Chrishall
Military site
Self.
Object Number - UPL 14386 - Photograph taken in 2015 showing a water tank in Chrishall wood, previously a military site used by the Americans. Frame is original but tank has...
On the Cambridgeshire/Essex border immediately to the west of Duxford 357. This site was used as accommodation and comprised Nissen huts, ablution block, latrines and mess hall, some of which remain today. One of the last non-airfield sites to be derequisitioned after the war it was used by the Ministry of Housing to accommodate displaced persons.
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Detailed History
Considerable research has been conducted by the Trumpington Local History Group (at http://www.trumpingtonlocalhistorygroup.org/subjects_POWCamp.html ), and Rachel Radford of the Ickleton Village archives (at http://ickleton.org.uk/wordpress/the-village-2/archives), and this site has been identified as one of the hundreds of POW camps across the country.
This site became Camp 45 (Chrishall Grange), part of the Trumpington Camp, the main part of which was in the area of Anstey Hall, Ickleton. Chrishall Grange was likely to be used to lodge POWs and Displaced Persons, in the scheme to utilise local farms as accommodation, although Chrishall Grange only seems to have come on stream in 1947.
The National Archives hold the following relevant documents:
FO 939/311 180 Working Camp, Trumpington Camp, Cambridgeshire and Radwinter Camp, Saffron Walden, Essex. Dated 1946-1948
FO 936/177 Youth activities: Trumpington youth camp project. Dated 1947-1948
FO 944/977 Trumpington German youth camp: proposals. Dated 1948.
FO 944/427 Trumpington: civilian agricultural camp. Dated 1948-1949.
FO 371/70705 Trumpington camp for young German agricultural workers: organisation. Dated 1948.
Revisions
Barry Anderson, Army Air Forces Stations (Alabama, 1985) / Paul Francis, RAF Duxford Historic Appraisal, 1917-1961 (2010)
