Horses were used to plough the fields and sow the crops

FARMING

We use the land at Radar Farm to grow grass for the production of hay and for grazing horses. We also rear free-range chickens for eggs and meat.

EGGS - When available (dependent on laying) may be collected from the farm entrance, or can be delivered locally within a 3 mile radius. Prices are marked at the entrance, or email us for the latest offers.

HORSES - Are available for export or local slaughter. Email our farm manager for details.

Horses grazing at Radar Farm, Pevensey Levels in October 2014

FARMING SERVICES

We tend our own land and offer our agricultural services to other farms in Sussex. This includes fencing, rolling, ditch clearing and many other services involving tractors and specialist farming machinery. We also offer strategic planning and agricultural business development advice on a confidential basis. Our expert on this subject has defended a number of enforcement actions in the Sussex area, where permitted development rights had become a contentious issue. Our advice is to negotiate in the first instance, to prevent enforcement that may not be appropriate. If you find yourself in trouble, send us an email. The longer you leave it, the more chance you will find your farm blighted - not to mention the horrendous costs that sometimes follow a site clearance.

[Left] a mobile chicken hut - and [right] a chicken ark.

CHICKEN & EGG SITUATION

Our expansion at Radar Farm is currently focused on rearing and producing chickens for the production of the finest free range meat and eggs.

In the current economic climate we are using our limited resources to install hen houses of various types, experimenting to find out what might be the most cost effective. Our aim is to keep our hens as comfortable as possible, because happy hens produce the tastiest eggs.

When you drive past, give a thought to the history that we have reproduced below, and is featured on many other websites operated by amateur archaeologists and historians. Buying our eggs will help us in the long-term, to do what we might to conserve the historical buildings on our farm. It's going to take a lot of money, so please help us if you can buy purchasing our produce.

CONTACTS

The Farm Manager

Radar Farm Services Ltd

Wartling Road

Pevensey Levels

BN27 1SA

Email: farming@bushywood.com

LEFT: We take unhappy hens, set them free - and make them happy again. RIGHT: A bunch of happy hens, helping RAF pilots to shoot down V1 rockets before they hit London.

During the 2nd World War, the Pevensey Levels hosted an underground radar tracking station. The emplacements seen in the photograph above were to protect the early warning station from land attack. The underground installation was flooded the last time our local historian visited. These remains are of historic importance. The above ground buildings on the adjacent hill have been converted to residential use.

This is RAF Pevensey, and earlier radar station, replaced by RAF Wartling, when the technology became outdated. During 1956/1957 a Decca Type 80 Mk. III search radar was installed at RAF Wartling, replacing the earlier Type 7. The Type 80 was developed in the early 1950's from an experimental design based on the Type 14 Mk VI under the project code name Green Garlic.
Almost overnight this radar made the ROTOR air defence system redundant. The Type 80 improved the range of the station considerably with a range of up to 320 miles compared to the 90 mile range of the Type 7; this instantly made some of the earlier equipment obsolete. 

RAF PEVENSEY & RAF WARTLING

Radar Farm in roughly half way between the above radar stations, with some interesting ground installations extant on site. Please use the links above to read more about what was the first ever early warning radar station in the world.

RAF Wartling - Plan of the MkIII sub-station bunker showing the general layout - the extant remains are not of course preserved with all the equipment in situ.

RAF WARTLING R7 MkIII ROTOR RADAR

Few R7 Mk III bunkers are now accessible. The R7 on the Pevensey Levels is a rare survivor. The Type 79 plinth and sub-station are not visible from a public footpath that passes the site. 

R7 bunkers are approximately fifty feet long by fifteen feet wide. The top of it was flush with the ground. There were six rectangular apertures and one circular aperture in the roof, the largest of these was for the pedestal for the aerial array.

The two smallest apertures were for personnel access and each still has a ladder fixed to the wall. The remaining hatches were for the installation and removal of equipment.

The R7 was divided into three major rooms with a closet for a chemical toilet, adjacent to one of the personnel hatches.

The northernmost room (15' 2" X 12' 6") was the DC plant room with a Ward-Leonard generator set standing on a plinth in one corner with the main DC control cabinet against the opposite wall and a three phase switch panel adjacent to the personnel ladder. The middle room (12' 5" X 12' 6") was a rest room with three equipment racks against one wall.

The southernmost room (20' X 12' 6") was the transmitter room with two T3705 transmitters, one against each wall. The antenna array was mounted above the large hatch in the roof in the centre of the room.

