The RAF Air Defence Radar Museum Horning Norwich
The RAF Air Defence Radar Museum is an award winning, volunteer run, visitor attraction which presents an enjoyable and informative day out for the family. The museum is housed in the original Grade II listed 1942 radar operations building. The RAF Defence Radar Museum provides an insight into the history of radar covering the period of WWII to the Cold War. In addition to the exhibition spaces, The Museum offers the enthusiastic visitor a wide range of facilities.
Wonderful RAF Museum at RAF Neatishead
The museum has twenty-five exhibition rooms and over 10,000 display items. We suggest that you allow yourself between 2-3 hours to see our entire collection and attend our 2 presentation talks otherwise you will miss out. The RAF Air Defence Radar Museum is located at Neatishead, which is very close to Horning/Wroxham and the Broads and is a Visit England Quality Assured Visitor Attraction.
Admission Ticket Prices are: Adults – £12.00 – Over 65s – £10.00 Students – £6.00 – Children (6yrs – 16yrs) – £6.00 Family Ticket (2 Adults and up to 3 children) £30. Under 6’s Free
RAF Air Defence Radfar Museum Facilities
Museum Room Guide
RAF Air Defence Radar Museum History
World War IIIn 1941, the Air Ministry surveyed a piece of land not far from the Broads at Horning in Norfolk with a view to establishing a site to host a brand new Air Defence station, a Ground Control Intercept station to be exact, from where Fighter Controllers, backed up by a wide range of support staff, could direct RAF fighters, day or night, to attack enemy aircraft from Germany as they launched raids against Military and Industrial targets in Norfolk as well as against the City of Norwich itself.
In September 1941, two years into the Second World War, the first Secret radar system was installed at the new Radar Station of RAF Neatishead. Initially, the complement of forty airmen and airwomen was billeted at a local village and training began in this radical early warning system. At first, the station was home to temporary mobile Radars but it was soon to boast new, improved fixed Radar systems such as the Type 7 Search Radar and Type 13 Height-finding Radars. The hardened Control Room, the “Happidrome” was built and it is this very building which, today, forms part of the Museum.
The Cold War Era. At the end of World War II in 1945 the world entered seamlessly into a new conflict that was to last 45 years – the ‘Cold War’. As the defences for the United Kingdom were reorganised with fewer but more advanced radars to meet the new Soviet air threat, RAF Neatishead continued to play an increasingly important role in the nation’s air defence. In 1953, as part of the upgraded ‘ROTOR’ system, operations were relocated from the wartime ‘Happidrome’ building to a new three storey bunker, deep underground, designed to withstand a nuclear attack.
The bunker was destroyed by fire in 1966 and for 8 years Neatishead took on a limited operational role and became a trials unit for the next generation of search radars, the Type 84 & 85.In 1974 Neatishead once again became fully operational as a Sector Operations Centre (SOC) and as a Control & Reporting Centre (CRC). Operating from the old ‘Happidrome’ building, but with a new standalone computerised command and control system (Standby Local Early Warning & Control System) the unit became a key element of the UK Air Defence Ground Environment. CRC Neatishead task was to track and identify all aircraft within the southern sector of the UK and to conduct the NATO air policing of the airspace.
Neatishead sister station, RAF Buchan, Aberdeenshire, was similarly tasked to cover the northern section of the UK. Both units were supported by remote radars in the Hebrides, the Shetlands, in Cornwall and North Yorkshire and by CRC Boulmer, Northumberland. Together all units helped protect the UK from a Soviet air threat up until the end of the ‘Cold War’ in 1991
Museum Support
Whether your local or visiting beautiful Norfolk you are sure to have a great family day out. We hope to see you soon.