Listing of Great War Sites in the UK

[Peter Shand]

An interesting topic indeed. My great-uncle Walter Dixon trained with the 8th Bn Border Regiment in late 1914 at Codford Camp in Wiltshire and in the winter of 1914/ 15 was at a camp at Boscombe, presumably just east of Bournemouth. In 1915, the battalion went to Aldershot before going to France in September 1915.

Using Google Maps, I found the location of the Codford Camp (and a link to a wikimedia set of images, including practice trenches and huts) but have not located the Boscombe Camp site.

Being an expat and planning a trip to the UK and the WF, a locator, such as you are discussing, would be a great help in determining whether the sites are worth a visit. A database of camp location by Google Earth coordinates and present day description would be a fantastic resource.

Perhaps GWF Pals could volunteer to be the contact for a county or area identified as a local resource to collect data and compile it in a common format?

MagicRat: thanks for the post #21 on the Fovant Badges. Fascinating memorabilia which should be preserved.

Cheers, Pete

[Brian Curragh]

Pete

Thanks for the comment - you can drop the pointers into Google Earth on your own PC - there's an icon just above the map which will prompt you to download the dataset which will then open in Google Earth.

Codford Camp - is there anything visible on Google Maps? Where was the camp in relation to the Australian badge? If there's something visible, we can add a pointer.

Regards

Brian

[AlanCurragh]

Pete/Brian - I don't think there are any traces of the camp remaining at Codford - I have a book about the village during both world wars - "Warriors for the Working Day" by Romy Wyeth - the book has several maps of the area showing 15 or so camp buildings scattered in the area north of the village. I've tried to find remains on Google Earth but can't see any - perhaps someone more local will know?

The area was also used for camps for American soldiers in WW2

Alan

[Peter Shand]

Hi Brian, Alan: Looking around the Codford area using Google Earth, I found the Lamb Down AIF Badge. From the badge, 1.0 miles on a heading of 60 degrees true there is a field at 51.160 N 2.004 W with markings which looks like a layout of the camp huts. I wonder if this was the site of the camp.

Regards, Pete

[Brian Curragh]

Pete

Thanks for finding that. I can see where you mean - they are very odd markings, aren't they? Apart from the obvious rectilinear ones, I wonder what the several pairs of circular marks are due to?

A link to the field on Google Maps is here - Codford - in case anyone local can throw any light on the markings.

Alan - does your book show where the camp was?

Regards

Brian

[melwar]

Hi Brian, Alan: Looking around the Codford area using Google Earth, I found the Lamb Down AIF Badge. From the badge, 1.0 miles on a heading of 60 degrees true there is a field at 51.160 N 2.004 W with markings which looks like a layout of the camp huts. I wonder if this was the site of the camp.

Regards, Pete

Okay, so my mapping coordination is not so good, but my understanding is that the camp was in the vicinity of the farm at the end of Church Lane at the Salisbury end of Codford St Mary. There are some interesting markings in the field to the immediate west of it. The farm is at the base of quite a steep hill, and soldiers were made to run up it in all weather shirtless for exercise and to put hair on their chest. Probably totally unrelated, but the cemetery you can see if you zoom in on the three dark trees mid way down Church Lane on the village side is full of pneumonia casualties. It's an Anzac Cemetery that is about half Aussies, half Kiwis and two or three WWII and civilian burials. I have a suspicion that the tin roof you can see right on the edge of the cemetery is an old hut dating back to then, but I've not had that confirmed.

One of the loveliest inscriptions I've seen on a headstone is at the Codford St Mary Cemetery for 19 year old Frank Cattermole. It reads "Dear boy, you have gone, but we can never forget your smiling face".

[AlanCurragh]

Here is the map contained in the book mentioned above - I don't think those markings in the field mentioned by Peter and Brian are camps, they are to the NE of the Australian badge (not marked on the map but underneath the text on the right), and the map has all the camps to the west or south of that area. However, I think that Mel might be correct, the markings to the west of the end of Church Lane look to be exactly where camp 7 on the map is.

Alan

[Brian Curragh]

Mel

Thanks for pointing out a new candidate for the remains of the camp (or one of them anyway!) - and that is a nice inscription - sometimes they do really hit home, don't they?

Alan

Thanks for the plan - I'll compare the locations to Google Maps - and if anything looks like it might be a remnant, we can mark it up as an extant WW1 site.

Brian

[melwar]

That is an awesome map, Alan! I'll be taking that back with me to Codford one day.

[AlanCurragh]

Mel - if you want a higher resolution copy, please drop me a PM. The book also has a map of the WW2 camps - happy to send that if you are interested.

Alan

[Moonraker]

... I found the location of the Codford Camp (and a link to a wikimedia set of images, including practice trenches and huts) but have not located the Boscombe Camp site...

Cheers, Pete

Though I know a lot about the Codford camps (others have beaten me to it with info), I don't claim to be an expert on Boscombe, which indeed is near Bournemouth (though eBay vendors sometimes list cards showing the seafront as relating to the very small village of Boscombe in landlocked Wiltshire). Early in the Great War, Kitchener battalions arrived in Codford and camped in tents whilst work was started on building hutments. The weather deteriorated and Codford soon became known as Mudford. The authorities decided to move the troops into billets in various towns away from Codford, and this may have been the case in Boscombe. Come to think of it, I don't know what form these billets would have taken -- private houses, almost certainly, and possibly boarding-houses which would have been empty of visitors in the depths of winter.

I can't think of any WWI remains to be seen (apart from soldiers' graves and the so-called Rising Sun badge, sometimes confused with that near Fovant) and would guess that WWII activities would have destroyed any that survived the Great War. Postcards showing shack-shops catering for soldiers in the centre of the village frequently appear on eBay,and some show a milestone that can still be seen. It's also possible still to identify buildings that appear in wartime postcards showing military personnel and traffic.

