| Summary : The site of a Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) radar station at Exminster. GCI stations were developed by the Air Ministry from 1940 to detect, locate and track enemy aircraft and provide inland radar coverage for Britain. Exminster opened in March 1941 and originally functioned as a Mobile station reporting to Fighter Sectors in Exeter and Colerne. Mobile stations comprised transmitter and receiver aerial arrays mounted on trailers spaced no more than 220ft (67.1 metres) apart, with equipment stored and operations carried out from trucks. In 1943 the site was developed into a Final station. Final GCI or AMES Type 7 stations comprised a single rotating aerial array with transmitter equipment stored beneath in an underground well, plus an operations block, a standby set house for reserve power, and a guard hut for the site entrance. In a survey of the site undertaken in 2002-3, several structures were recorded as extant and included radar plinths, the standby generator block and operations block. In 2010 the site is said to accommodate a business complex and is included in a RSPB nature reserve. |
More information : A Ground Controlled Interception station located at Exminster (SX 958 874), called site 03G. Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) radar stations were developed by the Air Ministry from 1940 to detect, locate and track enemy aircraft and provide inland radar coverage of Britain. The stations worked in cooperation with local Fighter Sectors that had Airborne Interception (AI) radar fitted in it's aircraft to enable the crew to accurately home in on targets. Exminster reported to Exeter and Colerne Fighter Sectors, initially as a Mobile station and 1943 a Final GCI station.
Mobile stations comprised transmitter and receiver aerial arrays mounted on trailers spaced no more than 220ft (67.1 metres) apart, with equipment stored and operations carried out from trucks. Final Ground Controlled Interception sites were AMES Type 7 stations that comprised a single rotating aerial array with transmitter equipment stored in an underground well beneath, a brick operations block, a standby set house for reserve power, and a guard hut for the site entrance. Some sites were provided with additional huts for offices and recreation rooms. (1)
Aerial photography from 1978 shows that the station had been removed and the site given over to agricultural use. (2)
This detailed report provides an overview of the site's history as well as the structures that were extant in 2002-3 when the report's authors carried out a survey of the site. Structures that were still extant at the time of recording were: a small hut in station road (SX 9570087366), a standby generator house (SX 9573487404), an operations block (SX 9571887433), a pump house (SX 9570387392), a circular tank-link structure (SX 9567587433), the base of now removed AMES Type 13 Mark II radar (SX 9568387265) with an adjacent power distribution box, a plinth of an AMES Type 14 Mark III radar (SX 9579187284), an interrogator hut (SX 9583487338), a possible second interrogator hut (SX 9558187523), and, a concrete base and plinth (SX 9592287428). Please see the report for further detailed information. (3)
In email correspondence from the author of source 3, the site is currently a business complex and RSPB reserve. (4) |