Snape Farm (Weston) POW Camp - Nov 09
 

Today I finally made it to the POW camp at Snape Farm, Weston, and what a cornucopia of rust it turned out to be! An excellent place for a good mooch with plenty of original material to discover. I particularly liked the drawing on the wall in one of the huts, but it is a great pity that part has been covered over by cement render at some time.

I have tried to find out a bit more about this camp but there is almost nothing on the internet. Indeed, the lists of POW camps all omit this one apart from the site that invites reminiscences from former prisoners. There is a suggestion on a local authority report that Weston house both German and Italian prisoners at different times.

Crewe Hall was originally an Officers camp for German And Italian POW's that were trusted. They were then moved out to these satellite camps when the American Army moved in. Weston was one of those used for the POW's that worked on the local farms during the week, being shipped back in at weekends. I know a lot of Italians married into local families and stayed on after the war, being highly thought of by the farming families they worked with. Quite a large contingent worked in the area around Astbury. The next nearest POW camp that also housed Italians was Toft Hall just outside Knutsford, but I am not sure if any of them left that POW site to work.

Weston just appears to be one of those satellite camps that gets overlooked not having its own designated number, which is a shame.

However am pleased to see its still standing.

Snape Farm
 

Hi,
I came across this site almost by accident. Snape Farm was my Family home.

My father was born on the farm, just before the war. The site was originally commissioned as an anti aircraft defence site, to defend Crewe. The camp was built, and concrete gun placement put in. The Gun platforms were about 1/2 way between the camp, and the current position of the A500.

The guns were never delivered as the threats from bombing had gone. Initially German, then Italian POW's then moved in. My Grandparents stayed in touch with some of the Italians for a long time. After the war, the majority of the building were signed over to the farm, and used as farm buildings.

A couple of the Nissen huts remained untouched though. When my father retired, a huge amount of the fixtures & fittings went to the tip, as we couldn't find any takers - Beds, wardrobes,stoves, woollen blankets etc. Amazing what stuff got stashed.

My father remembers lots of the details of who/why/when.
The Concrete gun platforms were blown up by blaster bates.

If you check out the roof of one of the asbestos roofed huts, you can see the hole where some of the concrete fell. That bust have been a whopper!

Great site. Lovely photos. Guzzijimbo, welcome + what a revealing little narrative.

peace

NMB

Guzzijimbo - pow camp weston
 

Hallo,

I live in Crewe although up till the mid-70s I lived at the Hough. I have passed the POW camp many time, usually to and from the White Lion at Barthomley. In fact, I was born in Englesea Brook and got moved to the Hough when I was 1 year old.

A couple of weeks ago a very good friend of mine asked me to take a photo of the camp as he heard it was due to be knocked down. I went along last week and met the present resident of Snape Farm. He showed me round and gave me some information about the place. I spent an enjoyable couple of hours taking pictures and looking round.

He also told me that the farmer who used to live there (I assume from your posting this could be your dad) still lives in Weston. My visit has sparked my curiosity about the place and I am attempting to compile more information about the camp.

I hope to be able to meet the gentlemen in Weston and see what he can tell me.

Perhaps you could get in touch with me either through this site or e-mail me at: mark_tyrrell1951@hotmail.com

Hope to hear from you soon.

Hello timecoast, thanks for joining.

Hello Gibbo
 

Thanks for the greeting, hopefully I can get some more information re the camp. anything you have I wuld be grateful to look at.

Regards

watcha timecoast. sorry not been around due to technical fuck ups involving teenagers.

when first heard about Weston i did some serious digging around and asking of the WW2 history community, and it seems that weston is a bit of no info site. Weston isn't even listed in the official POW camps records, these referring only to the main camps themselves. satellites would only be referred to in internal papers, probably all held at Kew in boxes upon boxes and never sorted, or were destroyed after the war due to lack of room.

Weston is definitely a sattelite camp to Crewe Hall which held German and Italian [I think] prisoners, which were then probably moved to weston when the GI's took over the hall in the run up to DDay.

As Weson was light security I think it held those POW's that could be trusted, and were shipped out for the week to work on local farms.

The only chance you have is to try and pin down the guy at English Heritage who did some work on POW camps and did cover weston [info never published to my knowledge] but he doesn't tend to answer queries. or to head to Kew and start reading. i suggest staying away from the side where the family history is if you go at weekends, the word chaos does spring to mind.

Good luck

I was told locally that after the war, it was used for Polish refugees for a short while.

quite possibly, Anzio camp at Leek was a Polish camp for a couple fo years before i went back into Army hands. Theres a very big polish population in the area.