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Most of us associate prisoner-of-war camps with 20th-century conflicts, but an archaeological evaluation undertaken in July 2009 by Channel 4’s Time Team revealed that the first specially constructed camp dates to the late 18th century, when it was used for incarcerating thousands of enemy prisoners taken during the Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815.
Previously, prisoners had been held in existing fortified structures or on board ships, from which some were able to escape – so Norman Cross in Cambridgeshire, just south of Peterborough, was chosen as the site for a new camp, far enough away from the sea to prevent prisoners attempting to swim back to the Continental mainland. Prisoners were conveyed to Norman Cross from the ports of Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, and Wisbech, being ferried by river to Peterborough and then marched to the prison gates. This historic site has now been purchased for the nation by the Nene Park Trust with a £200,000 grant from Historic England and £50,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (see ‘News in brief’, CA 345). Plans are being developed for public access to the site.
Some 500 labourers were involved in the construction of the camp, which was surrounded by a wooden stockade, later replaced by a brick wall. The interior was divided into four by two roads leading to four gateways with a guarded blockhouse in the centre. Each quadrant held four wood-built barracks, each designed to hold about 500 prisoners, sleeping in rows of hammocks in two storeys. Theoretically the camp could hold 8,000 adult males, though the highest recorded number of prisoners was 6,270, the lowest 3,038, and the average around 5,500. In addition to the barracks, the camp had offices, a hospital, a school, a marketplace, latrines, an exercise yard, a prison, storehouses, and kitchens.
When not sleeping, prisoners spent their time outdoors, and prison rules allowed them ‘full liberty to exercise their industry within the prisons, in manufacturing and selling any articles they may think proper’. In this case, there was archaeological evidence for the use of straw and bone as marquetry to embellish decorative objects made of wood, which were sold in local markets. Criminal records show that two French prisoners attempted to use their skills in a different kind of activity – they were convicted for forging £1 notes.
Mainly Dutch and French prisoners were held there, and many of the prisoners, especially civilians and officers, were released on parole, allowed to join the British forces, or exchanged for British POWs. Norman Cross was the first of three purpose-built inland camps, the others being at Princetown on Dartmoor (now the Dartmoor Prison Museum) and Perth (still in use as a prison today).
The UK’s first professional female landscape gardener
Another challenge to our expectations is the revelation that the landscape gardener responsible for the design of more than 75 of London’s parks and gardens was female. Fanny Wilkinson (1855-1951) was the only woman to study Landscape Gardening and Practical Horticulture at the Crystal Palace School of Art, Science, and Literature, graduating in 1883. She began working unpaid for the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association in 1884, but two years later this was changed to a professional position, and she was paid a fee for her work. Gardens that she designed include the churchyard of St John’s Smith Square, Westminster; Paddington Street Gardens; and Vauxhall Park.
Fanny Wilkinson incorporated drinking fountains into her designs, and the Heritage of London Trust has been restoring many of these to working order over the last two decades. The newly renovated Edwardian fountain in Coronation Gardens in Wandsworth now bears a small bronze statue of Fanny Wilkinson, created by the sculptor Gillian Brett, looking out over the gardens that she designed. She is also commemorated by a blue plaque in Bloomsbury, at 239-241 Shaftesbury Avenue, where she lived from 1885 to 1896.
Fanny strongly encouraged other women to become professional garden designers, as co-founder of the Women’s Agricultural and Horticultural International Union in 1899 (which did so much to sustain food production during the First World War), and as the first female Principal of Swanley Horticultural College from 1902.
Commenting on the unveiling, Juliet Rix, author of London’s Statues of Women, told the BBC that ‘in the last three to four years, more women statues have been unveiled in London than in the whole of the second half of the 20th century’.
Ball games ban to be banned
Fanny Wilkinson worked closely with Octavia Hill, co-founder of the National Trust and a passionate advocate of access to open spaces for everyone for health, recreation, and spiritual sustenance. Both women would no doubt heartily approve a recent report called ‘A Play Strategy for England’, produced by the National Play Commission, whose recommendations include a ban on ‘legally baseless no ball game signs’.
The report warns that outdoor play in England has declined by 50% in a generation because of streets dominated by traffic, fears about crime, and young people not being made to feel welcome. More than 400 playgrounds closed in England between 2012 and 2022. To end this ‘growing culture of intolerance towards children playing’, the report wants planning policy to force developers to consult with children on all new developments, to open school playgrounds to the community outside school hours, and for better street design and traffic management to turn residential streets into safe places for play.
Baroness Anne Longfield from the Centre for Young Lives think tank, who worked on the report, told the BBC that it provides a ‘blueprint for how we can get children playing again and tackle the scourge of addictive doom-scrolling’.
The silence of the church bells
That ‘growing culture of intolerance’ also applies to the growing number of complaints from people who don’t like the chiming of church bells. Sherds was saddened to read in June 2025 that three residents of Mytholmroyd, in West Yorkshire, had succeeded in obtaining a noise abatement order preventing the church clock from striking the quarter hours. This despite a petition signed by 1,200 residents who wanted to keep the chimes going.
Ironically, Mytholmroyd was the birthplace of Ted Hughes, who loved the sound of bells and whose verses for children (Moon-Bells and Other Poems, 1978) imagine that bells located in the craters of the moon are sending oracular messages across the great threshold of space in the form of ‘mumbling booms’ to the people on Earth.
Mytholmroyd’s residents are not the only ones to have been deprived of their bells: similar orders have silenced the chimes in Witheridge and Kenton (Devon), Helpringham (Lincolnshire), and Beith (Ayrshire).
Young people and heritage
Recently Sherds reported on an apparent revival in churchgoing, social dancing, and stargazing among young people (CA 424), and now Historic Houses has published a report on how Generation Z perceives heritage, based on survey data and focus groups conducted across the UK.
Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z is often described as the first generation to have grown up with the internet and smartphones as integral and dominant parts of their lives. The Historic Houses report finds that some members of Gen Z see historic places as a refuge from this hyperconnected world.
The report finds ‘a genuine interest in heritage and history, with a clear appetite to visit heritage sites and to be part of broader national conversations about history, heritage, and the past’, with 99% of respondents saying they were interested in visiting heritage sites, and that high entry fees and the lack of transport were the principal barriers.
The report also highlights Gen Z’s desire to disconnect and have a technology-free interaction with heritage sites. Challenging the orthodoxy among many heritage professionals, the survey showed that an overwhelming majority of participants dislike digital forms of interpretation (including audio-guides, QR codes, and social media), citing a desire to turn off from technology while visiting these places.
Commenting on the findings, Sarah Roller, Director of Policy & Public Affairs at Historic Houses, said: ‘Gen Z want value for money, a well-thought-through experience, engaging interpretation, and the opportunity to learn.’ Just like the rest of us, then. Baby Boomers might like to add cream teas to the list, but otherwise it looks as if the generations are in complete agreement.
