marc leroux Posted 15 March , 2004 Share Posted 15 March , 2004 I came across the following description of the accomodations at Kinmel Park concentration camp, where my grandfather was stationed awaitng transport back to Canada. "Accommodation was in 'Spiders', 3 rooms per platoon, with the ablutions in the middle. Each room holding 16 to 18 men! We each had one bed and one locker! Locker and bed layouts, etc. were the order of the day and we used to keep our own rifles (SLR) and bayonets in our lockers???" Would anyone have any sketches or photos of the buildings that they would be willing to share? Thanks marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 17 March , 2004 Share Posted 17 March , 2004 I have my grandfather's photos of Kinmel Park when he was there, assuming that there is only one and it is the one near St. Asaph. A typical one is on my website: My Webpage (click on the tab 'There's a book coming' and scroll). I am sure this is not what you are looking for, however. The Cheshires' Military Museum in Chester was very helpful to me when I was looking for information on Kinmel. Eventually they found me a very very old man who was able to identify the very huts!! (So he said.) I'm not sure whether you're in the UK or not; so if you can't contact the Regimental Museum, please post again because I quite often go there, or at least to Chester and I need to visit again. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted 17 March , 2004 Share Posted 17 March , 2004 Marc, I have a plan of the camp as it was in 1919. If you would like to send me private message via the forum and give an email address, I'll post you a scan of it. (It's a big file. If I reduced it to the usual size required by the forum, you wouldn't be able to read any of the descriptive text.) Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc leroux Posted 17 March , 2004 Author Share Posted 17 March , 2004 Thanks, Gwyn. I followed your link, but wasn't sure which picture was from Kinmel Park (north Wales near Ryl). I was looking for some photos of the accomodation there. This was a staging area for some of the Canadian troops awaiting transport back to Canada in 1919. My Grandfather was there for a period of time in. Tom, I've sent an off forumn eMail. Many thanks for the map offer. marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 17 March , 2004 Share Posted 17 March , 2004 Thanks, Gwyn. I followed your link, but wasn't sure which picture was from Kinmel Park The line-up outside a hut. Titled something like NCOs and... Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ray hoggart Posted 11 April , 2004 Share Posted 11 April , 2004 Hello Marc, The camp at Kinmel became the Training depot for Royal Artillery Signallers and Drivers and was in use as such 'till 1960 and if I'm not mistaken the same spiders were still there and being used. I did my training there in 1960 as one of the last National Servicemen. As the name spider suggests there were 6 barracks to a unit with the ablutions for all six rooms in the centre along with a drying room/washroom etc. I went back to the camp in 1988 and although most of it had gone there may have been a spider or two left, not sure, by then it was a T/A unit or something. On my return from leave on one occasion a taxi driver told me that there had once been a mutiny by Canadian troops but it may have been just a story. I do remember in each room there was a rack along one wall to stand 18/20 rifles in so that all rifles could be placed in the rack with a bar slotting through the trigger guard with one padlock in the end but by 1960 no-one had personal small arms anyway. I do have odd photographs but they give no idea of what the spider was really like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pete Wood Posted 11 April , 2004 Share Posted 11 April , 2004 This is a layout (not exactly to scale) of spider accomodation, as I remember it (some 20 odd plus years ago). The first platoon would take up rooms 1-3, while the second platoon would take rooms 4-6. The drying room at the top (head) was quite large and was often an office. A junior NCO, usually a Corporal would often have a partitioned bedspace in the corner of each room. There was a wood/coal stove in the middle of each room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc leroux Posted 11 April , 2004 Author Share Posted 11 April , 2004 Many thanks! This is a great layout and gives a good idea of why they were called 'spiders'. marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 17 April , 2004 Share Posted 17 April , 2004 Hello Marc I asked a few questions of the archivist at Chester military museum this morning and I will send you some information by private message. I was interested from my own point of view anyway, as my grandfather was at Kinmel for a little while. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 17 April , 2004 Share Posted 17 April , 2004 In 1955 we used to have to do nighttime "Prowler Guards" where you were supposed to wander round the camp in pairs (with pickaxe handles, of course) looking for IRA men coming to loot the armoury. It was boring, tiring and cold in winter. The drying room of the spider was a great place to spend much of your 2 hours on stag. There were 2 provisos:- 1/ Don`t fall asleep and miss the end of the stag and 2/ Don`t get caught. I had the pleasure of spider life in Heathfield Camp, Honiton, Devon and Arborfield Camp, Berkshire. Anyone know if either were of WW1 origin? Phil B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pete Wood Posted 17 April , 2004 Share Posted 17 April , 2004 I had the pleasure of spider life in Heathfield Camp, Honiton, Devon and Arborfield Camp, Berkshire. Anyone know if either were of WW1 origin? Phil B. Arborfield's Princess Marina's spider accomodation was built just after WW2. Some of the 'long' Poperinghe huts were of WW1 vintage, but the spiders were built during WW2. If you can remember the old guardroom at Poperinghe, well it is being rebuilt (the old site was knocked down). See The REME museum website for more details. It still makes me shudder, to look at it; I lost count of the number of times, as a teenager, that I was marking time outside that place - for such crimes as 'being too happy,' having 'loose puttees,' and 'wearing girly stripes.' The spiders at Heathfield camp (wow it was bleak!!) were also constructed in WW2. You're not ex-REME by any chance are you.....?? Pete (ex REME 'Brat') Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc leroux Posted 18 April , 2004 Author Share Posted 18 April , 2004 Thanks, Gwyn I look forward to seeing the material. marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 18 April , 2004 Share Posted 18 April , 2004 Teapots:- 23174750 REME. I was actually at Bailleul barracks for 7 months, down the road from Poperinghe. Didn`t they have 2 sentries on the gate, one by the gate and one up a tall tower nearby? I think they`d actually been raided by the IRA. Was Bailleul a late construction? Phil B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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