Island farm POW camp - A site has beaten me :( :(

[davejb]

Steve, ive been racking my brains as to where ive seen those metal tags before, then suddenly it came to me, there not labels, there seal tags, hence the one hole at the end, wire was threaded through, pulled tight and it showed that the item was sealed, they were designed to either break by bending or twisting, my dads best friend who i called uncle used to work at a company called Radiamp metalworks, in Tottenham, they made various metal fabrications for wartime use including metal pullys and brackets and levers for the Dehavilland Mosquito, when the parts were crated they had this type seal , which were supplied by the war dept, to use on the crates, i found loads of them in an old air raid shelter on site along with all the workers helmets, about thirty of them, took every single one over a year period much to my mums frustration

[ford369]

the padlock you found looks like the type used on kitbags

[Steve T]

Thanks for the information and ID guys. It seems as though we're closer to solving the mystery of those damn RMC tags !

Steve T

[skypilot]

I visited Island Farm Camp regularly during 1990 when I lived in Bridgend for a number of months. I did not own a detector at the time and thus only found a few blank cases of the type shown (.303" and 9mm).

I did however, extensively photograph the site and will be more than happy to post pictures if they are of interest.

[davejb]

Please show the photos Skypilot, it would be interesting to see the site that many yrs ago and compare to what is left

[skypilot]

Here's a few that I already had scanned on to my hard drive. I'll try and get some more done over the weekend.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Superb pictures thanks for showing them, you've recorded history with those. It's a crying shame they were bulldozed. I hope some were saved and are now safe in a museum somewhere. If you have more pics please post them when you can.
Thanks very much.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Mccall012]

You probably already know or someone has already said, but careful with those rifle rounds as some of them are still active

[skypilot]

Hmmm, struggling to find more pics. I've got one but that's all I could find in a preliminary search! What I do recall is that in the picture with me pretending to have a wee was the false wall with all the dirt. I had no idea what it was till years later - it was the excavated dirt from the tunnel used in the mass escape.

As I recall there was an area slightly away from the huts that had a big building that I was told was a mess hall - it may or may not have been and very near it was what was obviously some kind of underground room(s), definitely not shelters. I would imagine that these are still there? I had heard a hotel was going to be built on the site but I don't think anything is happening there at all now, which is rather a shame as it means the buildings were destroyed for no good reason whatsoever.

If I find more pictures i will indeed post them but I fear that I may have had a cull at some point in the past. That said, all of these threads have prompted me to dig out (pun intended!) my various photos from the years of digging and collecting......and more importantly, dust off the detector!

[skypilot]

Here's the sole remaining picture of my own.

This link however is to a fantastic site run by a VERY knowedgeable chap. He and I corresponded for a while and swapped photos. If you check his site you'll see he has loads more photos taken around the same time as mine.
BRIDGEND GERMAN POW CAMP, ISLAND FARM CAMP 198 / SPECIAL CAMP XI

There's also some very good links to other sites of potential interest. One of the best websites around for this sort of thing.