Historian Martyn Taylor looks into life at the Hardwick Heath World War Two PoW camp, in Bury St Edmunds
On the south of Bury St Edmunds, this heathland once owned by the Cullum family would become a prisoner of war camp designated as Camp 260.
It was obvious, with the Allies winning World War Two, numerous prisoners of war were captured from the Axis Powers, these mainly from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
With the surrender of the latter in September 1943, fewer PoWs from that country were to be housed in England and as the war progressed, naturally, there were more Germans captured.
By September 1946, there were still an astonishing 386,000 German PoW's in the UK, mainly working on the land and on construction projects.
Camp number 260, at Hardwick Heath, with camp commandant Lt Col F V Oborne and Capt Kenneth Ashby as adjutant, was built of Nissen Huts, named after Canadian engineer Lt Col Peter Nissen, who designed them in World War One.
They were prefabricated cylindrical structures made with a steel frame and corrugated iron, their lengths were 16ft, 24ft and 30ft long respectively.
At Camp 260 there were four blocks of 16 huts in each block. At first they were to house Italian prisoners captured in the North African campaign, but as their numbers dwindled, so German PoW’s replaced them.
The German prisoners at Hardwick Heath had their own newsletter called ‘Lager-echo’, which continued to be produced up to February 1948.
Such was life at the camp, a Nissen hut was even converted into a church for Catholics and Protestants, capacity around 300, one of whom was a competent artist and who decorated the altar with biblical scenes.
Farmers used to collect prisoner work-parties: Bury St Edmunds Borough Council records show that some of the new roads for the Mildenhall Road estate started in 1946 were built by prisoners of war. They were paid the going rate for the job; ‘no fraternising’, even in church was enforced.
The PoW’s were returned to camp each night, as far as known, remarkably there were no permanent escapees. Several PoWs were sent to work at the Gibraltar Barracks in the cookhouse, messes and carrying out gardening jobs.
At its height, the camp had around 800 PoWs. One amazing bravery report from May 1947 was for PoW Gottfried Dappert, working at Lawshall, who saved the life of farmer Mr Rose, who was being attacked by a raging bull. He managed to restrain the beast and tie it up.
For this act of heroism this former blacksmith received an Illuminated Address from the Carnegie Trust and an inscribed watch.
Other PoW assistance was during March 1947, with PoWs helping in the clearing of snow off country roads following late heavy snowfalls.
Not all life at the camp was a bed of roses – troubled LCpl Julius Wehan hanged himself in a secluded wood out near Denston Hall while on work detail.
As more German PoWs were brought to England, they were distributed far and wide, including at Fornham Hall, near Fornham St Genevieve, requisitioned by the War Department.
The designated number for it was Camp 186 – previously this number was allocated to the large PoW camp at Berechurch Hall, Colchester, which recently closed. Some of the German Fornham Hall PoWs even formed a choir and sang regularly at the Railway Mission Hall, in Fornham Road, Bury.
One German PoW story from my Bury Memories book of 2015 concerned Johann Hopfensperger (born 1923).
In his own words: “I was called up for the Wehrmacht in 1940 and joined the 23rd tank division.
“Two war injuries I received still affect me to this day. One, was when I was sandwiched between two tanks resulting in my leg being damaged, the second from hand grenade shrapnel in my neck on the Russian front.
“However, it was while I was in Normandy, in 1944, that I was captured by the Americans and taken to Cherbourg. There were two ships waiting to take PoWs to Southampton, one newly painted, the other not so. I said to my friend ‘let’s get on the old one’ as it was less likely to get bombed by the Germans.
“In England I was taken first to Birmingham, where I spent Christmas 1944, then on to Colchester before ending up in Bury. I alternated between a small camp at Drinkstone and Bury before settling down at the camp at Hardwick.
“I went to several farms in the area; one at Boxted, near Glemsford, was where I had to get up at 5am in the morning to milk 40 cows. I was asked whether I would help with the harvest, I said no thanks as we only got paid camp money for use in the canteen there. The beer wasn’t too bad here, providing you strained the hops out first!
“When working for Mr Gittus I was told, along with others, to pick up all the potatoes in the field before the tractor and trailer returned. Once he said to me ‘how come you Germans always finish before those Italians?’.
“I was in Tilbury when the war finished but came back to Bury in 1947, although I wasn’t allowed the freedom out of the camp until a year later, when I could go into town.
“I got to know Mr Taylor, the hairdresser next to the Odeon, and via him acquired an American serviceman’s jacket which I dyed in an old tin bath. With the help of a Mrs Hawkins, I then got a ladies long coat, gave it to George the tailor at the camp and he made a smart pair of trousers from it for me. I was then able to walk about town unrecognisable as a PoW until one lady came up to me and said: “I know you, you’re one of them PoWs.” That lady was Vera Brettell, who went to dances with me at the Co-op Hall and later became my wife.
“After we married I worked at Hawkins fish and chip shop, in Brentgovel Street, and went on to own the Westley estate fish and chip shop, then progressing on to the one in Risbygate Street, which I purchased off Mrs Brinkley. Everyone came to know me as John.”
The Bury Free Press photograph from 1987 is of former PoWs; Johann Hopfensperger on the right, then Rudi Gross and on the left Emil Weingarter.
After the war had finished, attention turned to what to do with the buildings on the heath and also the Hutments billeting the Army camp guards at the nearby Hand Laundry site.
So a special council meeting was convened on July 22, 1948, with a consultant architect, Mr H Lister-Coates, the mayor R V Willcox, two aldermen, G H Pemberton and E J Sewell and five other councillors to discuss the possibility of these being converted into temporary housing.
Various resolutions were passed:
• To draw up plans to convert the huts into living units
• Obtain the use of the huts for temporary housing
• The huts to be used for housing for a period of five years
• A chlorinator to be purchased and installed, if necessary, for purifying the water supply to the camp
• Standpipes to be erected at intervals for the purpose of supplying water for the huts
• Mr Norton be approached to accept the position of maintenance fitter to maintain the water and sewage services for Hardwick Camp and the huts at the rear of the Flax Factory, in Hardwick Road
• Plans to be submitted for this committee to approve before the submission of such plans to the Ministry of Health. • Finally: “The council has been invited by the Ministry of Health to consider accepting a transfer of the requisition of the huts at the rear of the Flax Factory, Hardwick Road, for the purpose of temporary housing accommodation.”
Eventually, £200 was spent on each hutment. With the closure of the camp there was a very sad ending for many of the numerous pet dogs and cats that could not be re-housed by the RSPCA – they were euthanised.
With more than 900 housing applicants, the hutments were put to good use by locals and returning soldiers and their families.
Rent was 10 shillings (50p) and as the new council houses on the Mildenhall Estate were finished people moved into these.
Their ‘old homes not very user friendly’, extremely cold in the winter, and were ultimately demolished.
Today, some concrete hardstands are all that remain. Johann’s son Paul is seen on one of these, his hope that a large chunk (shown) salvaged from one might be memorialised for the PoWs. As for the Hand Laundry huts, they became Hardwick Industrial Estate, beginner units for burgeoning businesses. These, too, are now gone, replaced by new housing.
Part of Brian Hoddy’s family archive shows his national identity card, plus a photo of him as a child with his parents Stan and Hilda.
They temporarily lived at 49 Nowton Road, with Brian’s grandparents, before moving into no 56 Hardwick Camp with a young Brian and his even younger sister, Patricia, finally being rehoused to a new house at 15 Bunbury Road, Mildenhall Estate, in June 1951.
