What has Bawdsey to offer?

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In answer to the question posed in the title, my initial reply was "not a lot". After two recent visits, I can now answer "Quite a lot"!
Sitting on the opposite shore of the Deben to Felixstowe Ferry, it is a beautiful river estuary with mooring for large number of small boats. Then it has Bawdsey Manor where Bawdsey Radar Transmitter Block was the first operational radar station in the world, and the exhibition it has, is housed in the original 1937 building. The exhibition tells the story of the "Invention that Changed the World". It reveals how scientists, engineers and technicians came together at Bawdsey in the 1930s in total secrecy to prove that radio waves could locate aircraft, ships and other targets. Bawdsey became the world's first operational radar station in 1937 and played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
The Manor itself is now a School Adventure Centre.

Just shows how wrong you can be! My visits during the past week were as part of a group photographing the area with a view to looking really closely at Bawdsey and these are some of my images from this couple of days.



On the second visit, we were hoping for a sunset across the river, but not to be. So, as the light mellowed, a couple of shots of moored boats.


The shingle beach in the area is littered with World War remains. Constructions of various sorts are strewn around in various stages of decay.



Gun tower making an interesting image.


To add a bit more drama, one of the above images turned into a monochrome image.



Patterns in the crumbled buildings.



Patterns in nature



The geology of the cliff area is described in Wikipedia as `providing the largest exposure of the Early Pleistocene Red Crag Formation, and it is rich in fossils of marine molluscs. It is described by Natural England as having great potential for the study of non-glacial Pleistocene environments.`
Furthermore, `it is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, also a Geological Conservation Review site, and is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.` Well worth a visit.


Then, we came across this structure perched on the cliffs and asked `How did that get there?` It turns out that Amazon have been filming `The Power`, and this building is the Convent, supposedly in North Carolina! It plays a major part in the book (by Naomi Alderman) so will probably in the film. Then it will be demolished!
I managed to scramble onto some highish rocks to get this image. Security was not pleased with people photographing from the top of the cliff!

Shame about the lack of a sunset across the Deben, but well worth photographing the other parts of the area.


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