# POW Camp 116 - Mill Lane



## nelly (Jun 6, 2012)

Hi guys, a bit of a rare appearance from me into the Military Section, but I'm told that you don't bite 

POW CAMP 116 - MILL LANE - HATFIELD HEATH

Prisoner of War Camp 116 was set up in 1941 to house Italian prisoners of war, and from 1943-1944 it mainly held German and Austrian prisoners.







The POW's were allowed out to work on the nearby farms and one local has this memory of it......

_"The Austrian and German prisoners of war were kept in a camp at Hatfield Heath and sent out daily to 'help on the land'. 
Our first batch were Austrian and they were hard workers and Mum was so sorry for them she looked at their ration for the day and promptly invited them to share our food - they even ate with us. 
The next lot were German and all but one of those were also polite, hard workers and they too shared our food and ate in the kitchen with us. 
My biggest impression was the way they stood whenever Mum got up and would never sit until she too sat down. 
Dad corresponded for some time with one of them, a Walter Scheile from Beilefeld in Germany."_






The English Heritage Document entitled "PRISONER OF WAR CAMPS (1939 – 1948)" has this to say about it

Camp 116 
(Mill Lane Camp, Hatfield Heath) conforms to the so-called ‘Standard’ layout, with the guards’ 
compound consisting of MoWP huts, while the living huts are all timber Laing huts.



























































































In one of the outside barns was a Massey Harris combine harvester










And a few old classics (I'll sneak these in and see if they get past the "All Seeing Eye" 














​


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## UE-OMJ (Jun 6, 2012)

I had that place ear-marked for another gentle wander round, it looks like it's well worth the trip down there now, thanks for posting (and probably for kicking my a**e in gear to get down there). 

Looks like my immunity to stinging nettles will come in handy again


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## nelly (Jun 6, 2012)

Its not toooo bad for stingers fella, some clearly defined paths, hang on, why am I having a convo about stinging nettles??? Man up and get some jeans on!!! 

The tower has an interior ladder from top to bottom, blocked by a pair of bolted scaffold planks but it is doable, but being on my own I didn't want to end up falling the 30 foot or so and laying there for a week as a tasty treat for the foxes.


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## UrbanX (Jun 6, 2012)

Nice one Nelly, plenty of interesting details, lovely photos too. 
I aint seen nothing


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## Priority 7 (Jun 6, 2012)

Nice work Nelly I must seek this one out and give it the once over looks like a nice place to mooch around


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## KingRat (Jun 6, 2012)

Nice one Nelly.


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## onthebusescrazy (Jun 6, 2012)

Nice find Nelly love the cars shots thanks


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## TeeJF (Jun 6, 2012)

Achtung Fritz! Für Sie der Krieg vorbei ist ... Attenzione Gennaro! Per voi la guerra è finita ... 

Achtung Nelly, wird der Stachel der großen Brennnessel Ihre Bälle sehr wund!

Enjoyed your piccies and history there Nellers, especially the postcards etc. Good one!


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## nelly (Jun 6, 2012)

TeeJF said:


> Achtung Fritz! Für Sie der Krieg vorbei ist ... Attenzione Gennaro! Per voi la guerra è finita ...
> 
> Achtung Nelly, wird der Stachel der großen Brennnessel Ihre Bälle sehr wund!
> 
> Enjoyed your piccies and history there Nellers, especially the postcards etc. Good one!



I didn't realise you was Bi fella!!


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## TeeJF (Jun 6, 2012)

nelly said:


> I didn't realise you was Bi fella!!



Bi? Nah, I just help out my gay friends when they're short handed... ooops


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## krela (Jun 6, 2012)

You got him all excited there TeeJF... I heard he's getting bored of SK.


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## Ninja Kitten (Jun 6, 2012)

Ah..i really like this nel...love your take on the place through your photos..


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## nelly (Jun 6, 2012)

krela said:


> You got him all excited there TeeJF... I heard he's getting bored of SK.



He has gone a bit posh on me since he's gone mod, what did you do to him???


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## sennelager66 (Jun 6, 2012)

UE-OMJ said:


> I had that place ear-marked for another gentle wander round, it looks like it's well worth the trip down there now, thanks for posting (and probably for kicking my a**e in gear to get down there).
> 
> Looks like my immunity to stinging nettles will come in handy again



This for me all over. It's marked up and ready for a visit. The nettles though are an aquired itch for me though.


