WW2 POW Camps

[RachL]

I've just learned that German (or possibly Italian) POW/Internees worked on my Grandparents farm (in Blacko) in WW2. I was wondering if anyone could tell me where the POW camp was that they might have come from, or whether they would actually have been permanently placed at the farm?

[PanBiker]

What is now Overdale Park in Skipton was a P.O.W camp for Italians in WWII. Similarly the site around what was The Coronation Hotel at Horton in Craven was a German P.O.W. camp. Your grandparents workers could have come from there. There would be lots more around the district no doubt. Not sure about any a nearer to Blacko. It was not unknown for long term trusted prisoners to "live in" if the farmer was in agreement and relied on the labour.

[Stanley]

Welcome to the site Rachel. We had a big topic on the old site and one ex-POW Kurt corresponded with us regularly.



There were many small camps for the prisoners who worked on the farms. Here's a plan of the camp at West Marton on the side of the road to Barnoldswick.



A group of German prisoners at White House Farm at Elslack. One of the pics that Kurt sent us.

[Stanley]

Plan of the POW camp at West Marton. The work was done by Briggs and Duxbury's.

[Stanley]

I think this is the POW camp at what became the Coronation Hotel. Not absolutely clear because it doesn't show Horton Road. There must have been a café there prior to the war. Nothing on the 1930 OS map.

[Stanley]

Holden Clough POW camp at Bolton by Bowland.

[Moh]

There used to be POWs in Kelbrook, they stood on the bridge half way up Dotcliffe Road most evenings, I presumed they must be living on the farms but maybe they were waiting for their transport. I was always told I must not speak to them, they used to shout 'hello little girl' but I ignored them.

[Stanley]

Living in Stockport we never saw the POWs working on farms, and you're right Moh, many did live in because they started work so early in the morning but the ones you saw were almost certainly waiting for transport. Jack Platt told me that he drove a bus delivering them during the war. The ones we saw in Stockport were Italian and they were used to do road repairs. We were never warned against talking to them and used to have a crack with them on the way home from school.
Wallace Metcalfe at Stainton Hall had a POW living in, he was called 'Yup'