SENNYBRIDGE GERMAN VILLAGE

Description

Slide of RCAHMW colour oblique aerial photograph of Sennybridge German Village, taken by T.G. Driver, 3/5/1997.

Purpose built military training village for 'Fighting In Built Up Areas' training (FIBUA) at Sennybridge Camp. Building commenced in 1988, and completed in September 1990. Plans based on a typical small German village that might be found in 1 British Corps sector of West Germany.
Sennybridge Camp replaced an earlier tented camp constructed at Llywel 4 miles west of Sennybridge, and was built from March 1940 (aerial images of its construction in 1941 recently came to light via the Central Registry of Air Photography for Wales; see Driver and Davis 2012, 130). Today it retains the buildings and layout of a Second World War training camp in a substantially complete state. The main camp to north of an east-west minor public road was constructed first, with the second part of camp (stores buildings and workshops) then built to south, between this minor road and the main A40 through Sennybridge village.

The camp was originally designed to accommodate about 2000 soldiers. Originally titled 'RA Practice Camp', the title changed to 'All Arms Training Area' in the early 1960s and to 'Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA) in October 1968. Now called Sennybridge ATFC (Army Field Training Centre) or Sennybridge Camp. The camp serves the wider training area which extends to some 31,000 acres or 12,000 hectares. Remodelling of camp began in Autumn 2002, following an Integrated Land Management Plan, but did not change the plan to any great extent.

The camp retains rare 1940s murals in the cookhouse painted by Italian Prisoners of War, which depict alpine scenes, and are now protected behind Perspex screens. The same PoWs were responsible for building some of the concrete drainage culverts on the training area.

• http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/268123/images/GTJ25915.jpg (link opens in new window)