The Term “Drill Hall” is or rather was associated with the assembly place for the Territorial Army as formed from the UK Territorial Force between the 1^st and 2^nd World Wars. These places tend to be halls within outline areas of cities and which were also hired as party and celebration venues. A good example of this is the Drill Hall in Lincoln as well as the one in Oakham.

The English Heritage Report of 2003 on PoWs Camps identifies and provides the location of this camp stating that the site is now occupied with an Industrial Estate. This report although it served to highlight the presence of old PoW Camps is replete with Errors and Omissions. Given the size of the Industrial Estate and the age and size of the buildings there are in what is now Derby Road Industrial Estate there are a few possible explanations:

• There was a “Conventional Sized” Drill Halls as one of the buildings on this site
• The site was that of a much larger TA / Army Depot such as a “Drill Hall” for Cavalry, Artillery, Logistics / Transport unit.
• The site was a storage deport
• OR that this location is incorrect.

The most probable explanation if you assume this is the correct site that it was a TA assembly dept with equipment storage.

As to what the site is today; it’s a mixed industrials unit with Car, Motor Bike and Furniture Sales businesses along the front with Engineering companies to the rear and a microbrewery in the middle