One of my favourite local areas for exploring, whether on foot or cycle, are the Frodsham Marshes – which actually comprise the three areas of Lordship, Helsby and Frodsham Marshes.
These stretch Eastwards from Ince to the River Weaver, and are bounded to the North by the Manchester Ship Canal, and South by the M56. The area was added to the North Cheshire Green Belt in 2011.
The land was originally an area of mudflats and saltmarshes banking the River Mersey, but when the canal cut through in 1894 the area was reclaimed. Large ponds or lagoons were constructed to store dredging from the canal and the rich nature of this sediment provided a natural resource for birds and wildlife, but not without disturbing the native wildlife initially. Today there are environmental and biodiversity controls in place across the area.
The area is well known for the extensive wind farm located there, a familiar feature when travelling along the motorway, or taking in the view from Helsby Hill, or the Frodsham War Memorial.
National Cycle Route 5 passes through the centre of this area, from Ince to Frodsham, though you need a pretty sturdy cycle to withstand the rough texture of Lordship Lane: after rain the lane is particularly tricky.
A feature of this land are the drainage channels running alongside the lanes and across many of the fields, and one day recently I was jogging along Lordship Lane and noticed an engraving on one of the small bridges crossing a ditch. The inscription read “German P.O.W. 1945”. Once you see such an item you look more closely for other related artifacts. Elsewhere on my route I observed water troughs, overgrown and often broken, and piping which had been unearthed and left aside – all made from a similar concrete-like mixture.
This, of course, immediately set off a train of research which will extend much further than this brief article.
My initial research found that a contingent of some 200 prisoners of war were based at the Handforth Camp, two miles north of Wilmslow. During the First World War, the Handforth camp exported many of its prisoners to a large network of working camps and also to local farms where they offered manual labour. As such, Handforth came to be at the very centre of a much larger war economy.
However, the camp was not in use during the Second World War.
In Cheshire I have found the following POW Camp locations – Toft Hall, Knutsford; Knutsford (MH); Crewe Hall; Plymyard (Eastham) and possible other camps at Weston, Crewe and Marbury, Northwich. Another report suggests there were 20 camps in Cheshire.
POW Officers were forbidden from working, but 85% in total of POWs did local work, mostly on the land. Here’s a nice anecdote from the Merseyforest archives :- “Some hundreds of prisoners, not considered a high security risk, came to Marbury Hall. I remember practising the piano one afternoon, and seeing a German POW, who was engaged in hedge-cutting for the local farmer, spending a long time on the piece immediately in front of our house. When we got into conversation, it turned out he had been a cathedral organist in Germany and he was delighted to listen to anyone playing Bach, even a beginner like me. He always lingered after that, when we played classical records, with the windows open.”
So, at this point in my research I have no definite link to the inscription on the bridge, but many promising leads. The Frodsham and District History Society have an archive which may yield some further links, and I have requested membership.
Once again I ask our readers if they have any interesting stories, or information, which I could make into a second article. Please forward to me at the above email address.
Look again the inscription: it is quite cleanly cut, and proudly placed. I would assume inspection of all work would have been carried out, so it was clearly approved of. The date suggests it was towards the end of the war, and so may have been a ‘farewell’ message. Needless to say I will be looking for more such clues next time I visit the area.
Garfield Southall, 2024. All photos by the author.
Ellesmere Port Local and Family History Society 