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## UEP-Wales (Jun 6, 2012)

This is a really nice report Nelly!

Really great photographs and all I see is pure goodness


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## RichCooper (Jun 6, 2012)

Great stuff mate


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## night crawler (Jun 6, 2012)

Nice work there nelly some great photos you took.


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## oldscrote (Jun 7, 2012)

Some good stuff there Nelly Always a sucker for old farm machinery.The combines good and the winnower is a real treat,would love to know what the heavy duty handcart was for though


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## flyboys90 (Jun 7, 2012)

You got some great photos, looks like a cracking site for a wander! what was the car? Rootes group Hillman or one of those types? thanks for sharing.


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## st33ly (Jun 7, 2012)

Thats an interesting looking place. The cars are a very nice bonus too.


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## nelly (Jun 7, 2012)

flyboys90 said:


> You got some great photos, looks like a cracking site for a wander! what was the car? Rootes group Hillman or one of those types? thanks for sharing.



Ah mate, I'm shite at old motors, haven't a clue, soz


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## Seahorse (Jun 7, 2012)

Wehicles sind nicht derelict PLACES. MWAH, HA, HA, HA.


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## nelly (Jun 7, 2012)

Nein, aber sie sehen gut aus aber!!!!! Lol


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## nelly (Jun 7, 2012)

TeeJF said:


> Achtung Fritz! Für Sie der Krieg vorbei ist ... Attenzione Gennaro! Per voi la guerra è finita ...
> 
> Achtung Nelly, wird der Stachel der großen Brennnessel Ihre Bälle sehr wund!
> 
> Enjoyed your piccies and history there Nellers, especially the postcards etc. Good one!




Lol, just ran yours through Google Translate too Martin 

"Attention Fritz! For you the war is over ... 

Attention Nelly is the sting of the nettle big your balls very sore!"


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## prettyvacant71 (Jun 8, 2012)

Thanks for sharing mate....your pics get u thinking about the history of the place....it makes a change to get outa our comfort zones for a while, u did good mate!!


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## outkast (Jun 10, 2012)

This place had a lucky escape recently, a developer bought the land the camp and the old farmhouse across the road stand on, he put in an application to develope the site but fortunately, due to objections to local history groups ect it got turned down, he ended up only developing the farm house.
the biuldings to the rear of the site were all part of the camtoo, they are now used by an egg packing company.

as for the ladder up the tower, there was no board over it when we visited, but the ladder was looking like it was about to part company with the wall when I went up the first few rungs, so I thought better of it.

I take it the mumified fox has now gone


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jun 11, 2012)

oldscrote;227957 said:


> I think it is some form of early 'vibrating' table. I have seen similar fixed constructions - If I am correct there is a lever/pedal situated between and just below the bottom rails. It sticks out below the handles and is worked by foot pressure, rapidly pressing the lever up and down causes the two ends of the upper table to thump up and down - more a compacting action than a vibration. Perhaps used to compact un-ripened cheeses into their frames/moulds? Otherwise I have no sensible ideas to put forward.
> 
> I have just realised that there is something else that may fit the bill - seen in the 60's in a Victorian brick works - a Mass Balance. Not a weighing scales giving actual weights, but a device for allowing lumps (of clay say) to be produced that have equal mass. The trouble is that on the brickworks device there appeared to be more table movement allowed, but on this picture the two tables appear to be very near to those 'support' pieces and do not appear to have the movement needed for swinging a balance of any form.


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## UE-OMJ (Jun 11, 2012)

nelly said:


> The tower has an interior ladder from top to bottom, blocked by a pair of bolted scaffold planks but it is doable, but being on my own I didn't want to end up falling the 30 foot or so and laying there for a week as a tasty treat for the foxes.





The foxes didnt get me 






Was a nice wander round there, not really enough to do a whole new post so I hope you dont mind me popping one photo on the end of yours?

Loads of nettles, and I got stung loads of times, but I barely even noticed


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## Big Bill (Jun 17, 2012)

Wow, some really strong pics their!

Looks like a good explore!


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## FFerret (Jun 23, 2012)

Nelly. Thanks for posting.

That fox brings back memories, I visited with Outkast and one other, and the place hadnt been tidied up at this time.

A few months later I happened to be passing and decided to take another look, the site was active with a few blokes clearing out the huts, I asked one of these guys if it was ok to take photos and he said yes, a couple of minutes later the govner asked me to leave which i did.

I must get back over and get some post clear up pictures.

I must pop over there and get some post


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