This old lamp hang over the south porch of St Peter & St Paul parish church, Weedon, Northamptonshire.

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Lamp over door of church

Tags:   Weedon Snow

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View of Upper Weedon from Farthingston Road. If you look closely you can see a row of houses along the ridge in the distance. Along this road (A5 to Daventry) is where the effects of radar was first detected.

1935 - The invention of Radar by Chris Davis _ 05/01/2000

The Air Ministry contacted Watson-Watt in January 1935 and asked him to investigate the possibility of damaging enemy aircraft by the use of radio waves. Watson-Watt was quick to show that this was impossible but wrote to the Ministry with another suggestion - "Meanwhile, attention is being turned to the still difficult, but less unpromising problem of radio detection". On February 12th 1935, Watson-Watt drafted a memo entitled 'Detection and Location of Aircraft by Radio Methods'. The proposed technique was simple. It combined results from two on going research topics; the range finding of ionospheric layers and the direction finding techniques previously used to detect thunderstorms.

On February 26th 1935, an experiment was carried out to test the viability of the project. Apparatus from Ditton park was placed near the BBC transmitter at Daventry. The transmitter illuminated an aircraft flying past on a pre-arranged course. At 09.45 the receiver detected the aircraft at an estimated range of eight miles. A. F. Wilkins, a colleague of Watson Watts who had helped in the initial calculations, later said "It was clear to all who watched the tube on that occasion that we were at the beginning of great developments in the art of air defence". The original apparatus used in this historic experiment are now housed at the London Science Museum.

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Weedon from Farthingstone Road Hill. The large buildings were the main army depot built during the Napoleonic Wars (War of 1812). The location was selected because it is geographical near the center of England, it was at the crossroads of the A5 (Watling Street the ancient Roman Road from London to Anglesey), the A45 and the newly completed Grand Union Canal. In the distance can be seen Brochall. In addition to the above roads and canal is now the London to Birmingham railway and the M1 motorway.

My house is located near the two dark trees to the right. Joel

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Weedon, Northamptonshire from the Farthingstone Road.

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