South of Braintree, Essex

I was trying to locate the site of the 80 Wing Jamming Station, Braintree; it was also Splasher 7.

One source said; 'The Splasher was located at Harwick some 10 to 15 miles north of Chelmsford'

That will be the Braintree beacon, but Harwick doesn't exist and I can't find anything like it.

Another report mentions; '... the CO of the wireless station in Queenborough Lane...' which could be a clue.

However I did find this interesting site at Queenborough / Great Notley / Beddall's End and wondered what it had been.

That was the former USAAF Hospital Graham,

/community/showthread.php?2756-US-Hospital-Memorial-Black-Notley-Essex&highlight=Notley

And

/community/showthread.php?2071-US-Hospitals-in-the-UK-(AAF-Use)&p=20659&viewfull=1#post20659

Cheers, Rich

Thanks Rich.

What threw me completely is that just a few miles to the south east is Black Notley Hospital , which on the same map looks like a hospital! I believe that this hospital wasn't used by the military.

Have noticed before that OS were (are?) very inconsistent with their symbols, sometimes drawing a large block to represent a number of structures, and sometimes drawing them individually.

Great - problem solved - now where was that RAF beacon site !

Carnaby;148881 wrote:

I was trying to locate the site of the 80 Wing Jamming Station, Braintree; it was also Splasher 7.

One source said; 'The Splasher was located at Harwick some 10 to 15 miles north of Chelmsford'

Lat-Longs for the Braintree splasher are given on the Nav's flimsy attached in my post HERE .

Hope that's of some use Graham.

PB

Black Notley hospital went years ago, now another housing estate.
There's a building north of Braintree on the halstead road which I always thought was the splasher beacon. It's in the grounds of the local crematorium !

The co-ords from Paul's flimsy are centred HERE . They are only quoted to the nearest 30 secs, so I tried + / - 15 secs on the lat and long which still puts the site in the south of the town. It's also nowhere near my original suspicion!

I've looked at some of the other co-ords in that list - three were correct (ish). One is definitely incorrect and the one for Ledbury shows a site 9 miles outside Ledbury which I think is dubious.

Will continue investigating. There certainly is some interesting stuff around that crematorium LINK (Look in street view)

A 2500 scale 1953 OS map indicates 'camp' on the site that is roadside of the crematorium and pictures rows of spaced buidings (huts?)

After looking closer at PoW connections the site at NGR TL781274 list listed as High Garrett Camp and German Working Camp of standard construction. Site occupied by wireless mast

wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=5...grat=None&rgrat=None

Thanks for info on crem, always wondered what that place was.
According to my calculation and 1/2 mil air chart the lat & long for Braintree splasher would put it pretty close to town centre!

The radio mast at High Garrett was a post-war microwave repeater station for US Air Force signals to/from RAF Wethersfield, and had an onsite staff. Plenty more information, including a site plan, via this link .

The mast is still there, and carries emergency services radio traffic among others. I recall a similar USAF set-up at Venus Hill, near Bovingdon airfield, in the mid-1960s.

High Garrett's camp's concrete latrines/washhouses were still standing up till about ten years ago; the water tower is still there, next to the main A131 road.