1940 The first CHL radar station was installed in early 1940 a few hundred feet from the lighthouse at Flamborough Head. This was at an elevation of 130 feet (40 m); at this height performance proved to be very unsatisfactory. A new higher site was found four miles up the coast on the 350 feet (110 m) cliffs at Bempton.[1]
The new site was opened in July 1940 as RAF Bempton. It was a CHL station.[2]
On 1 November 1951 it was renamed as 146 Signals Unit Bempton rebuilt as a Centimetric Early Warning (CEW) radar station, part of the ROTOR Programme.
The 146 Signals Unit was disbanded on 1 December 1961
Bempton became a satellite station of RAF Patrington until its final closure in April 1972.
The site was also used for a secret High Speed Passive Array RADAR codenamed 'Winkle'.[4][5] The distinctive Y-shaped concrete stanchions on the cliff edge are indicative of Winkle.[6]
Current use
The site was sold in 1980/81. The stairs down to the bunker were removed and other entrances were sealed over with concrete.[1]
In 2010, a teenager from Hull went missing after his car was found abandoned by Bempton Cliffs. Police conducted a search for a missing person around the cliff area and inside the former bunker as the teenager had been given a memory stick detailing the pornographic artwork that a cult had painted on the walls of the bunker.[7]
Despite the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service later searching the area again for a body, no trace of Russell Bohling has been found.[8]
References
^ ab"Airfields". Hull & East Riding at war. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
