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Does anyone know anything about the German POWs around 1947 in the area. I understand they worked at clearing snow (seen image & was told) and I can see that possibly the nearest camp was in Gorton? Thanks
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There were German prisoners in Dove Holes and Peak Dale for sure. Many stayed on in England after the War but I don't know how long they were kept as prisoners.
The war ended in 1945 but in 1947 during the great snow fall the Germans were still there and were put to work digging a way through for what traffic there was in those days. They made the road passable for single traffic only and the road from Whaley up to Buxton via the old A6 and then back down Long Hill became a one way system.
I know of a Dove Holes coalman who was asked for 6 bags of coal half a mile away from his house and he delivered it and then had to carry on to Buxton, back down long Hill, back up through Whaley, Chapel and Dove Holes to his house. He told me it took him hours.
R. S-S
The Peak Dale Germans were kept in a cold hut and during the severe winter caught flu and a lot of them died. They were buried in a mass grave in Upper End Cemetry. They were exhumed in the late 60's or early 70's and their remains were returned to somewhere in Germany. I can't remember where just now unfortunately.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Hi WKN,
In the late 7o's, I think, the snow was so bad over the common, that's the road from the top of Dove Holes to Fairfield, that the council gritters and snow ploughs could not cope.
So massive excavators were brought in from local quarries; these were huge things but did not have the finesse of a snow plough and they just removed everything in front of them.
A few nights later you could drive over that road and see kerbs and cats eyes in the fields where the excavators had dumped their loads.
Shortly after the council took down the dry stone walls on one side of the road and erected a wire fence in its place to let the snow blow into the fields thus reducing road blockages.
R. S-S
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