Clifton upon Teme

Discussion in 'UK PoW Camps' started by Robert-w, Aug 29, 2019.

  1. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    There was a POW camp in this village. The site is now occupied by the Scout Hut etc. It originally held Italians who worked on farms in the Teme Valley. However from about 1943/44 most of them accepted cooperator status and were moved to a hostel in Tenbury Wells and they were replaced in the camp by Germans who also worked on the farms. I assume that it was a satellite camp for a larger one. Does anyone know what this would have been and what was the official designation for the camp at Clifton upon Teme? A couple of the Germans married local girls after the war and settled in the neighbourhood but they are gone now. A violin made by an occupant of the camp was recently auctioned in Ludlow.
     
  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  3. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

  4. Pete Wood

    Pete Wood Member

    Okay, here is my theory - and it is just that. Because the whole PoW numbering and renumbering system has baffled me for years. Basically, the lower the number, the earlier the camp. So the single digit camps are 1, 2, 3 etc and date from 1939/40.

    From what I can see, by known dates, the camps with number 200+ are late war camps (1944 onwards).

    It is not one of the known main camps, which tend to be larger. So, as you say, Clifton Upon Teme is probably a satellite camp.

    The closest is either Camp 54 - Longbridge Camp, Hampton Lovett, Droitwich. Or Camp 84 - Sheet Farm, Ludlow.

    Some of the Satellite Camps, in 1943, are known (but only, I believe, for Italian PoW Camps). There has been a lot of research by the Italians on this, interviewing former PoWs.

    See if any of these known Satellite Camp names, for Camp 54, mean anything to you:

    1 CSD Kidderminster (we can obviously discount this one)
    2 Stoulton
    3 Woods Lane
    4 Moor Lane
    5 Charlton Manor

    If, as I suspect, it was a Satellite Camp, for Camp 54, that would have been its designation (the number of the main camp). I am no expert on PoW mail, but I have noticed (looking at mail on eBay) that, during the war, the Mail was sent to/from the Main Camp - and stamped, probably in this case, Camp 54. But after the war ended, I have noticed some (!) mail being sent to, for example, Camp 54 (Woods Lane). In other words, after the war ended, things got more lax when it came to the addresses.

    If the above names mean nothing to you, with regard to Clifton Upon Teme, then try doing a search on eBay for Clifton Upon Teme in PoW Mail. You never know your luck. I have found a few 'new' camps, that are not listed anywhere on the web, using this approach.

    Please do keep us posted. It is camps like this, that is the reason the new UK PoW sub-forum was set up. It is such an under researched field, and we need all the help and input if we are to solve these puzzles. My estimate is that there at least 1000 Satellite Camps and Hostels in the UK. I have made a start on collating some of them. But this one is new to me, so thanks for posting.

    The later camps in Worcestershire are:

    277 South Littleton
    277A Fladbury
    287 Perdiswell Hall, Claines
    689 Blackmore Camp, Malvern
     
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  5. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Thanks for this
    It is not any of the satellites for camp 54 that you list. Charlton Manor (which no longer exists) was a large country house in the village of Charlton near Evesham and Stoulton is a village near Pershore. There is no Woods or Moor lane in Clifton upon Severn. The site of the camp in Clifton upon Severn is on Manor Lane. The first reference to Italian POWs in the area is in spring 1942 when a working party cleared and drained Oldwood Common, just outside Tenbury Wells, for agriculture. I have also copies of various accounts by local farmers or their offspring mentioning using Italians on their farms later that year. The Tenbury paper also has an account of a murder on a farm by an Italian POW who had just learnt that close relatives had died in an RAF bombing raid (he was deemed insane and confined to an asylum). In terms of accessibility 84 Sheet seems a more likely 'master' camp.
    BTW do you have a location in Sheet for the camp? There was a Home Guard HQ in Sheet
     
  6. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    You forget im just trying to be helpful on the forum might be an idea to post the resources you have exhausted for future posts
    saves me mucking about trying to be helpful
     
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  7. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    That would be a rather long list which includes all the obvious suspects like local newspapers, parish mags, archives of the local museum (for which I am the volunteer researcher) and the local historical society (of which I am a member)
     
  8. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Robert you appear to be a bit of a internet smug sort so I will let you get on with it .
    When people try to help as many on here do ,try to be a tad grateful for that.
     
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  9. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    I've now found a photo of this camp as it was in the late forties when it became a youth hostel. A very small camp with three huts - a Nissen and two WW1 style wooden huts plus a square building (breeze block possibly) with a flat corrugated iron roof and almost no windows - I'm guessing that this held the latrines and possibly showers. I'd post a copy but I don't hold the copyright.
     
  10. Malcolm56

    Malcolm56 Well-Known Member

    The site at Clifton upon Teme was listed as a hostel for Ledbury Camp 27 in 1943.
     
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