Report - QinetiQ Malvern, Worcestershire, April 2019

[A man called Martyn]

During World War II, the UK's Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) was moved to Malvern College in Great Malvern so that it could continue its work to develop range and direction finding technology using radio frequency electromagnetic energy. The result was the invention of radar by Robert Watson-Watt and his team as a defence system enabling the Royal Air Force and its allies to detect incoming German aircraft. Since then, radar has become a common term in the English Language (rather than the acronym RADAR) and has been used more widely for military, air traffic control, surveillance, meteorology, and astronomy.
Geoffrey Dummer, the engineer who is credited to have first conceptualised the integrated circuit also worked at Malvern. He stated at a scientific conference in the US in 1952, "With the advent of the transistor and the work on semi-conductors generally, it now seems possible to envisage electronic equipment in a solid block with no connecting wires. The block may consist of layers of insulating, conducting, rectifying and amplifying materials, the electronic functions being connected directly by cutting out areas of the various layers."
Great Malvern since became synonymous with advanced research and development in the fields of electronics, telecommunications and military systems. The TRE moved to a permanent site in Malvern after the war, and in 1953 it merged with the Army Radar Establishment to form the Radar Research Establishment (RRE), later the Royal Radar Establishment after a visit from the Queen in 1957. In 1976 this was merged with the Signals Research and Development Establishment to form the Royal Signal and Radar Establishment (RSRE).
Employing a large number of highly qualified scientists working in a high security military environment, the Malvern site grew in importance giving the town one of the highest density of PhDs in the UK. The Ministry of Defence's site went on to be known as DRA (Defence Research Agency) Malvern, DERA (Defence and Evaluation Research Agency) Malvern, and then in 2000 it was renamed Qinetiq as it became privatized.
Its research programmes included flight simulation, display technology (including cathode ray tube work and the invention of the materials for the now ubiquitous Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)), materials science including crystal growth and the invention of porous silicon, semiconductor electronics, security systems and electromagnetic physics. It is also generally accepted that the touch screen was invented in Malvern by E.A. Johnson around 1965 when he was working on a display for air traffic control systems.

D Building

H Building

Information is Quoted from the Historic Environment Record for H building

Historic Environment Record for H BUILDING, Malvern, UK
The building, having military purposes and designated locally as H building, sits on a former Government Research site in Malvern, Worcestershire at Grid Ref SO 786 447. This site was the home of the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) from 1946. It has been owned by QinetiQ since 2001 and is in the process (October 2017 to February 2018) of being sold for redevelopment.
This unique building has at its heart a ‘Rotor’ bunker with attached buildings to house radar screens and operators as well as plant such as emergency generators. Twenty nine Rotor operational underground bunkers were built in great urgency around Britain to modernise the national air defence network, following the Soviet nuclear test in 1949. Two factors make H building’s construction and purpose unique; this prototype is the only Rotor bunker built above ground and it was the home to National Air Defence government research for 30 years.This example of a ROTOR bunker is unique instead of being buried, it was built above ground to save time and expense, as it was not required to be below ground for its research purpose.
H Building was the prototype version of the Rotor project R4 Sector Operations Centre air defence bunkers. Construction began in August 1952 with great urgency - work went on 24 hours a day under arc lights. The main bunker is constructed from cross bonded engineering bricks to
form walls more than 2 feet thick in a rectangle approximately 65ft x 50ft. The two internal floors are suspended from the ceiling. The original surrounding buildings comprise, two radar control and operator rooms, offices and machine plant.

The building was generally in good order and complete. The internal layout of the bunker remains as originally designed. The internal surfaces and services have been maintained and modernised over the 55 years since its construction. The first floor has been closed over.
There are some later external building additions around the periphery to provide additional accommodation.
In parts of the building the suspended floor remains, with 1950s vintage fittings beneath such as patch panels and ventilation ducts.
The building has been empty since the Defence Science & Technology Laboratories [Dstl] moved out in October 2008

As lead for radar research, RRE was responsible for the design of both the replacement radars for the Chain Home radars and the command and control systems for UK National Air Defence.
Project Rotor was based around the Type 80 radar and Type 13 height finder. The first prototype type 80 was built at Malvern in 1953 code named Green Garlic. Live radar feeds against aircraft sorties, were fed into the building to carry out trials of new methods plotting and reporting air activity

A major upgrade of the UK radar network was planned in the late 1950s – Project ‘Linesman’ (military) / ‘Mediator’ (civil) – based around Type 84 / 85 primary radars and the HF200 height finder. A prototype type 85 radar (Blue Yeoman) was built adjacent to H Building in 1959. live radar returns were piped into H Building.
Subsequently a scheme to combine the military and civil radar networks was proposed. The building supported the research for the fully computerised air defence scheme known as Linesman, developed in the 1960s, and a more integrated and flexible system (United Kingdom Air Defence Ground Environment or UKADGE) in the 1970s.
The building was then used for various research purposes until the government relinquished the main site to QinetiQ in 2001. Government scientists continued to use the building until 2008. Throughout its life access was strictly controlled by a dedicated pass sytem.
Notable civil spin-offs from the research in this building include the invention of touch screens and the whole UK Civil Air Traffic Control system which set the standard for Europe.

Chronology

1952 - Construction work is begun. The layout of the bunker area duplicates the underground version built at RAF Bawburgh.

1953 - Construction work is largely completed.

1954 - The building is equipped and ready for experiments.

1956-1958 - Addition of 2nd storey to offices

1957-1960 - Experiments of automatic tracking, novel plot projection systems and data management and communications systems tested.

1960-1970 - Project Linesman Mediator experiments carried out including a novel display technique known as a Touch screen ( A World First)

1980-1990 - During this period experiments are moved to another building and H building is underused.

1990-1993 - The building was re-purposed

2008- The bunker was used until late 2008 for classified research / Joint intelligence centre

2020 - The building was demolished

H Building - Interior of what was Originally the R4 SOC

H Building

[
H Building

M Building

A Building

BYSON Building - Display Room

SPEL Building - Stepper for Microchip Pattening

M Building - Crystal Puller

M Building

M Building

M Building

NELSON Building

N and NX Buildings

Boiler House

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Nice bit of industrial there

 

[n4gray]

is this site still classed as a mod? like are you gonna get arrested if your caught exploring it

 

[mookster]

is this site still classed as a mod? like are you gonna get arrested if your caught exploring it

It was demolished a couple of years ago

 

[mw0sec]

I had occasion to visit there while working for DERA. Knowing that an old friend was still at work there, I visited him in his office, which was in one of those mazes similar to 'H'. Afterwards, I asked for the quickest route back to the main entrance, but got lost and ended up being challenged after waltzing in to a 'sensitive' area. A few questions and a close look at my badge...

 

[captainweird]

I used to visit to repair a device used to make semiconducters back in the 80’s. It was so secure that two different groups were working on the same thing but only found out when they both ordered identicaL, very expensive, materials.
they invented the thermal imaging camera and the basis of many LED devices there.

 

[Kidney]

I had occasion to visit there while working for DERA. Knowing that an old friend was still at work there, I visited him in his office, which was in one of those mazes similar to 'H'. Afterwards, I asked for the quickest route back to the main entrance, but got lost and ended up being challenged after waltzing in to a 'sensitive' area. A few questions and a close look at my badge...

Ah I've just left DERAs successor Dstl after 13 years.

 

[mw0sec]

I used to be based at Winfrith, but managed to find an excuse to visit all the interesting sites. Got out just as privatisation loomed.

Ah I've just left DERAs successor Dstl after 13 years.