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| Ancestor Gateway Forum - STAMFORD MEMORIES GATEWAY (Lincolnshire England) used as PRIDE and PREJUDICE FILM SET | New Topic | Search |
| Joe |
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Does anyone have any photos of the POW CAMP that was on Empingham Road? ...I would be most grateful to hear from anyone who has! Kate: Hi Joe. Anyone out there who can help Joe with POW CAMP photos? |
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| Peta |
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I don't have a photo, but I can remember a family living in the first hut who my mother gave our old pram to and orange juice which was a weekly ration allocated for children's welfare, in return for home made lavender bags. They were a very happy family with about four children. Kate: Thanks for that Peta. Yes, you could get those bottles of orange juice from the clinic. The orange juice was scrumptious really concentrated if you didn't dilute it much. Those lavender bags sound nice as well. You can sometimes find them at craft fairs etc. I wonder who that family was in the first hut? Anyone out there remember them or the village atmosphere on the Prisoner of War Camp? |
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| Richard Campbell |
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My Mother may have some photos...I'll ask her. My sister and I were born there.....Oak Walk I believe was the 'street'. Every year council workers used to come and spray the huts with tar to keep then waterproof. My Mother used to dread it as it usually meant that my sister and I were also waterproofed. Most people who lived there ended up on the North Fields estate....we did. Kate: Not too bad then. From "The Prisoner" to "Field of Dreams" Richard.Bet you dread the smell of tar when the roads are resurfaced. |
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| Richard Campbell |
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Hi Kate, The smell of tar certainly brings back memories. My Father made our first television when we were at the Camp. I can remember the neighbours coming round to watch it on it's maiden showing. It occupied 3 tea chests and Fathers only contribution to aestetices was to varnish the chests.....but you could still see'Product of Ceylon through the varnish. After about an hour of working the whole thing overheated and had to be switched off to cool down, during this time tea was made. Also to get the best signal the aerial, which was outside on a long pole, had the be rotated. Usually Mother was sent out to do this ....shouts of 'back a bit....no not that way and are you turning it', still echo after all of this time. We moved from the North Fields estate to Highlands Way in 1960 and the Camp became our playground....the huts had almost gone then but the foundations and roadways were still there . My friend and I had an old motorbike and used to push it to the Camp and ride it around. Richard Kate: What a clever Dad! and those tea chests were so useful! |
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| Roger |
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Remember the camp as could see the remains from our back bedroom window. Knew one or two people who lived there. After the huts were demolished it became a residential caravan site until 1967. I also remember Richard as a few of us went around together for a short time in the early 60s and my grandparents moved next door to him. Kate: Oh, yes it was a caravan site (ready made with the standings being the base of the old huts). Now its just posh houses! |
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| Clem Walden |
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Remember the Empingham Road POW camp, as a young lad we would go up to the camp, & walk by the fence giving the Winston Churchhill "V" sign, we thought this was clever then. However most of the prisoners were Polish or Italians. many worked on the pre-fab site that was being developed in the late 40s, the site was on the old football ground bottom of the essex road & in front of kings road, Northfields area, the old Fane school & green lane was to the left of this site. At the time I lived in Tolethorpe Square, & would play in the partly built pre-fabs & trenches they were digging for the infrastructure. When all the prisoners left, the old huts were used for family housing, my sister lived up the camp when she first got married, so did many other locals. In 1951-1953 I worked for Hunters Tea Stores as an Errand boy, Hunters was opposite Burtons in the high Street. I delivered many groceries to the camp to various families. the last person to leave the old camp was Tommy Regis, who still lives in the Town, I also remember that some of the prisoners would do wood carvings & sell them to the locals, "pecking Chickens" " Climbing monkeys" most of which would be decorated by cigarette burns, unfortunately I have no photos, only pictures in my mind, & fond memories of days gone by. |
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| Brian Dodson |
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As a 11 year old school boy i attended Exeter school on Empingham Road Stamford, i remember the watch tower at the POW site opposite Exeter school, my best school mates Dad was a German POW and was held at Stamford POW camp during WW2. i first attended Exeter school as from 1967. Hi Brian. Thanks for your postings. Kate |
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| alan tutt |
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Has anyone got a photo of the Stamford camp? There seem to be none in existence 
photos by kind permission of Tony Story |
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| Alan Tutt |
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I thought I might try & resurrect this topic. I have unearthed 2 letters home to the Russian Zone from a German pow, Max Reinhold, written from Stamford camp in 1947 that I am having translated. Interestingly, there is also a de-nazification 'tract' hand typed & produced in camp 106 that lies in the Imperial War Museum. If anyone has any more info or pics it would be great to hear from you al.tutt@btinternet.com Kate: Thanks for this Alan. It will be interesting to read those translations - hope you will send copies for inclusion on the site. Anyone else out there have info or photos of the POW Camp? |
