More information : Since 1974 Beaumanor has been owned by Leicestershire County Council and is used for a wide range of educational activities. Although the present house dates from 1845, and was designed by William Railton, the site is ancient, having been an important residence in the medieval period and the home of the Duchess of Suffolk, mother of Lady Jane Grey, in the C16. It was bought by William Herrick in 1595 and remained the home of the Herricks until the early C20. Inherited by the Curzon-Howe family it was borrowed or requisitioned by the War Office at the outbreak of the Second World War and became a highly important Strategical Intercept Station, the most important intercept station of the War Office Y Group, for the collection of enemy Morse-code radio signals, which, after processing, were sent to Bletchley Park for decoding. By the end of the war there were some 1300 wireless operators at Beaumanor. In 1941-2 the extensive C19 buildings were augmented by specially built huts which were disguised as various estate buildings. These huts were the vital initial collection points in the highly secret process which ended in the decoding and reading of the messages at Bletchley.
Beaumanor remained a highly important signals station after the war and during the Cold War. New buildings were constructed on an adjacent site and in 1974 the Ministry of Defence sold the house and immediate grounds to Leicestershire County Council. During the last few years the signals station has closed, the buildings demolished except for the housing and the site has become the new Defence Sixth Form College which has transferred from Welbeck in Nottinghamshire.
The various buildings or huts consist of the following, given the same identification as in the documentation provided with the file.
A-E: A long building of 5 linked huts which were all completely rebuilt except for the foundations in the 1980s.
F: Administration hut demolished in 1985.
G: The teleprinter hut which was built of red brick and now has a late C20 roof. It was designed to look like the cricket pavilion to a cricket ground sited to the north. In the 60s and 70s and again more recently this building has been rendered and whitewashed and the interior altered.
H I J K: Four set rooms. Each had 14 inch blast-proof walls built into the structure and these stretched 8 feet up from ground level. The civilian operators manned H and the ATS the other three.
These buildings had fake windows at ground level and small real windows up under the roof which were only useful for providing some daylight. The huts were linked by underground cables: each had 40 positions manned by 36 operators with four control sets for search work, looking for new or `lost `stations and they also allowed flexibility when sets were being serviced. The supervisor sat in the centre of the room at one end facing the operators and close to the only access to the hut. Near the supervisor was the device for sending the intercepted messages through a pneumatic tube to the teleprinter room where it would be received for onward transmission via the teleprinter operators to Bletchley Park and the codebrakers.
H: Hut used to collect signals. This was designed to look like a pair of semi-detached estate workmen's cottages of two storeys with a single storey rear wing. The disguise was complete with front doors and applied glazed window frames. The interior was, and still is, a single large space two storeys high with a lower rear wing.
I: Hut originally similar to the last but converted in recent decades to a hostel for visiting groups. It has been rendered and whitewashed, the windows altered and the walls punctured for doors and a ceiling inserted inside.
J: Hut for the collection of signals designed to look like a cart shed. This remains with the brick visible but the rear outshut originally looking like an open cart shed has now been filled in, the roof renewed and given large skylights, and a door inserted in the front. The high window openings are, however, original.
K: Hut used for the collection of signals and designed to look like a pair of stables. This retains its original brick walls and corrugated asbestos roof and stable doors. The building has been changed minimally internally for group accommodation. The few narrow window openings to the rear appear to be original in part though the actual windows are recent.
L: This set room was not built until late 1944, and because air raids were no longer a problem it was built to the lower standard of an ordinary military type hut. It is said to have been designed to look like a Dutch barn but is not very convincing and has been given more fenestration and altered inside.
M: This large hut was designed to look like an extensive greenhouse but the disguise was removed after the war when the glazing was removed from the roof and walls. The building has also been subsequently re-roofed and subdivided internally.
Huts A-E, inclusive, and huts F, G, I, J, L, and M are of undoubted local interest. but do not merit listing. (1)
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