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English Heritage joined military historians in speaking out against plans to demolish the mast at Bawdsey Manor, near Felixstowe in Suffolk. Radar - decisive in winning the Battle of Britain - was first developed there under strict security in the late 1930s.

More than 50 years later, the tower, the only survivor of a series, is so dilapidated that it is fenced in to stop anyone trying to scale it. Making it safe would cost an estimated £500,000. The Coastguard Agency, which bought it from the Ministry of Defence as a radio mast six years ago, says it is too dangerous to climb.

The agency has submitted a £160,000 planning application to replace it with a new, shorter tower. English Heritage is opposing the plan. Its regional spokeswoman, Paula Griffiths, said yesterday: 'The proposal is causing us considerable concern.

Bawdsey represents a world first in the application of radar technology. It ranks alongside the development of the atomic bomb and electronic computing as one of the most significant scientific outcomes of the war.

'It is a site of regional, national and international importance. English Heritage believes all possible options should be considered to retain all of the historic buildings on the site.'

Bawdsey was set up in 1936 by a Cabinet air defence committee under the government's scientific adviser, Sir Henry Tizard. At that time, fighter planes seeking to engage incoming aircraft could be used as little more than 'a flying barrage into which it was hoped the enemy would fly'. Early trials in detecting planes by radio used a BBC transmitter - the word radar standing for radio detection and ranging. 

Pioneering work under Sir Robert Watson-Watt at Bawdsey showed that aircraft could be traced at a range of 75 miles, leading to what war historians recognise as 'a milestone in fighter interception' - planes being scrambled to mass and meet the enemy.

Sir Robert, who died in 1973, and his scientists are honoured by a plaque at the foot of the mast. The existence of radar was not publicly disclosed until after the war was won in 1945.

Yesterday the Royal Air Force Museum's director, Neil Cossens, said: 'Demolition of this mast would be an inestimable tragedy for the nation's heritage. The presence in this landscape of one of the early masts is an eloquent relic of the work there that led to the country's survival.' 

Gordon Kinsey, an historian and author of a study of the development of radar, said: 'The work at Bawdsey was of the utmost importance.

'Early radar had a range of 20 miles or so, but eventually there was a chain of stations stretching from the Wash to the Isle of Wight. This mast should be preserved at any cost.'

A spokesman for the Coastguard Agency said that it was aware of the tower's historical aspect. 'But it is in need of urgent repair, and the cost of repair is simply too high.