Monument record MHG47793 - Bower, Composite Signals Organisation (c.s.o.s.), Administration No.3 Site

NMRS Report: (17/11/2004)
ND26SW 61.02 23651 62960

Bower Signals Station site No.3 which incorporated the administration block and Wren's quarters. This site formed part of the original Admiralty Wireless Intercept 'Y' Station used to intercept U-Boat transmissions during WWII.
The Wren's quarters are still extant on the S side of the road as is the security fence around the administration block. The administration block has been cleared of military equipment and redeveloped and the site is now in use for a building and joinery business.
The station was taken over by GCHQ during 1967 and closed in 1978.
The administration block and Wren's quarters are visible on RAF vertical air photographs (106G/Scot/UK 75, 4408-4409, flown 9 May 1946).
Information from Defence of Briatin Project form (Mr A Gutteridge), 1986 and 1999 and RCAHMS (DE), November 2004 <1>

Some photographs of the buildings of this complex were forwarded to the HER, by Martin Briscoe, in September 2010.
It was suggested by someone locally that the chainlink fence on the South East side of the modern building company could be original. <2>

Marked as Government Communications Radio Station on OS mastermap. <3>

Part of the direction finding station at Bower. The main Rx site is located to the NE (see MHG47791). <4>

The station was set up by the Royal Navy to locate the source of German radio transmissions, by triangulating with other similar stations around the U.K. in Greenland. Its operation was taken over in 1967 by GCHQ who continued to expand its operations here throughout the cold war. The station closed in 1977. The main compound has now been cleared and is in use as a warehouse. <5>