Crowle Grange – Concrete apron built by POWs
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 is now located. During the war it housed Italian POWs. The huts were apparently still in situ as late as the 1960s.
John provided some further information as one of the POWs contacted his father after the war;
I have found the letter from from one of the prisoners, which he sent to my father in 1949. It reads as follows:
Scala 9-5-1949
My dear Boy J. Son
I write you for letting you know about my health and of my family, as I would like to know about you and your family.
My dear Mr J. Son I write you also for telling you that I wanted to go back to your farm, for doing a little of work as you like.
If you like that I will come back to England to Crowle, you must do the possible for doing the act of calling me there, so I prepare everything is necessary, about cards and so I can come. I wish very much to see you.
I think that you will be so kind to answer me, and let me know everything.
My best wishes to you and to your wife.
Your
Gino
the prisoner
This the adress
Signor Cappuccio
GABRIELE, SCALA
VIA S. MARIA
(SALERNO)
I regret to say that my father did not reply to the letter, as he already had quite enough men on the farm and did not need Gino’s help, though he did sometimes tell us about Gino and what a good fellow he was. Apparently he was a very good plasterer and builder. The Italian POWs were pleased to be out of the war, and had no wish to escape back to Mussolini’s Italy. In our collection of family photos we have a postcard of Mussolini, bravely steering a ship in a storm. I don’t think he is on our family tree, so I wonder if the postcard might have been given to Dad by one of the POWs? Knowing what Dad thought of old Mussolini, I am surprised he kept it! I went to Sorrento on holiday a couple of years ago, and with hindsight would have been interested to visit nearby Salerno and find the address. I expect Gino must be dead by now, but I wonder if any of his family are still there?
Thanks for the permission.
I am doing Powerpoint Presentations and writing it all up, and will be glad to mention Crowle’s part.
I think the Camp will have been a satellite, but not sure whether Pingley (Brigg) a huge camp, and most likely as it would have been under Lincolnshire’s WarAg committee; Doncaster Racecourse (not sure it was a camp, just a ‘cage’ clearing the thousands captured after D-Day.) or somewhere else – Lodge Moor in Sheffield being a massive 4 part camp for over 14,000?
There was an Italian POW camp just 7 miles from Crowle at Keadby, next to the tidal Trent Bridge. I lived in Gunness, just across the bridge and my family had a newsagency on the A18 road which overlooked a fison’s fertiliser plant across the road and the camp which were c. 50 – 70′ below on the edge of Keadby.
I remember that the last hut standing, through the wire next to the village school on Station road, had an Italian ex-prisoner who had stayed after release and set up a barber’s shop. I seem to think it was there until the 1960s, the field where the camp once stood having been returned to agriculture already.
Hi – Thanks. Strictly there were two POW camps at Keadby. The Camps at Keadby, Crowle, Sandtoft and several other locations were all satellite camps or billets, as they were referred to in the official reports, of the main camp at Pingley, the other side of Brigg. It appears that when the inspectors visited they did not bother travelling to Crowle as they interviewed Crowle inmates at Keadby. Unfortunately, the records from during the war when they were occupied by Italian POWs no longer exist but the records for just after the war when the inmates were German do exist and are at the National Archives. I have copies of the documents relating to Crowle.
Copies of the documents relating to Crowle can be seen here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/124804883@N07/albums/72157686755545391
Thanks for sharing.
Look for the street VIA S. MARIA, Scala, SALERNO on Google Earth and you can go along it. You missed out there – it’s just inland from the wonderful Amalfi coast.
I am doing a history of POW camps across S Yorkshire and all of Notts and was glad to find your pieces on here. We have family living On Mill Lane across from Wyvern.
I was there today thanks for the Apron sign location. Is there any other documentary or local info on the camp – especially a photo/Aerial?
Kevin Murphy
Hi Kevin,
Many thanks for your comments. Unfortunately I have not seen any photographs of the camp which seems surprising as the buildings lasted until the 60’s or thereabouts – John could recall seeing the buildings when he was at school.
Please share any information you do find on the site.