Ganger Camp Woodley Net Romsey UK

Aerial Photo Of Ganger Camp 1947 Ganger Camp Photos Plan Of Ganger Camp Luzborough Camp

Read about ex Italian POW Mr Pipitone from Woodley Close

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Gone but not forgotten

We have learned with some sadness that the following have recently passed away;

Cyril Luffman (2011), Florence Ethel Chappell (2011), Jean Levy (2010), Stuart Reeves (2010), Harry Gerrard (2010), Jean Turner (2009), Kay Reeves (2009), Barbara Milsom (2007), Pamela Thornton (2003)

Ganger Camp Memories

The first memories I have of the Woodley area were the huts of Ganger Camp, an ex P.O.W (site No 41) which was used as temporary housing by the local Romsey & Stockbridge Council. The Council converted the huts into living accommodation, building internal walls creating 3 bedrooms, kitchen diner and living room plus W.C. Electric lighting was installed in each room. Only room absent was a bathroom. It is believed the first family to have moved in was Mr & Mrs Gwilt followed by the Levy family. I moved into one of the huts in October 1948. Some of the huts were made of concrete panels and some with felt exteriors.

When I first lived in Ganger Camp there were still some ex P.O.W's living in some of the huts. They were mainly Italian and Polish. There was still a guard house on the site and a massive water tower at the entrance next to Braishfield Rd. The water tower was very often climbed by the children that lived their. In 1958 the Council started building proper brick house’s on the site, these gradually replaced all the huts and became Woodley Close. In one of the photos below the top half of Ganger Camp had been demolished. The black huts can be seen in the distance along side a smaller water tower. In the middle 60,s the Great Woodley estate was starting to be built with prices starting from £2,999. A shopping precinct was also built at Warren Gardens.

Hundreds of families lived at Ganger Camp. Some of the names I remember were as follows

Mr & Mrs Allen:- Ann

Bill & Leita Abernethy:- Leita

Mrs Andrews:- Sylvia

Mr & Mrs Baby:-

Mr & Mrs Barr:-

Mr & Mrs Brown

Mr & Mrs Burnett:- John

Cecil & Queen Callen: Pat, Dee

Mr & Mrs Chappell:- No 50,Linda, Derek, Trish, Ernie, Brenda, Peter, Terry, Maureen

Mr & Mrs Dewar:- Valerie

Geoff & Eileen Connell:- Annette, Linda

Mr & Mrs Cox:- Brian, Marion, Marina

Mr & Mrs Dittrich:- No 46, Bernard, Muriel, Joe, Andrew, Don, Debora, Bridget, Katherine

Mr & Mrs Edwards:-

Mr & Mrs Head:- Christopher, Garry

Mrs P & Mr S Gerrard:- Brian, Jan, Anne Ashley, Jenny and Sally.

Harry & Joyce Gerrard:- Tony, Carol, Joan, Ron

Norman & Sylvia Goodland:- Adrian, Robin, Bryony

Les & Mrs Gwilt:- No 43, Margaret

Mr & Mrs Jolliff:- Terry

John and Emily Jones (No 62) 1957- Teddy, David, Martin and Molly

Mr & Mrs Jones:- Tony

Mr & Mrs Keel:-

Mr & Mrs Legg:- Victor, Zedric

Albert & Gladys Levy:- No 44, Brian, Jean, Carol, Len, Tony, Chris, Kath, Gwen

Mr & Mrs Luffman:- Win

Derek & Lilian Maskell:- No. 88, Carol. Diane and Linda

Joe & Mrs Middleton:- Geoff, Mike, Hazel, Maureen

Mr & Mrs Miffin

Les & Barbara Milsom:- David, Geoff, Alan, Gordon, Pat, Chris, Derek, Richard, Steven, Julie

Mr & Mrs Murphy:- Chris, Susan

Fred & Mrs Nichols:- Edgar, Horatio, Peggy, Christine, Charles (Bubbles), Susan

Mr & Mrs Nut:- Colin, Iris

Mr & Mrs Orham:-

Nell Osman:- No 5 & No 43, John, Brian, Celia

Sam & Tine Porter:- Sam, Frank, Jean, Pauline, Angela, Rosemary

Doug & Kay Reeves:- No 42, Stuart, Denise, Angela, Antony, Valda

Mr & Mrs (Olive) Rogers:- Derrick, Pam, Jimmy, Linda. Jenny

Mr & Mrs Scivier:- Terry, Pam

Mr & Mrs Sellick:- Mike, Rosina, Angela

Dennis & Mrs Smith:- Brian

Mr & Mrs (Joan) Snowden:- No 72

Mr & Mrs Starke:- Colin, Carol

Bill & Pam Thornton:- Peter, Colin

Sid & Mrs Tubb:- Peter

Eli & Mrs Way:- Eileen, John

Charlie & Violet Woods:- No 41, John, Charlie, Rosemary, Beryl, Garry, Steven, Geoff, Jackie

