
Location
Stanhope Close, Holsworthy, Devon
Description
Site Visits
August 2019
Material
DSLR and Drone Photos
UK Foreign Office Inspection Report
This site was on which English Heritage failed to locate but minimum research and checking was needed to confirm that the site is located in what is now Stanhope Close. The area is post war council type housing that backs onto a local park.
Whilst the site was cleared and there are no traces of the past the replacement of military prefabs with identical housing is almost an analogue of what was there. This was especially true of a small row of semidetached bungalows that look like the old huts. One of the shots was of No 42 one of the bungalows again as an analogue of what was there. The other interesting observation is in the park that backs onto the housing:
Trees have been planted and at the base of each tree is a memorial plaque of WWI Soldiers and are marked as Holdsworth Remembers. Of these I found No 32 to be the most poignant as it is Private Frank Gilbert – Died in Captivity.
I wonder if the people that placed this specific marked realised that it was next to a former PoW Camp?
Camera Images of the site of former PoW Camp 42 Exhibition Field









Extracts from UK Foreign Office Inspection Report from UK National Archives Kew:
FO 939-124 PoW Camp 42 Exhibition Field
FO 1120/183 PoW Camp List 20Feb47 inc PoW Camp 42