Second World War prisoner of war camp, Camp 116, Mill Lane (EHER 21265)

The site of a Second World War prisoner of war camp at Hatfield Heath, known as Camp 116. This was a purpose-built, standard type camp.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: The site of a Second World War prisoner of war camp at Hatfield Heath, known as Camp 116. This was a purpose-built, standard type camp. Common buildings and facilities at standard type camps included water towers, offices, officer's mess, a canteen, guard rooms, barrack huts, ablution blocks, cell blocks, a camp reception station (medical facility/hospital), a cookhouse, dining rooms, recreation rooms and living huts or tents. It functioned as a German work camp. The site is currently used as a poultry farm and many of the camp's original structures remain intact. <1> September 2008. Field visit The great majority of the wartime huts do indeed still survive. Aerial photographs from 1960 show that there were around 43 huts and a water tower. These were split into two sections; the accommodation and living facilities for the guards (around 15 huts plus the water tower) and the prisoners’ compound (around 28 huts). The site visit concentrated on the guards’ area. In an overgrown area of wood and thicket it was possible to access almost all of the surviving huts although most are dilapidated and one or two are dangerously so. Nevertheless, survival of POW camps is rare and many of the features are valuable reminders of this type of architecture. This includes rare examples of wall art, two in the largest hut, depicting flowers or plants and a fading boat scene. Artifacts such as light switches, telegraph cables, work surfaces and water piping are still surviving after more than 60 years. The water tower is in particularly good condition, built of brickwork in rectangular plan, a number of storeys high. The prisoner-of-war compound consisting of around 28 huts is now an egg packing company. It lies on open ground to the north of the guards’ area. The site visit was limited to the footpaths around the site but it is clear that almost all of the huts still survive. <1> states that the guards’ area consists of MOWP huts built largely of hollow clay blocks, while the prisoners' compound are of timber Laing huts. Eleven photos of site. Prisoner-of war camps rarely survive in anything like their original form and <1> grades this example the highest of the 13 listed by the report in Essex. Others, however, are known and have been recorded. Lippitts Hill (EHER 10374), was originally a Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun site, then a prisoner-of-war camp. Here the huts, constantly maintained since World War Two, have received listed building status. <2>