Crowle POW Camp was classified as a hostel for the main POW camp at Pingley Farm in Brigg. During the war, the camp housed Italian POWs but from 1946 it housed German POWs. October 1946 – 10 PoWs January 1947 – 55 PoWs June 1947 – 4 PoWs September 1947 – Crowle not mentioned in report. https://www.flickr.com/photos/124804883@N07/albums/72157686755545391 … Read more
My War Memories. The Forties On The Land Hannah Capstick Chapter One June 1940 My write-up has to begin one night in June 1940. Hull was being bombed the same night, the sky being lit up by heavy bombing. Dad had been taken ill a week before, and we kept vigil round his bedside. Morning … Read more
In front of the house at Crowle Grange there is an inscription dating from the end of the Second World War from when the concrete apron was laid. The inscription reads; 9.11.45 Italian POW GC PC BG BM Remember The POW camp in Crowle was located on Mill Road, approximately where Wyvern Close … Read more
Crowle at War. A Schoolboy’s Memories – Part 1 By Bill (once known as Billy) Goldthorp. Background. My mother’s forebears, Tills, Everetts, Oates, etc. had been farmers in the Isle of Axholme for generations. For ten years prior to marriage Doris had been the primary school teacher at Eastoft. Boltgate my grandfather’s farm was a … Read more
GAS MASKS. These were issued to every body early on in the war; there was a serious concern that the Germans would drop gas bombs aimed at the civilian population. We had to carry the gas mask at all times and did so for the first two years of the war. It was believed that … Read more
TRANSPORT. In 1939 very few people from Crowle worked at the steel works. There was no workmen’s bus; you had to have your own transport. My father had the Morris equivalent of The Austin 7. He was allowed a petrol ration to go to work and continue his agency supplying oil and grease to the … Read more
Every body had a bicycle, even my mother. Wicks the Cycle shop sometimes had a new one but many second hand plus numerous spare parts. Inner tubes and tyres could be ordered probably with the area being rural the authorities were more generous with cycle parts than in the towns. Garages, barns, old farm buildings … Read more
Later in the war as Sandtoft became a training and then an active bomber aerodrome. Bomber crashes would occur in the surrounding area. The local lads were usually the first to reach a crash site if it was any where near Crowle. They were always efficient souvenir hunters. The day after the crash, the police … Read more
War Weapons Week. The whole of Crowle, Catholics and Protestants, Women’s Institute, Men’s Clubs, Pubs, Political parties, Sports’ clubs all joined together in a special week dedicated to raising money for the war. The Crowle Show and Gymkhana occurred that week together with children’s sports day with fancy dress competitions etc, etc. All sorts of … Read more
Meat. We had to make do with our ration of beef and mutton. Pork products we had by the barrow load. Ordinary people could give up their bacon ration and were allowed to keep a pig instead but at the start of the war the government took half the pig when it was killed. Farmers … Read more