Bawdsey - Long exposure and sunset

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Bawdey Quay is a lovely spot. It is situated at the mouth of the river Deben which separates Bawdsey from nearby Felixstowe. Lots of boats and just a lovely spot to sit and soak up the sea air and sunshine!
It has quite a history too. Radar was developed and first tested in Bawdsey between the two World Wars. Today you can visit the place where much of the groundbreaking work in radar technology took place.
In February 1936, the research scientists occupied Bawdsey Manor House and the stables and outbuildings were converted into workshops. 240ft wooden receiver towers and 360ft steel transmitter towers were built and Bawdsey became the first Chain Home Radar Station. On September 24, 1937, RAF Bawdsey became the first fully operational radar station in the world
After WW2 Bawdsey was used as an RAF base through the Cold War until the 1990’s when the Bloodhound surface-to-air missile was the last ‘tenant’ in this base. On 31st May 1990, the Bloodhound force ceased operations and in June all the missiles were withdrawn to RAF West Raynham. The RAF Ensign was lowered for the last time on the 25th of March 1991 and the station closed on the 31st of March. It is now owned by PGL Travel Ltd which is a company founded in 1957 and is a provider of various school activity courses and summer camps for children in the United Kingdom.

Until PGL purchased it, Bawdsey was a renowned international school as well as a family home and has many excellent existing facilities as a result.
It opened the centre fully in 2018 after adding to all the existing facilities and investing heavily in improvements to create an even brighter and bolder Bawdsey Manor, with even more to offer our guests. A new dining room, the creation of en-suite bedrooms, the construction of many additional new PGL activity bases and a lake in the grounds have all transformed it into one of our most exciting adventure centres.

Our visit this evening was with Gill Moon to hone our skills in long exposures and hopefully catch a sunset. It didn't look too promising at first but here are a few images that I did manage.


This first image illustrates what a thirty second exposure does to water. Makes it look very milky - which was the whole idea.


A shorter exposure gives more form to the water.


Bawdsey Manor from the beach


Bawdsey with its many small boats and rain in the background!



Bawdsey as the sun set. Not the best sunset but makes a picture. A pleasant evening with a few images to take away with me.

Location: Ferry Rd, Woodbridge IP12 3AT, UK

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