Bawdsey's plight in viewers' hands

A SECOND World War transmitter block's future is in the hands of television viewers today and tomorrow.

The building - known as T-block - at Bawdsey, near Woodbridge, is one of the projects featured on popular television series Restoration tonight.

Telephone lines opened at 2am this morningfor viewers to vote for the restoration bid they would like to see succeed.

The show, hosted by comedian and actor Griff Rhys Jones, goes on air on BBC2 at 9pm.

The Bawdsey bid - to restore Britain's first operational radar station to its former glory - is up against projects to restore Newstead Abbey and a 15th Century grammar school in King's Norton, Birmingham.

The winning project from the Midlands region will go on to the national final, where viewers will vote for an overall winner, which will benefit from the Restoration fund.

Based at the bottom of a radar mast in the grounds of Bawdsey Manor, the transmitter block was critical to Britain's victory in the Second World War.

The Victorian mansion was bought by the Government in 1936 and became home to a group of scientists - including the physics genius Professor Robert Watson-Watt - trying to develop radio direction-finding technology into a device that could detect enemy aircraft from a great distance.

It was here that they invented radar, and Bawdsey became the first in a chain of radar stations that surrounded the east of England.

The last four radar masts were dismantled in 2000, and the unsightly concrete block is all that remains of the historical site.

Last year's Restoration winner was the Victoria Baths, in Manchester, which received £3.5million for improvements.

n The number to ring to vote is 09011 33 22 22 and lines are open until midnight tomorrow.

Calls cost 50p, of which a minimum of 34p will go to the Restoration Fund.