RAF Bawdsey

Bawdsey Manor stands at a prominent position at the mouth of the River Deben close to the village of Bawdsey in Suffolk, England, about 75 miles (120 km) north-east of London. Built in 1886, it was enlarged in 1895 as the principal residence of Sir William Cuthbert Quilter. Requisitioned by the Devonshire Regiment during World War I and having been returned to the Quilter family after the war, it was purchased by the Air Ministry for £24,000 in 1936 to establish a new research station for developing the Chain Home RDF (radar) system. RAF Bawdsey was a base through the Cold War until the 1990s. The manor is now used by PGL for courses and children's holidays. There is a small museum in the radar transmitter block.

Felixstowe Ferry is a hamlet in Suffolk, England, approximately two miles northeast of Felixstowe at the mouth of the River Deben with a ferry to the Bawdsey peninsula. Two Martello towers dominate the sea front. The Felixstowe Ferry Millennium Green Trust was set up in 2001 to save an area of land from building development and put it to use as a community open space for recreational use. The land became known as the Millennium Green.

The River Deben is a river in Suffolk rising to the west of Debenham, though a second, higher source runs south from the parish of Bedingfield. The river passes through Woodbridge, turning into a tidal estuary before entering the North Sea at Felixstowe Ferry. The mouth of the estuary is crossed by a ferry connecting Felixstowe and Bawdsey.

Bawdsey Cliff is a 17.4-hectare (43-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Felixstowe in Suffolk. It is a Geological Conservation Review site, and is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.This two kilometre long section provides the largest exposure of the Early Pleistocene Red Crag Formation, and it is rich in fossils of marine molluscs. It is described by Natural England as having great potential for the study of non-glacial Pleistocene environments.The site is in the publicly accessible Bawdsey Beach.

The Red Crag Formation is a geological formation in England. It outcrops in south-eastern Suffolk and north-eastern Essex. The name derives from its iron-stained reddish colour and crag which is an East Anglian word for shells. It is part of the Crag Group, a series of notably marine strata which belong to a period when Britain was connected to continental Europe by the Weald–Artois Anticline, and the area in which the Crag Group was deposited was a tidally dominated marine bay. This bay would have been subjected to enlargement and contraction brought about by transgressions and regressions driven by the 40,000-year Milankovitch cycles. The sediment in the outcrops mainly consists of coarse-grained and shelly sands that were deposited in sand waves (megaripples) that migrated parallel to the shore in a south-westward direction. The most common fossils are bivalves and gastropods that were often worn by the abrasive environment. The most extensive exposure is found at Bawdsey Cliff, which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI); here a width of around 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of Crag is exposed. At the coastline by Walton-on-the-Naze, remains of megalodon were found.The Red Crag Formation at depth in eastern Suffolk clearly has one member, the Sizewell Member, a coarse shelly sand with thin beds of clay and silt. It was interpreted as having been deposited in large scale sand waves where the sea bed was deeper. The overlying Thorpeness Member, was provisionally assigned to the Red Crag based on its lithology but there is more evidence to suggest that it is part of the Norwich Crag Formation. It has been proposed that the Red Crag started in the late Pliocene and to have possibly extended up into the early Pleistocene, but there is disagreement on more precise dating. According to the British Geological Survey, the Red Crag sits within a segment of time from about 3.3 to 2.5 mya. It is considered that the Red Crag at Walton-on-the–Naze is the oldest and that it was deposited in only a few decades at some time between 2.9 and 2.6 mya. This has led to the UK stratigraphic stage name Waltonian, which is usually correlated with the final Pliocene Reuverian Stage in the Netherlands. There are difficulties in reconciling how the Red Crag equates with international chronological stages. In particular, the start and end dates are poorly defined due to the general paucity of age-diagnostic stratigraphic indicators and the fragmentary nature of the geology. It can also be difficult to separate the Red Crag from the overlying Norwich Crag Formation.

Bawdsey is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, eastern England. Located on the other side of the river Deben from Felixstowe, it had an estimated population of 340 in 2007, reducing to 276 at the Census 2011. Bawdsey Manor is notable as the place where radar research took place early in World War II, before moving to Worth Matravers near Swanage in May 1940, and from there to Malvern, Worcestershire in 1942. Bawdsey had both Chain Home and Chain Home Low early warning radar stations during World War II. The World War Two defences constructed around Bawdsey Point have been documented. They included a number of pillboxes, landmines and flame fougasse installations. The beaches were protected with extensive barriers of scaffolding.

The Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club is in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England.

Walton Castle was a Saxon Shore Fort in the Roman province of Britannia. The fort was reused by the Normans who used it as the bailey for a castle. It stood 30 metres above sea level but was destroyed by coastal erosion in the 18th century. It was located in the village of Walton, Suffolk, now part of Felixstowe (grid reference TM32253580).

Alderton is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, about six miles north of Felixstowe, 10 miles south-east of Woodbridge and 2 miles south of Hollesley, on the North Sea coast and in the heart of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In 2007 its population was 430, reducing to 423 at the 2011 Census.

Brackenbury Battery was a small coastal artillery fort located just north of Felixstowe, England,and initially known as Felixstowe Battery. It opened in October 1915 to provide fire northward from the Haven ports, replacing a battery of 10-inch guns that had previously covered this area. With their removal, only a single 10-inch gun in Landguard Fort could fire in that direction, and Brackenbury was built to address this problem. Brackenbury Battery was equipped with two of the newest 9.2-inch Mk IX guns, making it the most powerfully armed battery on the east coast at that time. The gun's carriages were set in concrete with shelters below, then surrounded by an earthen rampart and ditch. The guns were upgraded to Mk. X versions in 1929-1930. Trenches and strongpoints were added around the battery on the outbreak of World War II, and in 1941 two searchlights were placed on the beach to give the battery night fighting capability. The Battery had a role in the development of radar when, in July 1939, the guns were being test fired right as researchers at Bawdsey Manor, about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north, were testing a new surface-scanning radar. The splashes of the shells produced strong returns on the radar displays, allowing the team to measure the distance and bearing of the fall of shot. This led to the development of Coast Artillery radar, and more generally the use of radar to guide naval gunfire. During WWII, the battery was manned by the 176 Battery of Suffolk Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery (Territorial Army), and later, 278 Battery of 515 Coast Regiment. It was put into care and maintenance in 1944, and formally stood down in 1952. The site was later redeveloped as a housing estate, and the area is now a greenspace. No sign of the battery remains.

Felixstowe International College is an independent school founded in 1995 in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England.

Felixstowe College was a girls' independent school, located in Felixstowe, Suffolk. It was established in 1929 and closed in 1994. In 1995, a different school called Felixstowe International College was founded on part of the site of Felixstowe College. Other former boarding houses, playing fields and the main school site were sold off for private housing. Julie Welch's memoir Too Marvellous for Words covers her time spent at this school in the 1960s.