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Craster radar station

former Royal Air Force radar site in Northumberland, England, UK

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ123892283 ↗
Source-derived summary

Craster radar station (also known as RAF Craster), was a Chain Home Low (later a Chain Home Extra Low) Second World War radar site at Craster in Northumberland, England. The radar site is north of the village of Craster on an escarpment overlooking the North Sea. The site was opened by early 1942 and was staffed initially by the British Army, but later came under the control of No. 73 Wing of the Royal Air Force, part of No. 60 Group. It closed in 1944 and was later used as a PoW camp.

History

At the time of the Munich crisis in October 1938, Britain had eleven radar sites, which were mostly located on the eastern coast. The concern over the rise of Nazi Germany prompted a wider development of the radar system. The site at Craster was built in 1941 and opened in April 1942 under the auspices of the British Army's chain of radar stations, operating as a Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low station (CD/CHL). It was built on an escarpment some 150 metres (490 ft) from the shoreline and 50 metres (160 ft) above sea level.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Craster radar station” is former Royal Air Force radar site in Northumberland, England, UK. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Craster, radar and station, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 1944, 1938, 1941—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Craster, radar and station is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “former Royal Air Force radar site in Northumberland, England, UK” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q123892283. Authority coordinates are 55.476, -1.598. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1944, 1938 and 1941.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Craster radar station primary sources, Craster radar station archive and Craster research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Craster radar station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.