Heavy Anti Aircraft gun site, Yorkshire. Jan 2017

Judderman62 · Jan 23, 2017

The History

Errr I couldn't find any

Only information I did find
was that it was used to defend against German bombing
raids on Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

There has been some speculation that there was also a
POW camp on the site but there seems to be no real
evidence of this

The Visit

I was nearby shooting a few bits n bobs, mostly
non-derelict and had spotted this on google maps
and thought it looked interesting. So I dug around to
find out what it was and planned a visit.

It was easy to find and get to. Being on a farmers
land some bits weren't really accessible onless you
wanted to wade knee high through slushy cow shit.
Oddly enough I did not care to so left those bits.

The Images.

As usual shots taken using my trusty Canon 650D
and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8. so on to said shots.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Dirus_Strictus · Jan 24, 2017

Definitely not a POW camp at any time during or after the war; however, at the end of hostilities in Europe it became a Refugee Camp - and quite a large one at that. With the Russian expansion onto old German lands as WW2 ended, Britain found its self full of displaced persons - some were in this country because they were our prisoners of war, others were service men from the late occupied countries (Poles, Czechs etc,)who had fought alongside the Allies and many, many more were people who had fled from the carnage of mainland Europe. There were very many facilities all over the UK that were now redundant - Barracks built to house allied troops, training facilities and properties that had been commandeered by the Authorities. Yorkshire, like many other English Counties had more than its fair share of these facilities, so a number became housing for refugees. Nearest one to where I am situated now was in Horsforth (between Rawdon and Leeds and my wife, who comes from Horsforth, can just remember the Hutments still being occupied in late 1956. They were replaced by short lived prefabs and then a housing estate and school. I remember the large contingent of Polish ex service men who lived around us in Doncaster in the 50's/60's, some had managed to get their wives/girlfriend out of Europe at wars end, others had married local girls. Many of these men worked down the pits or in the local engineering works. The local Polish club was situated not far from my family home and as a youngster I always remembered it as a joyous and musical place, but as I got older I could also detect a sad element to some of the 'celebrations'. An ever developing interest in WW2 during my late teens soon taught me what those displaced ex service men had done and had to give up, and ever since that time I have always held those Polish ex service men in my admiration.