PoW Camp 72 Ducks Cross

A number of original huts have survived at the former Ducks Cross Camp PoW Site is now a site with a mixture of farming, light industry and a couple of houses.

Location

Colesden Road, Ducks Cross, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK44 2QW

Description

Site Visits

May 2019

Material

DSLR and Drone Photos
UK Foreign Office Inspection Report
Original Images

Ducks Cross farm in many ways is an atypical site where several buildings have survived in a good condition. This is a site of a single former PoW Camp has in part been divided up into several parts both of which contain a house and both of which contain a number of modern buildings used for light industry alongside older former PoW accommodation buildings the signs outside the site listing:
• Grovelands Farm
• The Squirrels
• West Bungalow
• SteelBuild
• Bryher Farm

I meet the farmer and owner of the major part of the site show showed me his home and a swimming pool that had been built inside one of the formers PoW Accommodation Huts. I was also shown inside a couple of the huts that are now used for storage but in the past had been adapted and used to raise pigs. Within own of the huts there was a small item of Italian Graffiti, bikes, junk and as I say a swimming pool. One of the things I was shown was a series of photographs of the site as a PoW Camp, copies of which are included within the image set along with DSLR and Drone Images.


Camera and Drone Images of the site of former PoW Camp 72 Ducks Cross


Extracts from UK Foreign Office Inspection Report from UK National Archives Kew and original images from current site owner:

FO 939-153 PoW Camp 72 Ducks Cross – Inspection Reports
FO 1120/183 PoW Camp List 20Feb47 – Inc Camp 72
Original Images