# PoW Camp 93, Harperley - July 2011



## mrdystopia (Jul 17, 2011)

During World War II prisoner of war camps were built throughout the country to house captured enemy soldiers. These were usually built with a primary regional camp and smaller satellite camps spread through the region. For the North-East of England, Harperley Camp was one of these hubs. It was built in '43 by Italian POWs and housed up to 1,400 Nazis and other assorted enemies until the end of the war. 







It was one of only 100 purpose-built PoW camps in the UK and was codenamed Camp 93. Following the war the buildings lay dormant and largely undisturbed and is now one of only 5 camps within Britain that remains virtually intact. There are almost 50 buildings, all of similar functional design. The roof is asbestos and the bricks are lead-infused but I imagine the captured prisoners had bigger worries.






James and Lisa Macleod bought the place in 2001 and started doing it up with plans to convert to a restaurant. They discovered the richness of the site was more than anticipated as was it's history and plans formed to restore the site and open it as a museum attraction. A lot of credit in this effort goes to ex-prisoner Rudi Lux who's story is fascinating in it's own right. Rudi sadly died in 2005 at about the same time as the restoration funding dried up forcing the camp to be auctioned...on Ebay! 

Now believed to be in the possession of a farmer who is working the site, it has several barbed wire fences, CCTV and reportedly, large dogs on guard. 

Finding a discrete entrance point and, in a feat of irony that was not lost on me, I attempted to circumvent the security in order to break INTO a prison. (Okay, not technically 'breaking' in the legal sense but you get my drift).


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## PaulPowers (Jul 17, 2011)

Nice report good to see you got round to it


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## jonney (Jul 17, 2011)

Nice one fella glad you got further than I did last time i tried to get in there. Looks like it is starting to decay again. I visited when it was a tourist attraction a few years ago but never got back in due to the farmer chasing me


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## maximus (Jul 17, 2011)

Lovely pics.

This would make a wonderful museum,a bit of great British history....shame the government and lottery are to busy giving money to arty farty ballet and posh theatre types


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## jonney (Jul 17, 2011)

maximus said:


> Lovely pics.
> 
> This would make a wonderful museum,a bit of great British history....shame the government and lottery are to busy giving money to arty farty ballet and posh theatre types



The former owners had it as a museum but couldn't make it pay thats why it was put up for sale


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## maximus (Jul 17, 2011)

jonney said:


> The former owners had it as a museum but couldn't make it pay thats why it was put up for sale



Yes I saw that,shame they couldn't make it work,you would think some sort of charity or foundation would have bought it and tried to keep it going....very sad to see our heritage disappear


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## King Al (Jul 17, 2011)

Interesting report mrdistopia, nice one


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## jonney (Jul 17, 2011)

maximus said:


> Yes I saw that,shame they couldn't make it work,you would think some sort of charity or foundation would have bought it and tried to keep it going....very sad to see our heritage disappear



It was rumored that Ozzy Osbourne was interested in buying it at one point but the deal fell through. He was supposedly going to keep it open to the public


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## mrdystopia (Jul 17, 2011)

jonney said:


> It was rumored that Ozzy Osbourne was interested in buying it at one point but the deal fell through. He was supposedly going to keep it open to the public



Ha, I REALLY want that to be true, Journey! I want Ozzy to be sitting at the front entrance taking the money. lol.


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## jonney (Jul 17, 2011)

mrdistopia said:


> Ha, I REALLY want that to be true, Journey! I want Ozzy to be sitting at the front entrance taking the money. lol.



So did I as I'm an ozzy fan but I think it was just an internet rumor


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## Foxylady (Jul 22, 2011)

What a great site. Superb photos and good to see the two archive ones too. Cheers.


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