# List of POW camps in the UK



## PaulPowers (Jun 22, 2011)

Interesting document that I stumbled across, Most sites will now be gone but you might hit lucky 

List of POW camps in the UK







and these sites are of real historical importance as history seems to want to sweep the fact we kept POWs in the uk


----------



## night crawler (Jun 23, 2011)

I've seen a similar list befro but not as well put together, it also shows some places near me though one of them is Didcot power station.. Thanks for that.


----------



## kathyms (Jun 23, 2011)

*thanks*

thank you for posting that. it adds a few more bits and pieces to the list when we out and about.

we tried to do didcot power station a couple of weeks ago but you cant get near can you.


----------



## PaulPowers (Jun 23, 2011)

Subterranea Britannica
Have a report up from one of the sites

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/a/alderney/lager_sylt/index.shtml


----------



## night crawler (Jun 23, 2011)

My that makes some grimm reading


----------



## RichardB (Jun 26, 2011)

I'm moving this to the Reference Material forum so it doesn't get lost.


----------



## TeeJF (Jun 26, 2011)

*Former POW camps...*

Is the site of the former Foo Chow paint works of Donald MacPherson in Bury/Radcliffe listed on there? It was a German POW camp apparently. My mother worked there after it had been turned into a paint works after the war.


----------



## night crawler (Jun 28, 2011)

Well I checked out the one near me at Nettlebed in Oxon, GR was right by a footpath. There was a building nearby that looks as though it was from the war and nearby a demolished brick building near the road. Going into the woods shows cleared areas more piles of rubble a concrete slab and an open sewer manhole. All this told me that some thing had been here inthe past. It may well be worth returning in the winter when the undergrowth has died back. I'll post some of the photo's on here when I've sorted them.


----------



## neill (Jun 28, 2011)

Thanks for posting the list. It kept me up till the small house reading it through and cross checking with other information. It showed the way to this:

Then:






And now:






There's alot still there.

N.


----------



## lost (Jun 28, 2011)

Looks like you'll need a chainsaw to see any of it.


----------



## Hendreforgan (Aug 13, 2011)

*Italian not German.*

Hi,

Camp #70 on this list, quoted as Henllan Bridge Camp, Henllan, Llandysul, Cardiganshire, is referred to as "German Working Camp" yet locally it's known as the Italian POW Camp. This is due, other than references made by local families, to the wonderful painted chapel still visible in one of the concrete sectional buildings . . . so typical of the painted interiors found in so may great Italian Chapels. 

Hopefully this link to Google Maps will work . . . it shows the layout as existing today.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Hen...306,-4.319488&sspn=0.010637,0.032594&t=h&z=17

Unfortunately though these buildings are preserved, some are in use as light engineering workshops, the site owners are a but . . . difficult . . . about visitors.


----------



## Foxylady (Aug 14, 2011)

Hendreforgan said:


> ...to the wonderful painted chapel still visible in one of the concrete sectional buildings . . . so typical of the painted interiors found in so may great Italian Chapels..


I've seen pics of that somewhere. Cheers for the reminder. 

One of the things that's a bit annoying for me is that in lists of POW camps there's no mention of Seaton, Devon. The site was a holiday camp which was utilised for POW's during the war, then reverted to a holiday camp after. It was also used as billets for American soldiers and has recently been recognised by a USA town with a monument for the people of Seaton for their hospitality.

Just saying to set the record straight!


----------



## cptpies (Aug 14, 2011)

Excellent find, I might add these to my overlay, although they aren't really defence related they are a very much forgotten piece of the wartime infrastructure.


----------



## Munchh (Aug 15, 2011)

cptpies said:


> Excellent find, I might add these to my overlay, although they aren't really defence related they are a very much forgotten piece of the wartime infrastructure.



Quite! I think to the British government of the time, they were very much conveniently forgotten Capn'. There was one near me at Barwick Estate. Much mention is made of the use of the estate grounds as a gathering point for US troops prior to D day (bound for Omaha beach sadly) and very little about it's post war use as a POW camp.


----------



## highcannons (Aug 15, 2011)

Tis a good list, theres an Italian job near me on my to do list, on what is now a farm with what appears to be most of the huts, must get roundtuit1


----------



## wirelessmast (Aug 21, 2011)

Interesting list,

close to me theres the remains of a ww1 PoW camp, at Brayton. Mostly turned back to agriculture and woodland now, but theres a few brick foundations and a crows-foot marked marker stone to be found.

The PoWs worked on the local farms, and there are stories of German lads held there marrying local farm girls and settling down in the area. A nice ending to what was probably a few quite crappy years for the lads.


----------



## highcannons (Aug 21, 2011)

*Wheres the Camp?*

I followed the link and the list is very useful BUT! There is a camp down the road from me and people who can vouch for it being a POW camp for Italians...now although I have not got round to a report the camp is well built and of the right period. So either it has been missed off the list or it is a satellite of another.....I had a google around and found these,

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_POW_camps_in_Britain[/ame]


http://www.kg6gb.org/prisoner_of_war_mail.htm

http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk/LIST OF UK POW CAMPS2.htm

They don't agree....so this is just to say do your own research cos' you may miss a good one!


----------



## Dirus_Strictus (Aug 22, 2011)

highcannons said:


> There is a camp down the road from me and people who can vouch for it being a POW camp for Italians...now although I have not got round to a report the camp is well built and of the right period. So either it has been missed off the list or it is a satellite of another.....I



One has to be very careful when it comes to categorising UK camps that held captured Italian military personnel - After the official Italian surrender captured personnel were no longer classed as POW's, the camps housing them ceasing to be prison camps. Many Italians were moved to newly constructed camps after the surrender, these camps were never officially known as POW camps, and the original security fenced camps they were initially housed in were made over to housing captured German personnel.


----------



## danb79 (Oct 20, 2011)

i used to work on sailsbury plain one of the MOD camps i worked on was Rolsten camp nr shrewton wiltshire it is still used by the mod during exercises. I was informed by the caretaker that it was an pow camp ther is even phots in the main office!


----------



## Lolpeacock (Oct 20, 2011)

Eden Camp at Malton nr York was an Italian camp which was then used for Germans. It is pretty much as it was and is now a museum. Well worth a visit. Here it is www.edencamp.co.uk.


----------

