PART of the former nerve centre of top secret research development into radar is to be turned into a guest house.Bawdsey Manor, the magnificent building standing in 150 acres of land overlooking the North Sea near Woodbridge, will open up bedrooms to the public next year.

PART of the former nerve centre of top secret research development into radar is to be turned into a guest house.

Bawdsey Manor, the magnificent building standing in 150 acres of land overlooking the North Sea near Woodbridge, will open up bedrooms to the public next year.

It is expected that some of the first guests could be former members of the Royal Air Force who were stationed at Bawdsey during the Second World War and used radar pioneered there by Robert Watson-Watt.

The site, once described as a small but treasured part of the RAF, has been used as a school since 1994 for children from foreign countries wishing to learn English with annual fees of £15,000.

It lay redundant for a few years after the Ministry of Defence decommissioned the site and it was unclear what the future held for the seaside holiday home built by William Cuthbert Quilter over 18 years in the 19th Century.

But today Alexander's International School has established itself in the former RAF buildings and John Holton, the principal, wants to further open up the facilities to the community.

The Manor is a Grade II Listed Building where Watson-Watt pioneered radar (research first started at Orford Ness)in time to be used in the Battle of Britain and allowed a numerically inferior force to beat back an enemy which would otherwise have overwhelmed it.

A bed and breakfast establishment is just one of several initiatives aimed at maximising the school's income.