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The Villages
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To the South of Haltwhistle are the North Pennines, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The villages of the beautiful South Tyne Valley and the North Pennines, are in outstanding walking country and offer the chance to see rarities such as Black Grouse and Hen Harriers. Park Village's cottages cluster around the tiny chapel in the village. The little bypass means that the flowers can continue to bloom on the road's edge out of reach of most passing traffic now. Below
Park Village lies Featherstone Camp. In the early 1940s, a training
camp
for American troops was built beside the river at Featherstone. It
was nicknamed "Death Valley" by the inmates because of its isolated location, but the Americans soon made way for Italian prisoners of war and then "intransigent" German Officers. Between 1945 and 1948 some 25,000 Germans were housed at Featherstone camp. There were many compounds surrounded by barbed wire and watch towers. The camp was highly regarded and was one of the six most successful rehabilitation camps in the country, known as the "camp of confidence" and also as "the University on the Tyne." The
regime was relaxed in 1945 when Lt Col Vickers became Commandant;
the divisions, watch towers and barbed wire disappeared to be replaced
by parole, voluntary labour outside the camp, workshops and political
or cultural courses. The role of Captain Sulzbach, the camp interpreter
from 1946, was important in the success of the camp to rehabilitate
prisoners. He was a Jewish refugee from Germany who had been decorated
by the German Emperor in World War One and went on to .
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