POW camp near Bridgend, spring 1990.

Island Farm Camp. Books have been written and television programmes have been made about the place. It was originally built in the late 1930’s as accommodation for mostly women workers at the huge ammunition and ordnance factories at Bridgend and Brackla. The dreary, spartan camp proved to be unpopular, but in 1943 it was used to accommodate American troops in preparation for D-Day. After the GI's moved on, the camp was briefly empty until it was used as an overspill pow camp for the high number of Axis troops who were being taken prisoner on the continent. This was when it was designated Camp 198. Later, the camp was re-designated Special Camp Eleven and was used only for high-ranking German officers, including von Rundstedt, Manstein, von Kleist, Dornberger et al., who were awaiting re-patriation or trial at Nuremberg. These men practically ran the war on the German side and also advised Hitler on military matters.

The camp was closed in 1948 and remained derelict until a few years ago when it was all demolished. Today, the area is an overgrown wasteland.

Please excuse the picture quality, as at that time I used a Canon Ion, which was a sort of early 90's digital/analogue hybrid forerunner to the digital cameras we all love today. So what this meant was that the only storage was on the tiny floppy disc, which was roughly the size of a Minidisc. There was no external storage, no sound, no video recording and the only output was a composite VIDEO out. Picture quality / resolution was equal to VHS. I wish I'd taken my old Zenith E SLR!

There aren’t many external shots, as at the time I wanted to concentrate on the interior ‘wall art’, but photos of the camp in its heyday can be found here. And for those who wasn’t some more detailed info look [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Farm"]here[/ame]. The full set: Flickr, to which I'll add a few more pics if I can find them.

Enjoy.














































Miss Flexible, who is now Mrs Flexible, making a sketch.



What's left today - the former parade ground / playing field.



The pile of rubble that was once the huts.

What a shame it could not have been left The link on the place is interesting

Thats not far from me at all.

Very interesting. Shame its all been pulled down. Love that the pictures were still on the walls.

Thanks for the comments. It was an atmospheric place to say the least. There were a few rumours going around a few years back, when it was demo'd; a new housing estate, small business units etc. I also heard that there was a problem with druggies, but despite petitions basically the local authority considered the place an eyesore and went ahead.

some nice drawings there...

i like this pic and wondered what it said



So i thaught this pic would say something rearly interesting so i did a translation on the internet

and it says ...... after that wash water away lol

Nice one nottsdave! I remember at the time that pic was taken, scouring my German-English dictionary for a translation and arriving at something similar to yours. But you have to stretch your imagination a little . . . The pic was taken in the shower area, so literal translations aside, I assume the notice is requesting users to keep the showers and water troughs clean after 'washing' Maybe

Meine Deutch ist nicht sehr gut!

Preserving uncomfortable memories

Well done Flexible for starting this thread on the Bridgend Prisoner of War Camp. It is vital that our memory of places like that is kept alive. The quality of your photos is not so good, but they do a grand job of depicting a lot of the wall art that used to be visible in various huts.

It is not true that the entire camp was demolished. One hut was left standing and is still there. It is the hut from which the famous escape took place. It was chosen for this purpose as it was close to the perimeter. When the rest of the camp was knocked down all the wall art was transferred to that hut.

I would like to know whether the hut is open to the public now and then. It certainly ought to be. I would love to see the pictures again, not having seen them since the camp was demolished.

I like Cora the best.

Thank you for your kind words, Safisk. However I can't take all the credit for putting this up, as others have visited also. Take a look at WW2Nut's thread from last year:[ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=3767"]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=3767[/ame]

I stand corrected about the remaining hut and will have to search harder for it next time I'm over that way. If the rain gives in for a few hours at least! Perhaps we could arrange a meet?

Seahorse, you only like Cora the best cos she's topless!!

Unauthorised additions

The remaining hut is well protected. It would not be easy to get in there without a key. Rightly so, as I would not want to see the wall art defaced by unauthorised additions. That is why, with regret, I would prefer to wait until somone in an official position comes along to open it up.