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4th May 2020
Categories: Visitor News
As we approach the 75th anniversary of V E Day which takes place on 8th May, we thought we’d reminisce about Devon’s role in World War Two. From offering refuge to evacuees and being a training ground for GIs, there was plenty going on in Devon during the second world war and many of the historically important sites can still be found in the region today. One such place is Holsworthy’s Stanhope Park.
While it might look like your average park, it was once known as Camp 42, a Prisoner of War Working Camp which housed thousands of prisoners from Germany and Italy from 1942 until 1948.
Many of the camp’s residents were put to work harvesting and providing other manual labour at local farms. They would be driven out to farms across the county where they would spend all day at the farms ploughing, picking crops and providing additional assistance while many of the farmers were called up, before being returned to the camp to sleep before heading back out to work the following morning. Some of the Italian prisoners created stained glass windows which were at one time used to signify the use of one of the camp’s huts as a chapel. The windows are now in Holsworthy’s parish church.
Image: Stained Glass window from Holsworthy Museum on Facebook.
Holsworthy wasn’t the only Prisoner of War camp in Devon either, there were others at Tavistock, Bideford, Okehampton, Honiton and even some on the outskirts of Exeter which mostly housed Italian prisoners, though more German prisoners arrived after the liberation of the Channel Islands.
Nothing but a few foundations left over from the huts remains at these parks across Devon, but you can find out more about the camp at Holsworthy by contacting the local museum.
Image: Holsworthy Viaduct from @lottiemeg on Instagram.
© Visit Devon Community Interest Company
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