Comments on: Pingley PoW Camp – Lincolnshire

By: Josephine Pepper

Josephine Pepper — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:03:26 +0000

I just came across this website, so interesting to read everyone’s experiences at Pingley. I went to Concordia farm camp in summer 1963 as a 15 year old schoolgirl earning some holiday money picking potatoes and stacking peas. I was very fond of Charlie Spasic and knitted him a cardigan that I took him the following winter. Never saw him or the camp again as I later went to work abroad and have lived in Chile for the past 37 years. Thanks for awakening sleeping memories!

By: David

David — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:04:11 +0000

Sad to see that the camp has been demolished in 2009. I just got hold of a lot from a Belgian PoW during WW2, in it was a letter from a German prisoner (after the war) who was held at POW Camp nr 81, Lincolnshire…this camp. His name was Karl Meyer.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:23:19 +0000

I also stayed on the camp for about 10 days in 1966 until, unfortunately, my friend became ill and we had to return home. I couldn’t remember the warden’s name but remembered how kind he was to us and how useful his advice was “1 blanket underneath is worth 2 on top”. Despite it being summer, we needed the warmth in bed! Picking potatoes was hard work but worse was picking the green bits out of the tops of strawberries in the canning factory – my finger nails were quickly worn right down. Don’t remember if I ever managed to pick any bad peas out before they were canned as once you started looking at them on the conveyor belt, everything just became a blur of green.
I have great memories of the truly international group of young people who were there at the time. I kept in touch with one for some time.

By: Atilla Hitay

Atilla Hitay — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:56:59 +0000

I was there, in the Pingley Farm camp, in the months October to December 1963, as a Turkish student, trying to develop his English abilities. Unfortunately my memory is so weak or weakened that the only traces in my mind are:
1-I remember I had great difficulties in picking potatoes.
2-There was a lady kitchen worker who everybody were delighted teasing her.
3-I watched the notorious assassination of JF Kennedy on TV there.
4-I remember the cute and very dear English girls in the camp.

To all friends I met there, I send my salutations and my best regards…

Atilla Hitay

By: Andrea Qudah

Andrea Qudah — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:40:32 +0000

I posted a message some time ago trying to trace Italian POWs who worked in or around Scunthorpe Steelworks. I am also interested in Italian POWs who lived at a camp in Low Santon and worked at the farm there. Can anyone help?

By: Javier López

Javier López — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:55:55 +0000

I have just found this web regarding Pingley and I am astonished because I did not imagine that memories could back come so. I have not heard anything since I was there as student in the summer of 1957 and I would be very happy to hear of someone that was there in that time. I am spanish, my name is Javier and I keep some fotos from that time

By: irene perez

irene perez — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:01:38 +0000

I was at Pingley in 1962 and shared a room with two girls from Manchester called Barbara and Cynthia (I cannot remember their surnames) – I would love to know how they are now. I met my first husband there, Florencio, a Spaniard from Tenerife – if anyone remembers him. I also remember two girls from Liverpool, one called Margaret, I cannot remember the others name and also a Spanish boy called Raphael.

We all loved it there and none of us wanted to go back home – in fact, I never did – we went to London when the weather started to get cold. We loved Charley who was like a father to us and was devastated when I heard that he had been murdered (by someone from his own country).

I have also been back in the last few years and was sad to see a place at one time being so full of life so desolate now.

It will remain in my heart for ever.

By: Enzo Puzzovio

Enzo Puzzovio — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:51:01 +0000

Could you please put me in contact with Delia who posted her message on 10 February 2010? I might be able to help. Thanks, Enzo Puzzovio

By: Paul C

Paul C — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:56:10 +0000

Unfortunately the water tower, the last remaining bit, seems to have been demolished in the last few days. The site will eventually have luxury-style housing built on it.
There’s nothing there now.

By: David Armitage

David Armitage — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:20:06 +0000

65 years ago I lived with may parents and two sisters (3 and 7) in Greenways, a bungalow, on the edge of the Camp I remember German soliders marching out in the morning under escort to work in the fields, and ambling back in the evening. My Dad said the guards had spent the day in the pub. One German soldier used to do our garden in the evening, and look after us if my parents went out. There was an aerodrome near by. My Dad got shouted at once by an air raiding warden for drawing back the curtains and putting all the lights on. He’d heard a plane circling, and thought it must have been “one of ours” looking for the runway. It wasn’t! We used to go to Mass at the RAF camp – we were once turned back because the camp hadf been bombed. My mother’s four brothers were in the services. One was in the infamous Stalag Luft III, the others had been in North Africa, Anzio and Normandy….