Report - POW Camp 18 - Featherstone - August 2015

[UrBaN2k14]

Featherstone POW Camp

Featherstone POW Camp is situated on the grounds of Featherstone Castle on a very nice stretch of the South River Tyne, a mile north of Lambley.
After only finding out this place existed earlier this week I decided to plan a nice weekend trip to see what remains.
I was loosely escorted around the site by a security bull for a while until it eventually strolled off to another part of the site.
Some of the stories about what happened at Featherstone and the POWs are very interesting and insightful.​

Brief History from Here

"Camp 18", bordering the South Tyne river and stretching across a mile of Featherstone Park, was constructed in 1944 to accommodate US personnel prior to their departure to Normandy for the Invasion of France. Emptied of Americans, the camp was for several months used to hold Italian prisoners of war, but in 1945 it was converted to hold "Black Nazis"; the most fervent believers in Hitler's Germany, who would only be repatriated after a thorough course of denazification. It was not particular to any one section of the Reich; Wehrmacht officers, captured U-Boatmen, Luftwaffe pilots, bureaucrats, diplomats and ambassadors were all represented. The most senior resident was General Ferdinand Heim, a veteran of Stalingrad and chief of staff to the Sixth Army, captured in 1944 when his garrison defending Boulogne surrendered. Consisting of some 200 huts in four compounds, Camp 18 was one of the largest officer POW camps in Britain, at one time housing 4,000 officers and 600 orderlies.

Despite the obvious challenge of making the most hardline Nazis into good citizens fit for the new Germany, the operation was an enormous success, so much so that in 1947 the barbed wire fencing around the camp was removed. It was said that the Featherstone more resembled a university campus than a POW camp; prisoners would be sent out to work on local farms during the day, but at night they would study, and received lectures from Durham, Newcastle, even some Oxford academics. It was a system that quickly prepared these men for flourishing careers in the new Germany, some even went on to play a political role in its foundation.

The camp had its own chapel, theatre, library, medical centre, even a bakery and sewerage system. It had a newspaper; Die Zeit am Tyne, printed in Hexham, and, making use of the great pool of talent in the camp, it boasted three orchestras and its own puppet theate, which entertained various audiences across Northern England.

A bunch of old photographs can be found Here

I know my photos aren't the best, my camera didn't like the light on the day, but they'll do.

The erosion damaged entrance gate

What the entrance gate looked like when in operation

A plaque on the entrance gate

Inside the site looking towards the entrance

The remaining buildings are all now used for Agricultural purposes

These outline where some of the buildings stood

One of 4 remaining buildings

There are many rows of foundations which can be seen better from an aerial viewpoint

It was quite a large site

The biggest of the remaining buildings

What the above type of building may have looked like

Thanks for looking ​