POW camp plans net Lotto windfall - Perthshire Advertiser

MEMORIES of a former Perthshire prisoner of war camp’s past are set to be preserved as part of a unique heritage project.

Comrie Development Trust was yesterday awarded £14,700 in lottery cash to help set up a local history project at Cultybraggan, whose complex of Nissen huts housed thousands of Hitler’s most loyal Nazi henchmen during the Second World War.

The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will allow the amateur historians to buy recording, video and computer equipment for carrying out interviews at the Strathearn site, which is set to become a model for green living.

A booklet on the oral and written history of Scotland’s last preserved camp is also being planned.

Trust chairwoman Cathy Tilbrook said after members set up their local history project earlier this year, it had attracted interest “locally and from farther afield”.

“Many people have come forward to offer help and items of interest, and we’re delighted that the lottery fund has chosen to support this venture,” said Ms Tilbrook yesterday.

“It has excited a lot of interest locally and we have already made contact, via our volunteers, with at least two former prisoners of war who spent time at Cultybraggan.

“The camp has been, and continues to be, hugely important to the village and features prominently in the trust’s work.

“This important grant will allow us to capture the memories of some who have been closely associated with it.”

In July, the trust submitted plans to create allotments and a small business park at Cultybraggan, which is being earmarked for a series of sustainable energy projects.

The maximum security facility opened in 1939 and housed up to 4000 German and Italian POWs, including some of the war’s most notorious Nazis.

It was bought by the trust from the Ministry of Defence for £350,000 last year after being declared surplus to requirements as a cadet training camp.

The Heritage Lottery Fund’s Scottish head Colin McLean said Cultybraggan’s past ensured the trust’s scheme was worth backing.

“This project will brilliantly capture both the shared history of Cultybraggan and Comrie, and the rarely heard stories of prisoners of war at the camp,” he said yesterday.

“Finding people to reveal their own experiences will offer a very personal and engaging way of exploring the past, and this is something HLF is very happy to support.”
Photographs of Cultybraggan

Cultybraggan Camp:: OS grid NN7620 :: Geograph British Isles - photograph every grid square!

Prisoners of War