Monument record MDO44876 - Second World War temporary camp, Blandford Camp, Tarrant Monkton

A temporary Second World War camp is visible as structures and earthworks on the east side of Blandford Camp on 1940s aerial photographs. Part of the encampment encompasses a former First World War POW camp (MDO44875). The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A Second World War temporary tented encampment is visible as cropmarks and assorted structures on aerial photographs taken in 1947, most of which were removed by 1953. The site is centred at ST 9304 0837 and extends over an area that measures 640m from north to south and a maximum of 220m wide, which includes an area to the south which was used in the First World War as a German Prisoner of War camp. The tented camp comprised nearly 40 fragmentary rows of tent pitches plus various other buildings situated to either side. The tent pitches each measure circa 4.5m square and are visible either as white chalk squares or as cropmark squares where the grass is growing back. They form rows of up to 14 tent pitches that extend roughly east / west. Pathways and roads extend along and between the rows. The tents were erected by 12th August 1939 and provided temporary accommodation as a tented training camp at Blandford Camp while wooden huts to the north-west were erected over the winter of 1939 / 1940. The larger marquees to either side were used as mess tents, offices and stores. <1-2> A temporary Second World War camp is visible as structures and earthworks on the east side of Blandford Camp on 1940s aerial photographs <2-6>. The features comprise rectilinear buildings and rows of parallel square bases set out alongside interlinking pathways, extending over a distance of approximately 750m by 220m. The bases are considered to be the pitches for temporary tents. Part of the encampment encompasses and re-uses a former First World War POW camp (MDO44875). Tent pitches ands structures are visible within the earlier perimeter fence in 1946 and 1947 <5, 6>. These are probably Second World War introductions but may include some earlier buildings. The NRHE record (Hob UID 1478835) documents the temporary camp as having been erected by August 1939 as temporary accommodation whilst the hutted accommodation within the main camp was constructed. An aerial photograph dated 1944 shows some huts still remaining within the former POW compound and to the north of this, and possibly some still extant huts to the west, within a 485m long by 95m wide rectilinear area of bare chalk, defined by low linear banks, which may also form part of this temporary camp <2>. Access points into this area from a perimeter road are visible in 1944, along with a roadway from the west. At the southern end of this rectilinear area is a square banked feature, possibly a parade ground. Aerial photographs dated 1944 also show a group of structures towards the northern half of this rectangular area, comprising partial squares of regularly aligned small rectilinear structures, possibly huts or tent pitches (poor resolution makes it hard to be definitive), with some larger huts adjacent to these <2-4>. Within the northern half of the rectilinear area there is also a possible searchlight emplacement and/or heavy anti aircraft battery (see MDO44878) <3, 6>. By 1947 only the battery is still extant <6>. An aerial photograph dated 1946 shows the southern part of the encampment, with some of the tent bases already reduced to cropmarks and most of the structures within the western side of the camp demolished [4]. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Record last edited

Jan 26 2023 3:00PM