Moonraker

[Brian Curragh]

Okay, so my mapping coordination is not so good, but my understanding is that the camp was in the vicinity of the farm at the end of Church Lane at the Salisbury end of Codford St Mary. There are some interesting markings in the field to the immediate west of it.

Mel

I can see the field you mean - if you compare it to the map Alan posted it's the site of Camp 7. Apart from what appear to be tracks/walkways in the field, could the regular white marks be hut foundations? I think there are also possible "shadows" on the sites of camps 8 & 13.

What we need now is a bit of field reconnaissance - Alan, what are you doing this weekend?

Brian

[Moonraker]

Before making the trip, you need to get a plan of the WWII camps. As I understand it, the site of WWI Camp 7 was not built on during WWII, nor was that of Camp 8, but there may have been some WWII buildings or perhaps hardstanding very close to the site of WWI Camps 13 & 14. The two major WWII camps,"A" & "B", were mostly the other side of the road to WWI Camps 13 & 14.

Moonraker

[Brian Curragh]

Just bumping this thread back up the list - we now have 75 Great War sites in the UK - please keep them coming!

Link is UK Great War sites

Brian

[melwar]

- please keep them coming!

Just had a quick look and have another suggestion - Harefield Hospital. This was the Australian No 1 (?) Auxiliary Hospital and as far as I remember the story, the house belonged to an expat Australian who donated it to the AIF to use as a hospital during the war years. When the war ended, he didn't want it/couldn't afford it/was feeling generous and so it stayed as a hospital where lots of pioneering heart surgery was done - next to Anzac Ward!

In the same strain, Sidcup Hospital is very significant for the advances made in facial reconstructive surgery during the war, which changed a lot of people's lives for the better, both war casualties and otherwise.

[Brian Curragh]

Mel

Thanks for the two suggestions - I have added Harefield & Queen Mary's to the site.

Mention of Queen Mary's & a visit to the Gillies Archives website run by Dr. Andrew Bamji reminded me of the "World War 1 Discussion List." I used to be a member of this but hadn't been back in years - it still seems to be going - anyone from here contribute to it?

Brian

[JPAE]

Brian and David,

I suspect you don't have a lay-by on the list but this is from "Wellington" by Jane Wellesley, a journey through her family.

'In the First World War part of the park[stratfield Saye, Hants.] was used as an extension of nearby Bramley ammunition dump and the army built the roads acsoss the park, with lay-bys [which still exist] where the ammunition was stored.'

The Wellington dynasty experienced two close deaths in the War. The present Duke's uncle, Captain Lord Richard Wellesley, was killed at Ypres 29/10/14, and his wife's uncle Merrick in Sept. 1917. This is an excellent biography of a famous family.

Good huntin'

Phil.

[Brian Curragh]

Phil

Thanks for the pointer - I'll see if I can spot anything to mark up on the map.

Regards

Brian

[Ghost]

A couple more gun sites around Blyth Northumberland added.

Alan

[Ghost]

Blyth Battery has had a revamp and is now open to the public with guided tours see:- Blyth Battery Volunteers.

Alan

[Brian Curragh]

Alan

Thanks for adding those sites - it looks an interesting area. If you haven't done already, you could add the link to the news story to the site marker.

Another 4 sites & there will be a hundred in the collection. UK Great War Sites

Brian

[rendellers]

Hi Brian

I don't dare try to do any uploading to the map but suggest

• the Firepower Museum at Woolwich.
• The Army Museum at Chelsea (?) is mentioned in this thread but I didn't find it on the map.
• Greenwich Heritage Centre opened in 2003 replacing Greenwich Museum and Local Studies Library, at Building 41, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London SE18. It also incorporates an exhibition Inside the Arsenal. Opening times: Tuesday Saturday: 9am - 5pm; Closed: Sunday, Monday and Public holidays i.e. its across the courtyard from the Firepower Museum

Regards

Lindsey

[Susan_F]

As a field worker for the National Inventory of War Memorials I have been thinking of using something similar to this to locate War Memorials in Kent. This seems to have been last updated in August 2009. Were any disadvantages discovered? Just what are the pros and cons of using this method?

Susan

[Brian Curragh]

As a field worker for the National Inventory of War Memorials I have been thinking of using something similar to this to locate War Memorials in Kent. This seems to have been last updated in August 2009. Were any disadvantages discovered? Just what are the pros and cons of using this method?

Susan

Hi Susan

No disadvantages at all - the reason for the lack of update was that I started an MA in September last year so have been up to my eyeballs in reading lists since then. The project is still live and has actually been published today over on the Western Front Association website HERE in the hope of getting more sites recorded and added.

As for using Google Maps to record sites - I can recommend it - all you basically need is a GoogleMail account (free) and you can set up your own. This can either be public or private with amendments also being either public or controlled by you. Back-up is fairly easy as you can save the "points" to a file on your own PC etc. The pointers come as a default set but can be edited.

Give it a go - PM me if you need any further info - private messaging will be available once you've posted 5 times

Regards

Brian

[dfaulder]

>><<Were any disadvantages discovered? Just what are the pros and cons of using this method?

Susan

Susan

Further to Brian's email, we started this map as an experiment. Using Google there are various ways to use their mapping technology.

This is an index page of trials that I made with various approaches. The Western Front accommodation list uses the Simile API.

I suspect in the end speed may be an issue. Also with the GW Sites in UK approach it may become unwieldy due to volume of data. We may then regret not holding the data in some form of database where we can control it better (than the Google default).

HTH

David