This page details booklets and other material available from the Purbeck Radar Museum Trust.  Currently the three booklets and brochure are available for purchase by visitors to the the Swanage Museum & Heritage Centre - which also hosts a small radar exhibition (limited opening in winter months).  

Some publications are also available from other places including: the Swanage bookshop, the CoastWatch Station at St Aldhelm's Head and by mail order ~ see the bottom of this page for details.  To request items by post - please e-mail the Trust from the contact page.  Sale of booklets help fund this website, radar exhibition and reference library - but donations are always welcome!!

  
 

  
DVD - Echoes of the Past 
The story of Top Secret work on RADAR carried out in Purbeck 70 years ago during World War II.  
  
Echoes of the Past - DVD front

In this DVD, Dr Bill Penley, CB, CBE, one of our most distinguished engineers and a veteran of Worth Matravers, and Dr Phil Judkins, a radar historian, describe in non-technical language the top secret wartime work done at Worth. The DVD starts with the background of how TRE (the Telecommunications Research Establishment) came to Worth in the first place, and the reasons for its eventual sudden demise with most of the top scientists being ordered out to a safer place "before the next full moon".

This is a fascinating story brought to life by rare original pictures from 70 years ago, together with exciting works of art, and visits to all the radar sites in the Purbeck area of South Dorset including St Aldhelm's Head, Leeson House, Brandy Bay, Tilly Whim and Durlston, Acton, Peveril Point, and many more.

Cameraman, Editor and Director for Echoes of the Past, John Hale, whose idea for making the DVD was conceived after hearing one of Dr Bill Penley's talks, has had a lifetime of working on a wide variety of television programmes, mostly for the BBC in London.  He has had three BAFTA nominations and has, since retirement to Dorset in 2001, made other notable DVDs locally including The Traditional Crafts of Dorset and Lawrence of Arabia - His Final Years in Dorset.  Greenacre AV Productions www.greenacre.info .

Publisher: Purbeck Radar Museum Trust & Greenacre AV Productions
64 mins, PAL colour
Price:  £12.99

  

  
Secret War in Purbeck - cover Secret War in Purbeck
by:  Jonathan Penley & Dr Bill Penley CB CBE

Publisher: Purbeck Radar Museum Trust
Published July 2008, Revised Nov 2008

38 pages (6 in colour).
Two formats: A4 and A5 (identical except size).
Prices:
    A4 - £9.00
    A5 - £6.00

  
This booklet outlines the story of the top secret radar development which went on in Purbeck, Dorset, from 1940 to 1942 during World War II.  This  non-technical booklet features:
    Photographs of the people and radar sites - many previously unpublished,
    Biographic notes of the top scientists and their stunning achievements,
    Key innovations which tipped the balance of the war,
    Why Purbeck? - why the work came to Purbeck and why it moved away,
    The legacy of technology shaping future industries and research.
  

  
Dorset's Radar Days - The British Radar Story 1935 - 1945
by:  Dr Bill Penley and Reg Batt

This booklet tells the story of early radar development in the UK from the Daventry experiment in 1935 to after the D-Day invasion.  It focuses on the period from May 1940 - May 1942 when radar development was centred at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in Purbeck, Dorset.  Both of the authors worked at TRE during that period, and the most significant developments were probably made then.  The booklet was originally compiled to accompany the Purbeck Radar Museum Trust's 1994 D-Day anniversary exhibition at Swanage Town Hall.

Publisher: Purbeck Radar Museum Trust
First edition 1994;  Second edition  1996;  Third edition 1997; Fourth edition 2006
ISSN 1367-8590
24 pages A5
Price:  £2.40

  

  
With Radar to Final Victory VE-Day Commemorative Issue
by: Dr Bill Penley and Reg Batt
Guest contributors: Sir Bernard Lovell, Sq Ldr Frank Hayward

This booklet continues the radar story started in "Dorset's Radar Days" to the end of World War II and beyond (including a short resumé of the story before that).  After D-Day mobile radar units were designed by TRE and deployed in Europe and the Middle East.  Following the war, the technological advancements spawned by radar and the Enigma code breaking at Bletchley Park went on to form the basis of the electronics industry we take for granted today: Air Traffic Control, blind landing aids, radio astronomy, terrestrial and satellite communications,... and microwave ovens!!  Crystal diodes used in centimetric radar receivers were a step on the path to the development of the transistor and, Geoffrey Dummer, instigator of the radar Plan Position Indicator, went on to pioneer integrated circuits with multiple transistors on a single semiconductor chip.

Publisher:  Purbeck Radar Museum Trust  1996
40 pages A5
Price:  £2.50

  

  
Radar Development in Purbeck, Dorset 1940 - 1942
Publisher: Purbeck Radar Museum Trust  2006

This brochure gives a brief but insightful outline of early radar development in the UK.  What started as one scientist's concern about air defence, ended up being key to the success of the UK and its allies in World War II.  There is a fold out map showing the radar development sites in Purbeck, Dorset from May 1940 - May 1942 with a narrative which summarises key activities at that time.  The brochure also includes photographs giving a snapshot of the radar sites and masts.  While only one building still stands today, the story and technological advances live on...

Publisher: Purbeck Radar Museum Trust  2006
Suitable for a younger audience: ~12 years or older.
A3 folded, double sided colour
Price:  £1
(bulk reduction negotiable for resale)

  

  
Penley Radar Archives - CD-ROM

In the 1990s Dr Bill Penley, one of the wartime radar researchers, wrote to a number of wartime colleagues asking for their personal reminiscences, photographs etc. relating to that period.  His aim was to preserve some record of that significant time for the benefit of future researchers.  He encountered difficulties in finding a suitable home to preserve these records, while at the same time making them accessible for study.  He has therefore scanned some of the records and saved them to CD-ROM.  An index of the scanned documents (plus some introductory material) is available on the Penley Radar Archives website: www.penleyradararchives.org.uk .

CD-ROM
Available from the Purbeck Radar Museum Trust by donation - suggested donation: £20
For more information please e-mail the Trust via the contact page

  

  

Availability of Publications at Various Outlets

  
  Secret War in Purbeck A4 & A5 booklets 
A4 £9 & A5 £6
Dorset's Radar Days
A5 booklet £2.40
With Radar to Final Victory
A5 booklet £2.50
Radar Development in Purbeck
A3 brochure £1
Swanage Museum & Heritage Centre,  The Square, Swanage, Dorset BH19 2LJ  UK    (on the seafront, near the quay)
New and Second Hand Books 
35 Station Road, Swanage, 
Dorset  BH19 1AD
www.editionone.co.uk
 
CoastWatch, St Aldhelm's Head
www.nci-st-albans.org.uk
   
Mail order ~ To request items by post - please e-mail the Trust from the contact page.
  
 

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