The former ROTOR site as it is today.

- Post Script -

The author prefers to remember the site as it was in 1957, but popular request has persuaded him to display a few photographs of how the exterior appears today. Even if access could be made, to show pictures of the underground premises in their current state, i.e. of dismal dank concrete and littered with the debris from the short and somewhat unduly optimistic County Council tenancy - it was conventional bomb-proof, not nuclear or totally radiation proof - would be entirely contrary to the intention of this website, which is to portray the scene as it was, with cheerful young men in blue uniform carrying out with quiet efficiency in well lit and comfortable surroundings, an important and worthwhile job in helping to secure the safety of their country. A concept which for the most part, many young men of the current generation are unlikely to appreciate and very likely might well deride. Rumours persist in the Island that the bunker is an "underground village, many floors deep". Well, sorry folks, that just ain't the case, ( you need an R3 bunker for that), it is exactly as I have described apart from the Council modifications, as has been confirmed by an intrepid but faceless band who have announced to the world on two websites their trespass by penetrating its depths a couple of years ago. However, the Isle of Wight Council seems to have taken note of their claims as their website now states that the access point has been permanently resealed.
( Click on a picture for an enlargement and use 'Back' to return here. )

First, just to show the elevated terrain here is an old wartime 'plinth' building which may have supported a now unidentifible type of radar. It is situated outside the wired-in compound and the photo serves to show the location of one of the distant VHF towers on Stenbury Down and the surrounding typical Isle of Wight countryside.

Facing the above view, just across the narrow road there is a Civil Aviation Authority building within the old compound. Pictures of such premises are not permitted to be displayed but you are missing very little as there have been no rotating radars present for many years.

Just inside the tall double gates, immediately on the left stood the 'bungalow' guardroom, to the rear of which was the spiral staircase down to 'The Hole'. The bungalow was demolished in 1991 and this thick concrete slab now covers the underground access. But since this photo was taken the slab and the bungalow foundation have been covered with chalky earth and there is no evidence at all that an underground R1 bunker ever existed. The ventilation / emergency egress tower has been removed and presumably similarly sealed and interred.

However the Type 80 Modulator Room still remains, possibly due to its reinforced construction. The author spent many tedious long evenings or nights entombed in here. The larger left hand section of this building is the part which was straddled by the legs supporting the platform for the rotating aerial as shown in pictures in the Type 80 description. The section with the louvred shutter housed the motor / alternator set.

The wartime T Block and its associated steel transmitter masts stood near to the building in the above photograph but R Block with its wooden towers was situated a couple of hundred yards away at the south western end of the St.Boniface site. Below you can see the massive concrete block footings for one of these and the shell of R Block is close by.

R Block is surrounded by massive anti-blast earthen banks and the entrances protected by concrete walls.

Together with the first picture, this view of the town speaks for itself in describing the heavenly situation of the top-site.

Post postscript: On visiting St. Boniface 08.09.05 it was found that within the last year the main site had been further sub-divided by an additional wire fence which runs south from behind the former bungalow area near the main gate, parallel with and fairly close to the eastern wall of the existing building, then turns west behind it and turns a right angle again to return to the front fence. Thus the greater proportion of the former site is now a flattened U shaped area surrounding the much smaller presently used portion, access to which is via a new pair of tall gates and a scraped roadway, which is the whiter line on the Google picture immediately to the west of the used section. In July 2006 work was in progress on dismantling an existing 27 metre tower which was to be replaced by a 35 metre one. There is now little indication of the position of the old bungalow guardroom, although this most excellent Google Earth picture shows some scarring of the ground to the right of the grey car parking area immediately inside the main gates. The Type 80 modulator room is to the east immediately below the round building and R Block is the grey angled rectangle on the western edge.

A few weeks afterwards the reason for the partitioning off of the used compound became clear. The old CH part of the site was sold by auction on the 11th.October by The Allsop Company for £61000 on behalf of site owners BT to persons as yet to be revealed. Details were available from www.allsop.co.uk
Perhaps the remaining larger eastern section has already been sold or is due to be sold later?

The Isle of Wight County Press reported on the 14th.October 2005 that the auctioneer stated that the amount of interest had been surprising in view of the planning restrictions on the site. He expected that the new owner would maintain the site and wait for a change in planning policy. The site is outside the development envelope and is adjacent to a designated site of special scientific interest. In addition it is within an area of outstanding natural beauty and a designated site of importance for nature conservancy. The IW Council Planning team leader had told enquirers prior to the auction that it was highly unlikely the plot could be used for a residential development. A local environmental campaigner Dr. Paul Hatchwell called on the IW Council to make further designations to ensure the site's historical importance was maintained.
News 03.10.06

On visiting the R Block it was found to have been fitted with a new double bolted and padlocked plywood door. However vandalism was evident in that an original external side door which had at sometime in the past been sealed with building blocks, now has a gaping hole in it. This gives access to a small tiled room in a rear corner of the block. Could it have been a battery room for emergency lighting?

News at 08.10.08 This is the current state of conversion for whatever purpose:-

All four of the eighteen inch thick walls have been pierced for narrow horizontal windows. Also the (probably only surviving one in the whole world) Power Distribution Cabinet has been ripped out. The roof has or will be made watertight and to that end the 'bomb-proof' gravel trap has been removed from the roof. So it seems that apart from the windows (glass brick possibly?) R Block will remain externally much as it ever was, and if so will be as satisfactory an outcome as could be hoped for.
However the slow progress of the conversion is mystifying, especially as no progress was made at all neither during the winter of 2007/2008 nor during the summer of 2009, so this prompts ever increasing conjecture about planning objections and / or the financial resources of the new owner. The latest vandal attack has resulted in the plywood door (shown above) and its frame being ripped out and the VEB room has had the hasp prized off again.
The sad story continues: on inspecting R Block on the 2nd. of March 2009, the interior walls were found to be covered with graffitti which I certainly do not intend to display here. On 29.09.09 a slight improvement was to be seen. Most of the graffiti has been removed or covered with whitewash and the rubbish filled cable pits covered with hardboard. Has the place been visited by an alternative band of intruders wishing to use it for an alternative purpose (dossing) or has the owner woken up at last? Also the wooden door has been replaced into position and the thrown down coping stones have been removed from the exterior walkway. It is now obvious which room was the toilet and Harold Lewis has identified the Calculator room. A subsequent inspection in October 2010 by the pair of us showed that this state is now the status quo. A contact reports that "raves" are held there.
A subsequent visit in April 2011 was somewhat thwarted by this notice fixed to the chain link fence. It seems that the ravers may have over-raved to their own disadvantage.
Our most recent visit was in October 2011. The police warning notices had been removed. The interior graffitti seemed somewhat increased and broken glass crunched underfoot.

This is the Lowtherville domestic site shown in the process of being demolished......
...... and Google Earth shows us what the Lowtherville Road domestic site looks like now. Most of it has been taken over for housing while the few remaining huts have been conjoined to facilitate their present industrial use. You might like to compare this with the former layout, using the Guard Room as a common reference point.

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