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POW camp Oxon

Article about: Hi Steve, thanks for the tips I am really finding any info on the site really hard. Apart from the camp number etc, thats about all i can find... seem to be getting nowhere on the info side.

  1. #11

    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    Hi Steve, thanks for the tips

    I am really finding any info on the site really hard. Apart from the camp number etc, thats about all i can find... seem to be getting nowhere on the info side.

    Also haven't been able to go running last few days as have been feeling ill so desperate to get out!!!

    Dan

  2. #12

    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    Dan

    Best place to try is the local parish records which you may find in the council offices or even the local library. Books like '****insert town name**** - Years gone by' or 'A historic look at ***insert town name*** in pictures and maps' will also be useful. Someone somewhere will have photographed the camp and even mapped it.

    Some villages even have online histories. Here is one I found when investigating a camp near me. I don't mind sharing it as the site is totally inaccessible and cannot be searched........Rosemary Connelly owns it !

    The Wars | Quorn Village On-line Museum, Leicestershire, UK

    For online info, try looking on book sites for these type of historical references. Send an e-mail to the parish council and see if they have any info or can point you at someone that does.

    Finally, get on google earth and try and find the site via that. You will be surprised at the detail you can see. As an example and continuing the above 'thread', put 'Quorn, Northage Close' into google earth. Immediately to the west is an area of open parkland. See the squares in the grass ? Huts.....LOADS of them ! Used by the 505th PIR prior to D-Day (John Steele was based here......the guy who dangled off the spire at St Mere Eglise for a couple of hours), and then used when the guys had left as a German POW camp. If ONLY I could get at it !

    Anyway. Hope that helps.

    Steve T

    PS Finding a totally awesome site like the above and not being able to get at it is FAR worse than the problems you're having !!

  3. #13

    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    WOW, that is amazing about the 505th PIR prior to D-Day.

    I know I'm very new to this, but have you asked if you can look aver the site? Or is has it been made very clear by the owners that they don't want this. Do they know what the site was? If all is explained that they might give permission, a deal could be struck up, you never know till you ask.

    But thanks again for the tips, tried google earth but sadly for me, all i get to look at are trees! and thousands of them

  4. #14

    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    Dan

    If all you see are trees you're onto a good site. This means the land has never been dug up, ploughed, built over or anything else. Whatever the POWs dropped will still be there, waiting for you to come along and dig it up !

    One word of caution though. You need to keep your site to as few people as possible until you've had a good go at it yourself. Not everyone that views this forum is a member, and not everyone follows our unspoken 'professional' conduct. Divulge too much info and the site will be cleared out in a matter of weeks.

    As for the Quorn site.......the reason you even saw it here is because the place is like Fort Knox. 10 foot high walls, topped with barbed wire......Warning signs about trespassers being castrated everywhere......no Chance of ANYONE gaining access, with or without permission. If I thought for a second I might get permission I'd have never posted it Really it is an example of what tools to use to find a site, and how not all sites are searchable !

    Indeed, I've just visited an airfield where I could ID the site of the barracks......wooded areas there in the war and now. This is fantastic to find.

    You can hear the 'but' coming can't you.....

    BUT ! I get there and the wood is surrounded by a 'hedge'. Half way down the road, a little sign saying 'Gamekeepers Lodge' and next to it a bigger sign saying 'Trespassers will be prosecuted. No hawkers. No salesmen. No visitors'.



    ...another site down the toilet....DAMMIT !



    Steve T

  5. #15

    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    quick update... I have found a series of foundations. I think this maybe it! I have taken photos of what I could. So I guess next thing is to plan a look round anyone want to set a date?

  6. #16
    ILH
    ILH is offline
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    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    I'm interested, but digging romans for the next 6 weeks (busman's holiday).

    I'll pass your email to a friend in RMARG, he's been looking at the oxfordshire POW camps and if he doesn't have info on it, he should know someone who does.

    Good luck!
    jim.

  7. #17

    Default Re: POW camp Oxon

    Quote by dangermouse View Post
    Hi Steve, thanks for the tips

    I am really finding any info on the site really hard. Apart from the camp number etc, thats about all i can find... seem to be getting nowhere on the info side.

    Also haven't been able to go running last few days as have been feeling ill so desperate to get out!!!

    Dan

    Hi Dan,

    Take it easy mate, do plenty of research beforehand and take your time, it takes some patience and perserverence, check the site out yourself and approach the landowner(s).

    Do not mention detecting at first, go with books, maps, aerial photos, whatever you have got and try to gauge how interested the owners of the land are in what you have found out about the site.

    Ask to walk the area and after going there a couple of times ask if it would be possible to detect there.

    At first go on your own or with one other person.

    It works.

    Steve


    P.S. On the information side, nothing can beat local knowledge, it might seem daft but ask around in a local pub, a library, go to a nearby farm and knock on the door, often you'll pointed in the direction of an old couple in the village who everyone knows or a local historian, they are often the key to meeting other people, that's where the best info comes from.

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