A forgotten chapter in wartime history has been rediscovered thanks to a man’s vivid childhood memories.
George Seddon was just a boy when a sprawling prisoner of war camp existed a stone’s throw from his home on the Denton and Audenshaw boundary.
After the war, Mr Seddon, now 78, and his pals set up dens in the abandoned buildings before the huts were pulled down and the land given over to new houses.
These days all trace of the camp, which was off St Anne’s Road, has disappeared and no written records appear to exist.
It means staff from the local studies library have little information to give to people when they get enquiries about the PoW camp, which was turned into a resettlement camp for Polish troops after the war.
Now Mr Seddon, who grew up on Frederick Street, has been able to help by drawing a detailed map of the site and sketches of some of the buildings he knew. He said: “It’s surprising how a place like that could simply seem to disappear.
“I was born in 1935 and the camp was there up until my teens. The earliest date I can get for the houses being built on that land is 1962, but the camp buildings might have been demolished before.”
Mr Seddon can also remember his father once talking to a German officer housed at the camp towards the end of the war. However, little else is known.
He added: “There used to be some huge searchlights on the site, too. I’d love to speak to someone who lived on the Audenshaw side of the camp.”
Mr Seddon’s illustrations and maps are now housed at Tameside’s local studies centre, which wants to hear from people with information on the camp such as memories, pictures or stories of relatives who worked there.
Coun Jackie Lane, Tameside council’s assistant executive member for culture, said: “I grew up in Dukinfield so I remember hearing about the camp and how you could even see PoWs walking about in Dukinfield or attending local churches. These excellent drawings have added a new dimension.”