This is a view from what is now Radar Farm, from the underground bunker (R7) to Bunker Hill. Rather strangely, this archaeological site is also designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for the protection of Lapwings, where this bird would not find such a site of any interest whatsoever, preferring open marshland. Bunker Hill is not included in the erroneous SSSI. See the T7 pictures below taken in October of 2014, to compare.

FIRST STRIKE SUPREMACY

With the coming of the Atomic bomb there was a serious rethink in the organisation of air defence in the early 1950's. As part of this reorganisation many of the existing radar stations were to be provided with new protected underground operations rooms as part of the ROTOR plan. Some of these were to be built on the same site as existing stations while others would be resited and in some cases renamed. 

The GCI station at Wartling was to be replaced with a new underground two level R3 operations building alongside the old Happidrome. However, due to the location being barely above sea level, the trail test bores sunk to determine the site of the R3 indicated that the building would be liable to serious flooding if this location was chosen.

It would have been too expensive to overcome this problem so an alternative site was found on higher ground with the Type 7 radar scanner remaining at the old site as this was more suited for its performance.

Without their access tracks, such site of archaeological interest are not complete. Natural England are seeking removal of tracks on the adjacent Lion Farm, simply because they did not know they were there previously (how with all the extant RAF Wartling buildings), possibly due to the fact that they carried out no survey and contacted none of the experts, such as English Heritage. This is a shared access track to Radar Farm, lest Natural England seek to deny the track ever existed. It's the old local land charges swindle all over again.

The transmitter, receiver and motor for turning the aerial array were located underground in a bunker designated as an R7 and known as a 'well'. During the ROTOR period two different types of R7 bunker were utilised. Where the Type 7 radar was located close to the R3 operations block it was housed in an R7 Mk II bunker which consisted of a single room. If the R7 was at a dispersed location a larger R7 Mk III was built which consisted of three rooms. Because of the distance from the main site, an R7 Mk III required its own IFF and an Mk 10 IFF was mounted on a Type 14 plinth, turntable and cabin this combination was known as a Type 79. This was located a short distance to the north of the R7 bunker with a small brick built electricity sub station alongside. The R7 was divided into three major rooms with the DC power room at one end, a rest room in the middle and the transmitter room at the opposite end; this would have housed two T3705 transmitters.

The R7 Mk III was sited a few yards from the WW2 Type 7 radar which was located in an R7 Mk 1 bunker. The radar and the adjacent happidrome remained operational until the new technical block came on line on 28th March 1955.

With the introduction of the Type 80 radar during 1956/1957 the Type 7 became redundant as the Type 80 had a range of 320 miles compared to only 90 miles for the Type 7; it was retained as a back up to the Type 80. In January 1958 a new Type 7 radar was fitted following a fire in the old one. 

Few R7 Mk III bunkers are accessible today and that at Wartling has been partially covered over with only one corner of the concrete room still visible together with two of the low ventilators. The Type 79 plinth and sub-station are still standing within a large WW2 compound which follows the natural field boundary. The buildings appear to have been put to some kind of light industrial use with a number of scrap vehicles parked in the field nearby. Within a few yards of the bunker the top of the WW2 R7 Mk I can also be seen.

Although only 300 yards from the minor road running south from Wartling village, a line of trees along the field boundary make the buildings difficult to see from the road. 

This is the T7 at Radar Farm in 2014. The radar workings have long since been removed, but the mountings are extant and just visible in the picture on the left. This pattern of building is repeated in a number of other RAF locations around Britain.

LINKS & REFERENCE

http://www.independent.co.uk/the-real-scandal-behind-horsemeat-is-the-struggle-of-smallholding-british-farmers

http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/business/princess-anne-calls-for-uk-horsemeat-market/60182.article

http://www.equinerescuefrance.org/campaigns-2/horsemeat-in-france/

https://www.gov.uk/keeping-horses-on-farms

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1550742/We-should-eat-horse-meat-says-Ramsay.html

http://www.fwi.co.uk/business/horsemeat-scandal/

28 days later RAF-Wartling-R3-GCI-ROTOR-Radar-Station-12-7-07

Subbrit Wartling index

Subbrit Wartling_r7

Subbrit Pevensey_chain_home

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/16796-RAF-Wartling-R3-GCI-ROTOR-Radar-Station-12-7-07

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/w/wartling/index1.html

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/w/wartling_r7/

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/p/pevensey_chain_home/index.shtml