I WONDER if any of your mature readers have any knowledge of an establishment called the Pale Manor which was situated in Malvern?

Why I ask is that in 1943, when I was 20 years of age, I got my release from the engineering company I was working for and was hoping to get called up for service in the Royal Navy and be suitable for a position as engine room artificer.

However, during my period of unemployment I got an introduction card issued by the employment exchange for a vacancy at the Pale Manor, Malvern.

Upon reaching the establishment I found what looked like a prison camp; high fences with barbed wire on the top and an armed guard at the only entrance.

I saw no one else other than two officials, who suggested I'd be employed as a fitter. I'd sleep in the factories' dormitory and eat in the canteen, though eventually I might find accommodation elsewhere in the town. Also I'd get one long weekend off each four weeks. I never heard anything about wages, so I wasn't sure I'd have enough money to pay train fare back to Nuneaton each month.

I had some slight clue as to the activities being carried out, as I noticed two plug-in radio-type high frequency tuning coils.

Much later when radio location, later know as Radar, came to be in universal use, I got the idea that Pale Manor was one of the places which had some significant importance during the war years, especially as I reported to the employment exchange that my call up papers for the Navy had arrived and I was told that this civilian position took precedence. However, I opted for the Navy instead.

NOEL GORDON DUNBAR, 41 Franklin Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV11 4QN.