Italians - AN UPDATE ON A PREVIOUS ENTRY...

AN UPDATE ON A PREVIOUS ENTRY…

THURSDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2014

Prisoners of war - World War 1 and World War 2

Do you know anything about prisoners of war in our area?

Since the above was written - or maybe before but I don’t remember! - I have read the words submitted by Trevor Denton of Dodworth to the BBC archive project - the views were written in 2005 and I regret not having given them credit before now.

Amongst the interesting things that he said were that Italians were camped at Wentworth Castle / Stainborough Castle.This undated information may indicate that they were there after they joined with the Allies in 1948. At that time they would probably not have been prisoners, but combatants of some sort. It seems unlikely that they were held as ‘prisoners’ at Stainborough at any time, but it is known that soldiers were stationed at Stainborough - and that they were accommodated in tents [the ‘lower ranks’ at least].

As for the comment that they used to rob the food trains travelling through the valley on the Worsborough Bank line - there are some interesting notions about this! For instance - it is known that men from Worsborough, Dodworth and Silkstone Common [perhaps amongst others] robbed the train and that several from Dodworth were caught and sent to jail for it. Mention has been made by another person of Italians being responsible for robbing the food trains.

Might it be then that the Italians were blamed for something that they did not do - and that it was convenient to attribute blame to them, or that it was a useful term to refer to all ‘train robbers’. If they did the robberies they would most likely have come into ‘contact’ with more local robbers! Which begs the question - was there collusion between them and locals?

One local has said that, during WW2, in their house there never tinned salmon - except for the box that a relative ‘acquired’ and hid somewhere unknown. Apparently occasionally a tin from the secret supply was brought out on a Sunday for a family treat!

Do you or anyone you know have anything to share about this story?

The Editor