- Joined
- May 26, 2009
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Firstly a big thanks to PaulPowers for posting the following thread:
[ame]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=19306[/ame]
I worked my way through the list until the small hours. It confirmed a site I had always suspected of being a POW camp, but gave me a steer to another two, nearby. The following pictures are a collection of all three sites. One site was set up early in the war around 1940 on an open Cotswold field, it quickly expanded to take more POWs. As the tide of the war turned in our favour a second, and then third site was built. The camps housed low grade / non problem prisoners who were happy to work in the surrounding farms and fields, and by the end of the war 25% of the land workforce were Germans POWs. The camps remained open after the war and were used to sort out prisoners ready for repatriation back to Germany. Although there were three sites, they were administered as one. As one camp was wound down the prisoners dismantled it themselves leaving neat piles of rubble, the site were later planted with trees. The older beach trees were planted by the prisoners, in dead straight rows, the younger later pine trees were planted at random. When I saw the different trees, it was easy to work out where the rows of huts were - mostly wooden on a square concrete base. The few central brick buildings were built later and used by the military after the camp closed.
I spent an erie few hours walking around the sites, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I came to the last picture. The tower is a relatively recent hunting tower (for shooting dear, which there are loads), but sits exactly on the site of an original guard tower with a machine gun! You can just see them in the 1940's aerial photo.
Lastly sorry about the poor quality of photos as I only had my camera phone on me!
Aerial photo of 1945:
And an aerial photo of how it is now:
The Photos..
Original Wire
Steps to the 'Cooler', every big camp had one!
Bases for the perimeter fense posts
The tower (a hunting tower), but on exactly the site of an original!
Enjoy!
N.
[ame]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=19306[/ame]
I worked my way through the list until the small hours. It confirmed a site I had always suspected of being a POW camp, but gave me a steer to another two, nearby. The following pictures are a collection of all three sites. One site was set up early in the war around 1940 on an open Cotswold field, it quickly expanded to take more POWs. As the tide of the war turned in our favour a second, and then third site was built. The camps housed low grade / non problem prisoners who were happy to work in the surrounding farms and fields, and by the end of the war 25% of the land workforce were Germans POWs. The camps remained open after the war and were used to sort out prisoners ready for repatriation back to Germany. Although there were three sites, they were administered as one. As one camp was wound down the prisoners dismantled it themselves leaving neat piles of rubble, the site were later planted with trees. The older beach trees were planted by the prisoners, in dead straight rows, the younger later pine trees were planted at random. When I saw the different trees, it was easy to work out where the rows of huts were - mostly wooden on a square concrete base. The few central brick buildings were built later and used by the military after the camp closed.
I spent an erie few hours walking around the sites, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I came to the last picture. The tower is a relatively recent hunting tower (for shooting dear, which there are loads), but sits exactly on the site of an original guard tower with a machine gun! You can just see them in the 1940's aerial photo.
Lastly sorry about the poor quality of photos as I only had my camera phone on me!
Aerial photo of 1945:
And an aerial photo of how it is now:
The Photos..
Original Wire
Steps to the 'Cooler', every big camp had one!
Bases for the perimeter fense posts
The tower (a hunting tower), but on exactly the site of an original!
Enjoy!
N.
