Editing Sutton Bridge (section)

===Sutton Bridge Prisoner of War (POW) Camp===
Sutton Bridge POW Camp (designated POW Camp No. 254, Working Camp)<ref name="NA-SBPOW" /> was a relatively low-security [[prisoners of war|prisoner of war]] confinement camp to a number of captured ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' soldiers, airmen, sailors and submariners from respectively the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]], [[Luftwaffe]] (airforce) and [[Kriegsmarine]] (navy) during and after the Second World War.<ref name="NA-SBPOW" /> The Camp was located on the West Bank, next to what once was Travis & Arnold timber yard and offices, just off the road (left side) leading towards the old dock. Whilst in captivity the Sutton Bridge POWs were used by the [[Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Agriculture]] and hired out to civilian contractors to perform local land labour work.<ref name="NA-SBPOW" /><ref name="BASS5">Lincolnshire County Council – Archive Collection Ref. BASS 5; Prisoners of War: Papers relating to the use of POW labour on farms in the Sutton Bridge area, 1943–1949.</ref> Many German POWs throughout the UK were used as a labour force in agriculture and although interpreted as within the confines of Articles 27–32 of the [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929)|Geneva Convention (1929)]], it caused debate in the UK; words such as "slave labour" was increasingly used in the media and in the House of Commons (see [[Prisoner of war#Treatment of POWs by the Western Allies|Treatment of POWs by the Western Allies]]).

The Sutton Bridge POW camp was designed to hold up to 250 POWs, consisting of wooden barracks and [[Nissen hut]]s.<ref name="GMPWB">German Migrants in Post-war Britain: An enemy embrace. British Politics and Society. Author: Inge Weber-Newth and Johannes-Dieter Steinert, Publisher: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2006, Page 55-56, {{ISBN|0714656577}}.</ref><ref name="IRCR1">International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva: CICR Rapports des Visites. Camps ou Missions, Report No. 1397 of 28 August 1948, C-PW, Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire.</ref><ref name="IRCR2">International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva: CICR Rapports des Visites. Camps ou Missions, Report No. 1408, C-PW, Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire.</ref> Living conditions and facilities at the camp were sparse at best, with no electric lighting nor heating stoves until well after the War had ended.<ref name="GMPWB" /><ref name="IRCR1" /><ref name="IRCR2" /> On 28 August 1948, an official inspection visit by the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] reported prisoner conditions at Sutton Bridge POW Camp had improved significantly since their previous visit; 160 German ''Wehrmacht'' POWs were at that time interned in the camp quasi-hostel, electric lighting and coal heating stoves had found their way into the POW accommodation, each dormitory contained between 8 and 14 single beds, lockable lockers had just been delivered and doors had been fitted to toilet cubicles.<ref name="GMPWB" /><ref name="IRCR1" /><ref name="IRCR2" />

The interned POWs became a familiar part of Sutton Bridge community life while working the local farmland during their years of captivity and long after the war ended awaiting their [[repatriation]] (see [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929)#Termination of captivity|Termination of captivity]], [[unconditional surrender]] without [[armistice]]).<ref name="NA-SBPOW" /><ref name="BASS5" /> On being formally discharged from captivity that finally occurred in late 1948 and early 1949,<ref name="BASS5" /> the few ex-POWs who remained in local employment sponsorship settled in the local community.<ref name="NA-SBPOW" /><ref name="BASS5" /> Sutton Bridge continued to function as a boarding camp well into the early 1950s for some billeted ex-POWs who were either still awaiting repatriation or had elected to remain settled in local employment, until vacating to suitable local dwellings in and around Sutton Bridge.<ref name="NA-SBPOW" /><ref name="BASS5" /> Remnants of Sutton Bridge POW camp site (location at: {{Coord|52|46|15.80|N|0|11|45.82|E|name=Former site of POW Camp No. 254 Working Camp, Sutton Bridge.}}) and its buildings remained visible until the late 1970s–80s.