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| JOE PERDUNO |
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Hi Clem, Reading your comments re: the POW camp fencing....there some old metal gates that lead from the childrens play area to the sports field - do you think they may have been part of the camp? they look old enough.... |
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| Phil Rudkin |
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Great memories from everyone about the POW camp in Empingham Road. What about that stunning areal photograph of the camp, in the June 2012 edition of Stamford Living! My wife and I moved into our new house in Brooke Avenue, in July 1965, it was one of the last 10 to be built. I can roughly make out where we live in the photograph, which was farmland or waste ground then. Little did I know that when I played for the Stamford YMCA soccer team in the 1950s ( our home pitch was on the Empingham Road playing fields), that I would be living on the farmland just over the hedgerow. |
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| Clem Walden |
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Hi Joe, re-the camp fencing and the metal gates you mention It is possible those gates could have been part of the old perimiter fencing; but I am unable to confirm this at present; I need to get myself round there and have a look and investigate further; I just wonder if anyone has visited the Stamford Library re-old photo's of this camp;The library may be able to find some old photo's by searching their museum archives or their old Mercury records. In the meantime I will try to do a little more reaserch myself in the hopes that I can add further info to this forum subject. |
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| Roger Partridge |
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I moved to Empingham Road in 1963. At that time the only visible sign of the POW camp was the Water Tower, the concrete roads and concrete bases of the huts. It was then being used as a residential caravan site and there was no sign of any perimeter fencing or gates, and I think this had been the case for some years. The caravans had all gone by 1967 and the whole area redeveloped over the next 2 years. From memory the area behind the Danish Invader didn't become a children's play area until a few years later. So unless the gates had been stored by the council for many years, it's doubtful they came from the camp. |
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| JOE PERDUNO |
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Hi Clem, Yes the library does have some information re: the camp, but a lot of useful information has come from inputs to this forum. Al Tutt wrote that interesting article for stamford life magazine, with that photo taken around 1958. I wait to see what you can find out about those gates.....I have a list of Italian POWs that were in Stamford camp - you can see them in the museum. I managed to get them from the ICRC in Geneva ( my father was a POW in there ). There was close on 1200 Italian POWs in Stamford camp on Feb 1st 1945....most were transferred from POW camp 28 Loughborough which was the main camp for the midlands area. |
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| Clem Walden |
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Hi Roger and Joe. I am given to understand both the Danish Invader and the childrens play area sites would have once been within the original camp compound. The boundary on the South side of the camp ran between the last house on Empingham road and the present Danish Invader. The hedge at the rear of the present play area was I am told there prior to the development of the play area. As yet I have not able to find anything out about the gate Joe mentions that sits within this hedge; Other than to say it does seem it sits on the original Southern boundry of the old camp. |
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| Roger Partridge |
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Hi Clem, I agree as I'm certain the sites of both the DI and children's play area were within the camp perimeter. It was just an overgrown grassy area when I first knew it and was separated from the playing field by a low hedge with several holes in it |
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| Max Sawyer |
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Clem, You're right. My parents and I lived there from (I think) 1954 to 1957. The Camp shop was run by Colin Downs, who suffered from brittle bones. We lived at 14, Ash Walk. Our next door neighbour was Bob Lee, others in Ash Walk were the Haggers, the Collins, the Hoyles. I went to St. John's School (Headmistress Miss Boosey) by Patch's bus (cream-coloured Bedford, fare twopence halfpenny). As I remember it, the hut was comfortable and had been well-converted from when it housed PoWs (Royal Doulton bathroom suites and a solid fuel heater in the living room). When a council house became available were moved to 8, Witham Close. |
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| Clem Walden |
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Hi Max, You mention a few names in your posting I well remember; Hoyles/Collins/Haggers/Bob Lee; I worked with Ted Hoyles at Wittering Camp in the 50s. Colin Downs was a very good friend and was at school with me. The Haggers and Collins were on my delivery round when I was an errand boy for "Hunters Tea Stores" Colin Downs as you may be aware later moved to Foundry Rd and had a butchers shop; Colin saddly past away several years ago but I still see his wife/daughter and grandaughter regularl. Regarding the actual boundaries of the camp. The last house on Empingham Rd before you came to Camp was number 142 there was a plot of land adjacent and number 144 was added in 1959. I am told there is a book puplished called "Churchills Uninvited Guests" which gives the details of all Camps. Perhaps this book may have layout drawings Etc? of the old Emingham Rd Camp? I wonder If Stamford Library may have a copy? |
