Introduction
A quick stop off on the way back from another site with @Wastelandr. We originally intended to do something a bit better for the last location of the day, but it was too late.
Information & History
Prisoner of War camps, often abbreviated as POW camps, are defined as ‘sites of containment of enemy combatants by a belligerent power in time of war’. These camps were introduced in the late 18th Century during the French Revolutionary Wars. The camps have been used in many conflicts over the last few hundred years. The UK had around 400 of these camps including 52 in Scotland, and were occupied by marines, sailors and soldiers.
The Hatfield camp was one of these 400, and was known as ‘High Hall’. It housed approximately 1500 Italian, Austrian and German soldiers and they would work on nearby farms. It was set up during the Second World War, was non-Nazi and could hold around 750 people. Two satellite camps were constructed nearby in Matching Tye and Bishop’s Stortford, but those were on a smaller scale.
Below is an old aerial photograph of the site, but I’m not sure of the exact year it was taken:
The Explore
A nice relaxed one to finish the day, access was relatively easy and we spent around an hour taking photos and looking around. The main appeal for me was the water tower and climbing it, however, the original ladder had been chopped down and couldn’t be bothered to tackle the new make-shift way of getting up there… oh well, there’s always next time!
Photos
Thanks for looking.
A quick stop off on the way back from another site with @Wastelandr. We originally intended to do something a bit better for the last location of the day, but it was too late.
Information & History
Prisoner of War camps, often abbreviated as POW camps, are defined as ‘sites of containment of enemy combatants by a belligerent power in time of war’. These camps were introduced in the late 18th Century during the French Revolutionary Wars. The camps have been used in many conflicts over the last few hundred years. The UK had around 400 of these camps including 52 in Scotland, and were occupied by marines, sailors and soldiers.
The Hatfield camp was one of these 400, and was known as ‘High Hall’. It housed approximately 1500 Italian, Austrian and German soldiers and they would work on nearby farms. It was set up during the Second World War, was non-Nazi and could hold around 750 people. Two satellite camps were constructed nearby in Matching Tye and Bishop’s Stortford, but those were on a smaller scale.
Below is an old aerial photograph of the site, but I’m not sure of the exact year it was taken:
The Explore
A nice relaxed one to finish the day, access was relatively easy and we spent around an hour taking photos and looking around. The main appeal for me was the water tower and climbing it, however, the original ladder had been chopped down and couldn’t be bothered to tackle the new make-shift way of getting up there… oh well, there’s always next time!
Photos
Thanks for looking.
