Internment camp

[John R]

Hi - I am struggling to find information on Gloucestershire internment camps and particularly one apparently at or near Tytherington. I have checked Google and TNA Discovery with very little success except some unsourced info on local history sites.

I would love ideas on any sources or tips to find some. Thank you.

[Allan1892]

29 minutes ago, John R said:

particularly one apparently at or near Tytherington

Found this when searching -- it may assist you.

Possible explanations for the ex (tytheringtonroots.co.uk)

[John R]

Thanks Allan. That seems to be as much as we will find online. I’m hoping there’s other avenues.

[Allan1892]

Since finding the above, I have spent an hour + searching online but nothing else has reared it's head.

Just a longshot, but have you tried the county archives?

[John R]

I’ve checked the Glos online catalogue with no luck. Checked the Findmypast newspapers so will try now any other archives. 
Quite frustrating since my starting point was hearing, through a cousin,about a guard’s experience of Austrian internees working at Tythrington quarry. Not quite the springboard I had assumed. 
Very kind of you Allan to take an interest.

[Allan1892]

@John R -- found another link:-

World War 1 Prisoners (tytheringtonroots.co.uk)

[John R]

thanks again Allan. Seems strange there's not more detailed info readily available - perhaps TNA enquiry is best avenue.

[Moonraker]

As well as the well-known PoW and internee camps, there were hundreds of small work camps, some on army  and and RFC bases, others providing  workers for farms and other sites under the supervision of a couple of guards. Often the workers were billeted locally (on the farms themselves, for example). I have come across very little about those in Wiltshire and Allan1892's link provides more information than is available for most. There are files at the National Archives about visits by neutral  observers (at first American, then when the US entered the war, Swiss), but from the reports that I've seen the visits were to the major camps and often lasted only a few hours. Satellite work camps are seldom mentioned. Likewise, lists of POW and internment camps held at the NA and IWM usually comprise the major camps.

[John R]

Thanks Moonraker - that seems in all probability what was the arrangement at Tytherington quarry. I suppose unless there was a controversy like an escape then there would be no reason for records to be generated that are easily available.

[NigelS]

Tytherington does get a mention in Norman Nicol's 'Captured Germans: British POW camps in the First World War' (Pen & Sword)  but the information given is similar to that on the Tytherington Roots website and is possibly from the same source although it cites the 'Gloucester County Gazette' of 18 May 1918 rather than the  'Gloucestershire Gazette' given on the website. An OS map reference (ST632 889) is given but this is that for Marlwood Grange which is to the North of Alvestone to the west of Tytherington.  There are no separate entries for either Alvestone or Marlwood Grange. The full Tytherington entry reads:

TYTHERINGTON (ST632 889) the 'Gloucester County Gazette' (18 May 1918) cites around fifty 'aliens', mainly Austrians, were 'engaged in work of national importance' at Tytherington Stone Quarries. The same article cited that there were forty-two PoWs at Marlwood Grange. It was reported that German PoWs did damage to the property.  In 2011, developers stated they were involved in an 'ambitious project' being undertaken to make this early Georgian listed building carbon neutral.

The Historic England listing for Marlwood Grange (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1128823) gives no useful information on the building's history

It seems likely, although there are/were several others in the vicinity, that the quarry was  one shown on the modern maps as disused (OS ST 665 882) The Tytherington Roots website  indicates the location of Ramsoaks in 'A Walk Along West Street Tytherington' (https://www.tytheringtonroots.co.uk/walk_along_west_street_tytheri.htm) which gives: 

West Street leads to the open height of ‘Ramsoak’. 150 years ago, this was a 20 acre wood. In medieval times, there was probably a Windmill here. There was easy access from Tytherington up West Street, and from Itchington up to Ramsoaks Cottage.  Looking down from Ramsoaks, on the left, was a spot named in medieval times (1592) 'The Toute', from Old English 'tot’, a look out, no doubt connected with: "The Castle" - long thought of as a Roman camp, but in fact an Iron Age fort, constructed a few hundred years B.C., with a single defensive rampart and ditch.  Similar forts, of the same age, are at Alveston (Abbey Camp) Elberton, Oldbury (The Toots), Rockhampton (Camp Hill) and Cromhall (Bloody Acre).

The left hand side of the 25" OS map of 1919 (https://maps.nls.uk/view/109728919) shows the quarry as it was circa the Great War (Ramsoaks Cottage can be found on the adjacent OS Sheet (https://maps.nls.uk/view/109728913) but was, apparently, demolished in 1936 to make way for the modern day quarry  which has the M5 running along its eastern boundary, so doesn't feature on the modern maps.

NigelS

[John R]

Thank you so much Nigel. Very informative and such detail. I will use it going forward. With all the info found so far I have a really good basis.