Billesdon's Woodland Pool nature reserve can be found just outside the village on Gaulby Lane.
With woodland and a pool it is a pleasant spot, but it has a surprising history.
Because the reserve occupies the site of a wartime prisoner of war camp that held first Italian and then German prisoners.
The remains are labelled and, according to Derelict Places, there is a hut still standing (which I failed to find). Another is said to have gone to Thurnby to be used by a youth club.
And the pool was dug out on the site of the camp's football pitch.
After the war the camp housed people displaced by the war.
It is a sobering thought, on a day when refugees are being bundled out of Europe, that they once found a home among the green hills and ridge-and-furrow fields of High Leicestershire.
1 comment:
Born and bred in Billesdon 59-73 my school mate Ian Harrisons dad was caretaker taker of the camp and they lived in one of the old huts was huge, and as kids our school used the football pitch. As kids we got into all the huts late 1966 there were still German uniforms hanging up in a storage hut.
We did swipe a couple of holsters at the time, Mine was a black luger. one.
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