Try GOLD - Free
SITE OF THE FIRST PURPOSE-BUILT PRISONER-OF-WAR CAMP SAVED
BBC Countryfile Magazine
|August 2025
A little-known historic site where thousands of prisoners were held during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars has now been acquired for the nation
It sounds like a question from a pub quiz: where was the world's first-ever purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp constructed? If you answered: “The UK,” award yourself a point. The good news is that the site of the camp - the Norman Cross Depot for Prisoners of War - has now been saved for the nation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, given the nature of the place, it comes with a dark history attached.
This story is from the August 2025 edition of BBC Countryfile Magazine.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM BBC Countryfile Magazine
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Growing pains
The Government has found itself the focus of angry protests over a number of its key conservation, planning and farming decisions. Has it misread the room or is it making necessary choices? Fergus Collins looks at a year of life under Labour
1 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Regional accents are a source of pride, but they're in danger of fading away
Regional accents and dialects are long-held loves of mine - vocabulary, grammar, idiom and slang, rooted in a particular place.
2 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Shareholders are paid billions but sewage still flows into our waters
On the River Nidd, as it flows through the Yorkshire town of Knaresborough, there is a large natural pool between two weirs that has been a popular spot for wild bathers for many years. Because of pollution, however, the water is sometimes not even fit for dogs to swim in.
3 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Inheritance tax controversy
The farming inheritance tax changes have faced some of the biggest protests of all Labour's new measures. But is the backlash justified? We crunch the numbers
2 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
TREES ARE EVOLVING TO FIGHT DEADLY ASH DIEBACK
Natural selection is enabling trees to resist a fungal disease that has decimated forests across Britain and Europe
1 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
SITE OF THE FIRST PURPOSE-BUILT PRISONER-OF-WAR CAMP SAVED
A little-known historic site where thousands of prisoners were held during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars has now been acquired for the nation
1 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Infrastructure and green spaces
Since the 2024 election, Labour has made no secret of its desire to kickstart the UK's sluggish economy and solve the shortage of housing. But at what cost to nature and our green spaces?
3 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
The gorse awakens
Forty years ago, Greenham Common was home to 96 nuclear warheads and era-defining protests. Now, butterflies have replaced the B-47s, as Dave Hamilton discovers on a walk with a Star Wars twist
7 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Hope emerges
The felling of the Sycamore Gap Tree appalled and saddened millions. Yet, as Fergus Collins discovers, hope can spring from the darkest ecological tragedies
6 mins
August 2025
BBC Countryfile Magazine
BROTHER ON AN EPIC JOURNEY
Using only local buses, John Green travelled the length of Britain in aid of one of England's oldest almshouses
2 mins
August 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size