can provide more information on its operation and contribution to the war effort.
Mark Helfer |
Tommy Thomas |
References:
Page 12 - Military Dorset Today - Colin A Pomeroy - Silver Llnk Publishing 1995ISBN 1 85794 077 6