In July 1940 Barton Hall,
near Preston was requisitioned for the Royal Air Force, who on the 9th August
1940 set up the North West Filter Room Group Headquarters, offering a more
effective protection for North West England, North Wales and the Western
Approaches.
Throughout the ensuing three
years valuable service was rendered in defence of the Liverpool, Manchester
and Birmingham areas and, apart from much air! sea rescue work in the Irish
Sea and adjoining waters, the Group accounted for no less than 36 enemy
aircraft destroyed, 10 probably destroyed and 27 damaged. Henceforth, as the
threat to the North West receded, Headquarters 9 Group assumed responsibility
for several Operational Training Units and by the time of its disbandment on
17th September 1944, it had administered some forty stations, operating
eighteen different types of aircraft flown by airmen of at least seven
nations. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, Marshall of the Royal Air Force
Sir Edwards Ellington, Air Marshall W. Sholto Douglas and the Air Minister Sir
Archibald Sinclair, were amongst the most distinguished visitors to Barton
Hall during the war years.
During the latter part of
1944 Barton Hall functioned as an Education and Vocational Training Centre
under the control of Headquarters No 12 Group, but lapsed to a Care and
Maintenance basis in 1945 following the start of demobilisation.
An Area Control Centre was
established at Barton Hall in the autumn of 1947, and shortly afterwards, on
10th November, the title was changed to ‘Air Traffic Control Centre and
Aeronautical Information centre Preston’. On 24th June 1948, the Ministry of
Civil Aviation assumed responsibility for the ATCC and although administrative
control of military personnel was then transferred to RAF Kirkham, a Royal Air
Force element remained at Barton hall as an integral part of its operational
function. By March 1949 an Operations Headquarters had formed at Barton Hall
and remained there until 1961 after which it moved to Royal Air Force Weeton
to become Northern Region Air Traffic Services Centre (NRATSC), an offspring
of the National Air Traffic Control Services and Headquarters United Kingdom
Air Traffic Services. HQ UKATS was subsequently renamed Headquarters Military
Air Traffic Operations and in December 1964 NRATSC, increasing its role
considerably, became known as Headquarters Military Air Traffic Operations
Northern Region and moved to its new location at RAF Lindholme.
Civilian and military
staffs, working in harmony and co-operating from the inception of Preston
ATCC, provided services respectively to civil and military aircraft operating
within the Flight Information Region. Since the closure of Barton Hall in
1975, the new sophisticated and integrated services of West Drayton have taken
over. The hall was demolished in 1975 and a Animal Research Station was built
on the site opening in 1985 and is now run by DEFRA.
Barton Hall site in 1985
After the war the operations
room was adapted as one of 6 Sector Operations Centres as part of the Rotor
Radar Project with the code name LOA. Longley Lane and Box SOC's were the
first to become operational in 1950.
The SOC's were designed to
exercise the intermediate control and reporting functions under Fighter
Command HQ, Bentley Priory. The UK was divided into 6 sectors, each with an
SOC. Fighter Command HQ and the SOC's received raw data from radar stations
and ROC Group HQ's; after filtering to remove anomalies this data was retold
to the SOC's who were responsible for the actual control and interception via
GCI stations. Army AAOR's also received the same information to integrate
defences.
With the advent of the H
bomb in 1955 together with modern bombers, the rotor system as it stood was
superseded by technology and events and the network of Master Radar Stations
(MRS) was introduced. Several rotor sites became Master Radar Stations but the
SOC's and the AAOR's became redundant. Longley Lane was one of the first SOC's
to close, probably in 1956. In 1962 the bunker was adapted as ROC Group
Control for 21 Group at Preston.
During the war the filter
room acted as a collecting point for information. Duplicate and irrelevant
information could be filtered out here. It was later used for many years as
the Preston Armed Forces Headquarters (AFHQ). The two level bunker had been
empty since 1992, its last use being as a military firing range.
The communications site is
now derelict and a local farmer uses it as a vehicle store, the remaining
sites became available for sale in 2001.
