Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Prisoner of war camp on Badgers Rake Lane

This will help, click on "get the data"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk#data

Apologies but this is going to be a complicated reply but I'll give as much information as I have got and so you can also draw your own conclusions.

The nearest POW camp on the official complete list is No 298 Parkgate, this is stated as a former HAA gunsite, which was quite common practice. The coordinates given place it at Parkgate front by Bevyl Road and is highly unlikely to be either a POW camp or gunsite.

The next nearest camp being at Little Sutton

There are no corresponding records of a gunsite at the Parkgate location, the nearest being at Willowbrow Road/Willow Lane, Ledsham.

The next nearest gunsite being southwest of Puddington.

However, it was not uncommon for numbers of Prisoners of War to be lent to individual farms etc on a residential basis, so while they weren't official POW Camps, they did have POWs living there who were often free to roam the local community and hence are often well remembered.

The records for gunsites are very comprehensive other than HAA guns on military bases (including dockyards) are not recorded.

The one on Anglesey must have been enormous

Gdn ID: 334
National Grid Reference (NGR ): SJ 3528 7594
OS sheet no.: 117
Camp no.: 283
Name & Location, County, Country: W.D. Camp, Ledsham Hall, Ledsham, Little Sutton, Cheshire, England
County: Cheshire
Country: England
Cond’n: 3
Type 1945: German Working Camp
Comments: Large complex of teneted accomodation with a small number of huts

Thanks Hoseman, that one didn't appear on the map and ties up with the HAA gunsite. I'm sure W10694 did a comprehensive article on that one.

Doh!!!! Little Sutton and Ledsham were one and the same!

Oh yes!!

Yes there was, it appears it was a tented work camp at the hall next to the Oaks which I believe was RAF HQ at one time and not too far from Hooton Park and Ledsham relief land ground by the railway, it's in a book called WWII Cheshire airfields.

Although it isn't the one mentioned here, I know of one, still largely intact, not far from Crewe. I used to holiday as a child in a village near the camp and remember the prisoners working on the local farms. Here's an aerial view..
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=sv9gf4gt14gy&lvl=18&dir=0&sty=b&form=LMLTCC

Looking at the OS maps on-line for the grid reference, (http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/), the location appears to be in Ledsham Hall Lane, 53 16 38 North by 2 58 18 West. You can enter this location into Google Earth, and wind the aerial photographs back to 1945. You can't enter the NGR as far as I know. I can't see any tents. There again, I can't see any tents further down Badgers Rake Lane, either.
Could it be that some false data was entered, should it be that the info got into the wrong hands?

Thank you all very much for your replies:)

Thanks Hoseman,that sounds right.When our friend mentioned the camp, we were near Ledsham Hall Lane.Thanks again

A couple of items.

This is an obituary of the Ledsham PoW camp commander from Puddington, also a terrific tale of him shooting down a German bomber.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1416326/Captain-Bill-Higgin.html

I have no idea where I got this from (probably Google Earth 1945), but shows the camp:

Thank you very much for posting this.It made very interesting reading,seems he was quite a guy! I showed it to my son and he found it interesting as well.My apologies for not posting sooner, I hadn't been on here for a while.
Angela