Lodge Moor POW Camp
Location/Address
Redmires Road, Lodge Moor, Sheffield
Type
Other site, structure or landscape
Assets that cannot fit any of the other categories. This category includes sites of archaeological interest, where the original form and function may not be apparent without the use of archaeological techniques and interpretation.
Description
Former purpose-built prisoner of war camp built in 1939, which was cleared in around 1949 before being planted as woodland in 1958. Built to house 11,000 prisoners, making it potentially the largest camp in the UK, extensive ruins remain including bases for accommodation huts, ancillary buildings and parts of perimeter fencing.
The area has a long history of military use, having been used as a temporary army camp from 1910 to 1914 and then on a permanent basis by different regiments from 1914 (then known as Redmires Camp). An airfield at the site, initially used from 1912 for exhibition flights, was used in 1916 by a home defence unit tasked with defending against airship attacks. Between 1917 and 1919 the site served as a prisoner of war camp and in the years after the war as a hospital. The site was redeveloped as Lodge Moor Camp in 1939 to detain prisoners of war, including a large compound surrounded by a secure perimeter and containing six regular rows of buildings including dormitories, ablutions, and mess halls. West of the main compound was a less regular range of buildings accommodating the soldiers and administration functions serving the prison. A large area of temporary tented accommodation was added to the west of the administration area during the height of its use. After the war, the site served as a transit camp for displaced civilians, including a large number of Ukrainians. The camp was closed in 1949 and subsequently cleared before being planted as woodland in 1958. Most of the site remains as woodland with a section, within the former ancillary compound, forming a Gypsy and Traveller site.
Sources: Price, D. 2018. Welcome to Sheffield: a migration history; ASE Ltd, 2007. Redmires Camp Plantation, Sheffield: desk-based assessment and level 2 archaeological survey; Thomas, R. 2003. Twentieth Century Military Recording Project: Prisoner of War Camps (1939-1948); 'Camp 17 - Lodge Moor Camp, Redmires Road, Sheffield, Yorkshire' available: https://www.ww2pow.uk/; Hanspn, J. 1995 Sympathy, Antipathy, Hostility: British Attitudes to Non-Repatriable Poles and Ukrainians after the Second World War and to the Hungarian Refugees of 1956, PhD thesis, Sheffield University; 'Aerial Photo - RAF_58_B_41_VP1_5253' available: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/record/RAF_58_B_41_VP1_5253; and various photos available: https://www.picturesheffield.com/.
Statement of Significance
Asset type
Archaeological siteAge
Developed between 1910 and 1949Rarity
Believed to have been the largest prisoner of war camp in the UK during the Second World War, and retaining extensive visible ruins and a high potential for further buried remains.Historic Interest
The camp has a long history of use within the modern period, encompassing activities across both World Wars including entertainment, training, defence, detention of prisoners of war, and transit station for displaced people. The role of the camp, and its effect on those who went through it, is of national importance in terms of its military and social history and as a consequence the site is of particular communal interest, reflected in the presence of an active friends group and regular appearance in the news. Its historical interest is enhanced through association with a number of notable inmates and events, and by the body of surviving photographs and artwork (particularly those of Heinz Georg Lutz, an architect and Wehrmacht officer, held in the camp between 1945 -and 1948). One inmate in the First World War was Karl Dönitz, then Uboat commander and later Supreme Commander of the German Navy and successor to Hitler. It was during his time as a POW that Dönitz is said to have developed the Uboat tactics that would cause so much harm to Allied shipping during the Second World War. The history of the camp for those held there was not generally a happy one, with historical accounts including frequent complaints about the overcrowding, muddy conditions and poor food. There are also reports of beating and a hunger strike in 1948 in objection to the planned forced deportation of displaced Ukrainian prisoners to Germany.Archaeological Interest
There are extensive ruins remaining from Lodge Moor Camp, with a survey in 2007 recording over 200 archaeological features including footings of buildings, surfaces, services, boundaries and deposits. A number of these remains exhibit damage, either resulting from time of demolition or from more recent activity associated with its use as woodland or the construction of the Traveller and Gypsy site, but on the whole the state of survival of above ground remains is good with the footprints of the rows of buildings visible between the trees and undergrowth. It is anticipated that the site will retain extensive buried remains relating to the use and demolition of the camp in the 1930s-40s. Remains of earlier phases of use are also anticipated to survive. These remains are of archaeological importance in possessing the potential to reveal evidence of not only the form and development of the site's previous uses, but also an insight into the routines and living conditions of those who lived here.Landmark Status
Lodge Moor Camp lies on the outskirts of Sheffield within a publicly accessible woodland (Redmires Plantation) adjacent to a well used road leading into the Peak District. The remains are not signposted but are a prominent feature of the woodland, giving strong local character and a sense of distinctiveness.Images and Documents
Date Listed
18 Sep 2023
Last Updated
12 Jun 2023
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