PoW Camp 632 Old Windmills

Former site of PoW Camps 632 & 653 Old Windmills Camp. This site is now divided between a L C Hughes Scrap yard and Bicester Caravan & Leisure Caravan Sales site, plus the Bicester Beam Coffee Shop and Café. There are substantial remains on this site with Nissen Huts and a Statue & Fountain made by the PoWs on the Scrap Yard part of the site. The Caravan Sales site main buildings are made up of former PoW Huts as is the Café.

Location

L C Hughes Metal Recycling & Car Breakers, A41 Aylesbury Road, Bicester, Oxfordshire, OX26 6RA

Description

Site Visits

March 2019

Material

DSLR Photos
UK Foreign Office Inspection Report

This is a fantastic site that is reported to contain two camps 632 and 653. The site as it stands today this made up of three main elements:

  • Scrap Yard
  • Caravan Sales Site
  • Roadside Cafe 

Scrap Yard

The scape yard office for L C Hughes is in a small single story portacabin type structure. I went into the office and explained who I was and that I wished to take a number of photographs. I was instructed to sign in,  take a reflexive vest and told to stick to the marked walkway for safety. This place is amazing as it contains several Nissen huts that may be original to the site but also may have been moved around the site. During my site inspection I came across an original WWII gateway through which two prefab huts can be seen in the field next to this site. These huts may be part of this site for example guard quarters or it may be part of a second camp. In a and amongst the cars and scrap in the site there is a large fountain and statue that the site owners said is an original from the PoW Camp. There is through a disturbing feature on this site and that is a sign above a separate compound that says “Bicester Reclaim” as it echo’s the signs in the concentration camps.

Caravan Sales

As per the scrap yard I went into the sales rooms and asked for permission to take a number of photos. I was given permission and told that the sales building was one of the original huts as was the Café. However, both the caravan sales hut and café had been rebuilt. In the case of the Caravan sales building the walls where replaced retaining the rest of the structure.

Roadside Café

The café had closed so I just took a number of photos from outside. Its heritage can be seen in its shape and size. However, the original structures have been replaced by what is now a new building sitting on old foundations.


Camera Images of the site of former PoW Camp 632 Old Windmills


Extracts from UK Foreign Office Inspection Report from UK National Archives Kew:

FO 1120/183 PoW Camp List 20Feb47 inc PoW Camp 632