Wally & Dorothy Wassell:- Barry

Ganger Camp Photos

Letter sent to Brown Ave, Evanston, Illinois USA in 1943 from Ganger Camp

Entrance to Ganger Camp, Braishfield Rd. 1957

Entrance to Ganger Camp, Braishfield Rd. 1957 (Now Woodley Close)

L/R:- Eileen Way, ??, Eli Way, John Way and Mrs Way. (Names not confirmed)

Eli Way and John Way

Eli Way, Mrs Way and John Way

John Way and Eli Way

Top end of second row at Ganger Camp Woodley Romsey

Concrete dwellings at Ganger Camp Woodley Romsey

Concrete dwellings at Ganger Camp (Now 23 to 29 Woodley Close)

Valda Reeves at Ganger camp, Woodley Romsey

Valda Reeves in the "Front Row" of Ganger camp, Woodley Romsey

Kay Reeves left with Mrs Woods in background.

Some Young Ladies At Ganger Camp, Woodley Romsey

Jenny Woods, Janice Gerrard, Beryl Woods, Jackie Woods, Susan Murphy and Sylvia Andrews

The Scivier family with John Osman at Ganger Camp, Woodley Romsey

The Scivier family with John Osman (Right) at Ganger Camp, Woodley Romsey

Eileen Connell & daughter Annette at Ganger Camp

Eileen Connell & daughter Annette at Ganger Camp Woodley 1950's

Huts at Ganger Camp, Woodley Romsey in 1953

"Front Row" huts at Ganger Camp, Woodley Romsey in 1958

Kids at Ganger Camp Woodley Romsey on Coronation Day 1953

Photo taken by a Mr Barr

United States Air Force drop by..

On Friday July 19th 1957 one of the largest helicopters in the world, a Vertol H21 from the United States Air Force, made a force landing in a field next to Ganger Camp (Woodley Close).

It spent nearly 21 hours grounded. The red and silver 22-seater twin rotor machine, came from Braintree in Essex. It had left its base with a crew of four to fly to Exeter. It refuelled at Greenham Common, and took a different course to avoid bad weather. Visibility then got so poor that it made an emergency landing in Woodley, Romsey. No one got hurt. A nice gesture by the Americans was to let dozens of local children go on board to have a look around. Third from right in photo is Brian Osman.

thanks to Richard Bird for photo..

Water Tower at entrance to Ganger Camp Woodley, by Braishfield Road

Water Tower at entrance to Ganger Camp Woodley

by Braishfield Road

Mr Guerino Pipitone (Pip)

Article From

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar

Contributed by Romsey Community School, Hampshire
People in story: Mr. Pipitone
Location of story: Africa/Glasgow/Romsey
Background to story: Army
Article ID: A2821907
Contributed on: 09 July 2004

On the 17th May 2004 Jordan and Ian interviewed a man called Mr. Pipitone aged 88

Mr. Pipotone is Italian but he lived in Tunisia for most of his younger life when he was old enough he joined the Italian army serving under Mussolini he was sent to Libya and Ethiopia in Africa. Towards the end of the war his regiment was sent to South Africa for a few months until the British Ghurkhas caught him. He got sent to a prisoner of war camp. He said "the conditions were alright for a POW". He then told us "when my captain surrendered on behalf of our regiment he shot himself in shame, I however was glad to be caught as the conditions in the camps were good and we were safe".
Even though he was Italian he hated Mussolini and he was very pleased when Mussolini got publicly hung at the end of the war.
After a few weeks in the camp Mr. Pipitone was asked if he wanted to go to another camp but they weren't told where they were heading for. The journey took over a month, when they eventually arrived n Glasgow, Scotland in 1945.
From there he was sent to another camp just outside Glasgow. Then finally he was sent to Woodley, Romsey. He was sent to work at Ganger farm. He wanted go back home to Tunisia but the French wouldn't let him. So he stayed in England and met a girl and they later got married in Lockerley. They had four children, two boys and two girls. A car unfortunately hit and killed their eldest, aged 45.
Rationing was not a problem for Mr. Pipitone and he remembers things on the radio about Dunkirk and the D-Day landings.
He has recently been to Italy to see his brother and catch up on old times and listen to Elvis music.
In the war Mr. Pipitone never got shot or wounded.

Mr Pipitone sadly died on January 26th 2006