Boots on the ground local history (P.o.W camp Worcestershire)
Normally when researching local history I’m looking for some tangible evidence of the past. I’m not an academic and theory is fun to read, but for me to be really interested it's a part of exploration. Going out on a walk to find a place that connects back to a previous time. My historical time line is always a bit weighted. I love ancient history and the evidence that man left on the landscape 4000 years ago and I love things remaining from WW2 and the cold war which is an area of history I read about the most. My bio says I’m a bit hazy on the other 3020 years which is broadly true, but I’ve also gone out looking for mediaeval and later.
This particular instance is about later history however. Whilst looking for local records on a local medieval village (future post), I came across another record for a WW2 era Italian prisoner of war P.o.W camp near Hartlebury, which set off a new avenue of research.
Other than two records on Heritage Gateway that refer to the Defence of Worcester project (the records for which I’d love to see, but are not online). I can’t find any direct reference to a P.o.W camp at the stated location. What I have found is that there was a large P.o.W site at Hampton Lovett near Droitwich (a few miles away). Camp 54 or Longbridge Camp (weirdly as Longbridge is a place near Birmingham and not Hampton Lovett) was opened in 1942 and housed both Italian and German1 prisoners. As was quite common with the larger camps, it also had a number of ‘satellite’ camps including nearby Stourport, Impney Court and Mustow Green. It doesn’t however, list the site near Hartlebury in the documents I have.
It's an area of history that, given its relative recency, seems poorly researched, perhaps due to the sensitive nature of the history. Doing further reading around the subject shows that satellite camps especially were often poorly recorded and may not have been mapped properly 2. This seems to have been especially true for certain Italian P.o.W sites where the prisoners may have been seen/referred to as co-operators 3 as they were working on the land and given a larger degree of freedom. Something that may have been the case here.
So, back to boots on the ground - I have records suggesting an Italian P.o.W camp that's otherwise undocumented and some indication there might still be standing buildings so surely the obvious thing is to go and have a look! It is however January in the UK and the weather is absolutely terrible. All footpaths are now waist deep mud and going outside requires my scuba gear more than my walking gear…but finally, I needed a walk more than I needed to be dry, so off I went. Firstly the site itself has some unfriendly signs about access, so pics taken pretty much from the road. Interestingly there are a number of bird feeders…which is slightly creepy, but also suggests someone is going there. Buildings look to be the correct vintage and have some features I’ve seen in other P.o.W pictures but without further exploration of the site I doubt I’ll be able to prove anything further.
The records for 'Non invasion' features on the Defence of Britain project also don't include this site, which means the only reference is HER and the specific project for Defence of Worcestershire. I may yet try to see if I can go view the archives and get some further clarity on this as I'd really like to know more.
