WW2 bunker near Weymouth to be transformed into holiday home
Built in 1939, it was one of Churchill’s ‘chain home’ series of bunkers
A World War II bunker near Weymouth will be transformed into a holiday home after final planning details have been approved.
It will see the site in Ringstead, formerly used by the RAF, into a 2-bed holiday accommodation looking out over the sea.
The bunker, mostly hidden by vegetation, is off the Ringstead Dairy access road near Pitt Cottage and alongside Woodland Cottage.
It was used as part of RAF radar sites which looked out over the sea for enemy aircraft dispatching planes from the nearby RAF Warmwell, a fighter pilot base.
The final details of the conversion, to a two-bed holiday have been approval by Dorset Council after gaining listed building consent earlier in the year.
Council officials say it will be a good use for the old building retaining many of the original features.
Support for the proposal has come residents with a neutral stance from the parish council.
Said one Ian Scott: “Our family has owned a property at Ringstead for over 60 years and we are aware of the Woodlands Bunker. I think the application is an imaginative, sensitive, and unobtrusive proposal to preserve an important part of Ringstead’s history. I fully support it.”
Said another, Alastair Fisher: “A good use of the structure and sympathetic to the area.”
The structure, which was built in 1939, was one of Churchill’s ‘chain home’ series of bunkers.
Architects Lipton Plant say there will be little alteration to the outside of the bunker although the interior will be converted to provide two bedrooms, a living area, kitchen/utility, bathroom and terrace.
“The proposed development presents a unique opportunity to repair, sensitively restore and repurpose a historic structure into a guest accommodation for the use and enjoyment of local and wider population who will be able to appreciate and celebrate its wartime history,” said the application.
Another former RAF building, at Westdown Farm, Upton, dating from the same era, was granted permission for conversion into a holiday home last year and is now in use with a current planning application in the system to build a replica RAF ‘hut’ as another holiday unit.
The bunker site and much of the surrounding area has remained almost unchanged since it was established as an RAF camp during the Second World War, supporting anti-aircraft guns and searchlights then mounted on the cliffs above Ringstead.
Some of the other installations, including the gun mounts and some pill boxes can still be seen in the area.