As the saying goes “you learn something new every day”, well we certainly did during our visit to Neatishead Radar museum Friday 1st November.
Meeting in the reception we received a warm welcome and brief overview of the facility before Jaqui, Serena, Petra, Lilly, Rachel, and myself Theresa made our way to the Crumbs café for coffee and cake. We didn’t hang around for too long because over the tannoy we could hear there was soon to be a guided tour of the Cold War room.
The museum is made up of lots of different rooms, each one with a specific theme and easily found using the leaflet provided at reception. First room exhibited Bloodhound missile models and history; an enthusiastic guide also talked us through the important role these surface to air missiles played keeping us safe during the Cold War, a very effective defensive weapon which thankfully never had to be used in anger.
We just about finished browsing the History of Neatishead room and Radar Engineering room before being called to the Cold War room. Wow what a sight to see, a genuine operations control room with genuine equipment exactly as it was used when in operation all available to experience hands on. The talk and presentation explained how everything worked to track potential enemy activity in the air and how resources were then organised to deal with any situation. I was particularly fascinated by the fact that personnel working behind the large display boards high up on the front wall were specially trained to write backwards, this enabled them to update all info received via their headphone to provide an up to date status of resources available at various airfields and locations of aircraft in the air.
Time for a late lunch; the menu was limited but everyone found something to their taste all at a reasonable price and served with a cheery smile.
Following lunch we dispersed and worked our way round various exhibits of interest. As I approached the Jaguar and Tornado Cockpit room I was enthusiastically greeted by a guide who invited me to sit inside the Jaguar trainer cockpit, everything in the museum is so hands on, quite refreshing not to have everything tucked away safely behind glass, not quite so easy to climb in though while wearing a long dress. Once inside and sitting comfortably I could appreciate the training and expertise needed to fly one of those jets, also impressed by the computerised tech first used in the 1970’s. Jaqui arrived later and was invited to try out the Torrnado cockpit.
Despite not seeing everything we’d like due to lack of time we unanimously agreed to meet back at the café before its 4:00pm closing time for more coffee and chat (because that’s what we like to do). One more guided talk was offered to us, this time in the History room. The talk took us through the history of radar, from sound mirrors right up to present day with various models and exhibits discussed as we moved around the room. This talk was so absorbing I totally forgot about taking any photos, well you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself, or check it out on the museum website: https://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/what-to-see/more-to-discover/#history-room
Not a problem that we didn’t get to see everything because the entry tickets are valid for twelve months following their purchase, no extra cost to visit as many times as you like. Will do.
A fabulous day was had by all.
Theresa x
oasis norfolk 