Monument record MDO19680 - Second World War Coastal Defence/chain Home Low Station M72, Grove, Portland

Military building (wartime?), single storey, brick, with flat concrete roof. A smaller concrete building is just to the north east. The remains of a Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low (CD/CHL) radar station at East Cliff. It was built by the British Army to monitor shipping and aircraft during the Second World War. CD/CHL sites opened from 1941 and comprised a brick or concrete operations block with an aerial gantry mounted on the roof and a separate standby set house for the reserve power. Staff were billeted where possible, but some stations had a small layout of domestic hutting situated within one mile of the site. The station was closed by the end of 1942. Aerial photography from 1996 shows an operations block and a second building located near the cliff edge. Close to edge of Broadcroft Quarry. Used as stable in 2007. The building and a second one immediately to the north are visible as structures on aerial photographs of the 1940s.

RADAR STATION. From site list with letter. Isle of Portland. East Cliff. Recorder- R. Perry. <1-3>

A Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low Station located at East Cliff (SY 703 719), called site M72. Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low (CD/CHL) radar stations were operated by the British Army to detect shipping and aircraft. CD/CHL sites opened from 1941 and comprised a brick or concrete operations block with an aerial gantry mounted on the roof and a separate standby set house for the reserve power. Staff were billeted where possible, but some stations had a small layout of domestic hutting situated within one mile of the site. <4>

Aerial photography from 1996 shows an operations block and a second building located near the cliff edge. <5>

Military building (wartime?), single storey, brick, with flat concrete roof. A smaller concrete building is just NE. Probably WWII. Function uncertain. Close to edge of Broadcroft Quarry. Used as stable in 2007. <6>

The building and a second one immediately to the north are visible as structures on aerial photographs of the 1940s <7> and recent aerial imagery <8> on the coast to the south of Grove Point. The buildings are of uncertain function but may have been associated with coastal defences. This site was digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

<1> Council for British Archaeology, 1995, Defence of Britain Project (Digital archive). SWX5.

<2> Council for British Archaeology, 2003, Defence of Britain Project Database (Machine readable data file). SDO128.

<3> Council for British Archaeology, 2006, Defence of Britain Project Archive DEB01 (Excavation archive). SDO17227.

<4> Dobinson, C S, 1996, Twentieth century fortifications in England, volume 7. Acoustics and Radar: England's early warning systems 1915-45, 168 (Monograph). SDO12579.

<5> Anderton, Michael J, 2000, Twentieth century military recording project: World War Two radar stations, 63 (Unpublished document). SDO18992.

<6> Stanier, P, 2007, Field observation (Verbal communication). SDO10278.

<7> Royal Air Force, 25-SEP-1945, RAF 106G/UK/842 5059-60 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13043.

<8> Channel Coastal Observatory, 20-JUL-2008, CCO Aerial Photographic Coverage 2008 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12674.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1413232 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 8 2023 2:06PM