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| Roger Partridge |
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Hi Max. Didn't realise you'd lived on the camp. I remember Colin Downs very well as he and his parents lived opposite us in Reform St, and he kept his car in our garage. He later had a butcher's shop in Foundry Rd which didn't last long and sadly he died some years ago. |
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| Joe Perduno |
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The book mentioned by Clem is by Sophie Jackson and is interesting but does not mention Stamford camp or the layout. Stamford camp was one of around purpose built, or 'standard' camps' built to contain italian pow's. If you look for Harperley POW camp 93 on the internet, you can see the typical layout of the standard camp, which would have been similar to stamford camp. I have been talking to an old italian pow who was at Stamford camp, and he remembers the old gates as an access to the sports field, which contained tents that housed personnel that were building the camp....so if his memory is correct, then the old gates were indeed part of the camp perimiter..... |
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| Roger Partridge |
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Looking in the 1947 Stamford Guidebook, there is a picture of an architect's model of the proposed Empingham Rd playing field. It shows a building which was never built and the actual pitches were laid out differently. So I am wondering if the playing field wasn't built until 1948 at the earliest. The gates which the Italian POW believes were there when he was a prisoner definitely weren't there by the early 1960s, so if the current gates were originally part of the perimeter fence, they must have been retrieved from a council storage depot. |
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| Clem Walden |
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Hi Roger the Empingham Road playing field was originally owned by Stamford Borough Council and was just simply a playing field {Not a laid out sports field as we know it today} prior to the 1939/45 War it was used for various events and at the end of the war it was used locally to celebrate our Victory. As a small boy I remember attending the Victory event with my parents and sisters. Perhaps others may also remember attending. I am not sure when Empingham Road playing field was actually turned into what we see today but perhaps 1948 you mention may be a little early? I believe It could have been even later? However I can confirm the Stamford Borough Council did not store any fencing or gates from the old camp for reuse on the development of Empingham road playing fields.In 1974 the ownership of this valuable site passed to SKDC. But the maintenance and up-keep of Empingham Road Sports Field is still paid for by Stamford rate payers under SKDC special expense areas. Perhaps one day we can get this valuable assett back? |
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| Roger Partridge |
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Hi Clem Thanks for the info on the playing field. I think this confirms that, as I thought, the present gates weren't part of the original POW camp fencing. |
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| Clem Walden |
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Hi Roger my personal view at "this time" is the same as your own. And I have not been able to find any factual evidence that would confirm the gate Joe mentions was part of the original old camp. There seems little doubt that the hedge and gate within it; Sit on old camp boundry but that in itself does not confirm the gate was part of the original fencing around the camp site. I was hoping I would be able to locate copies of the original camp development [My thinking being as the Empingham Rd playing field and the camp site] Would both have been owned by the Borough Council at the time; Records may still be available within the archives? But it seems all developments of prisoner of war camps were dealt with by H.M Gov at the time and they held all records. |
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| Joe Perduno |
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I have obtained an overhead photo of the POW camp 106 taken in 1948. There are copyright issues with it which I am looking into (i.e.) can in be loaded onto a site such as this forum,etc,etc. If not, I hope to at least place it in the file at the library with conditions attached re: copyright...it shows the camp layout in detail, huts, access roads, etc. I can't see any gates into which is now the sports field though...Kate i also have a photo of the camp in the late 1950's/early 60's...do I send the attachment to you? no copyright probs with this one! Kate: Hi Joe. Yes, if you send it to my email address kate@stamfordtown.com as an attachment - I will "lift" it and put on flikr and on here. Thanks Joe. 
Hi Joe. Photo above. Doesn't enlarge but shows the general layout. Thanks Joe. Hi Joe. Haven't managed to enlarge photo yet. Will have a word with my developer and he may be able to make some suggestions. Thanks again. K 
by kind permission of English Heritage (RAF Photography) |
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| Peter |
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Interesting that the photo appears to show the line of Ermine Street in the crop marks. I was at Exeter School in the early 60's and remember the camp as just being overgrown hut bases. The first development being the building of the Danish Invader. |
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| Eddy Hawes |
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Hi Phil are you the Phil Rudkin that hung around with the Hawes family from the camp. Regards |
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| Philip Rudkin |
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Hello Eddie, no, I am not the Phil Rudkin that you mentioned. My namesake (no relation), Phil Rudkin who lived in Cornwall Road, Stamford, is probably the one you mentioned. Sadly, he died a few years ago. Phil |
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