A Little Piece of History - The 'Camp'
The camp was a group of long huts, like you see in war films or POW camps. Arranged in rows on the slight hill up to the right, at the end of Burn Road (now called Stormy Hill). They were on top of brick piers to level them and, during the war, housed RAF personnel based there.
Crashed aircraft were brought into the camp via a rail line which existed at that time from the Castlehill direction and serviceable parts were removed in a hangar for recycling. Burn Road did not extend beyond Brown Street exept for the entrance to the Camp and there were no houses on the left as you drove in from Airdrie Road, only a field. The hanger was demolished in March, 2008.
After the war the 'camp' was used to provide emergency housing for families and remained so for many years before being finally demolished. Where the camp was are now the houses on Greenfield Road. Also for some time after the war the hangar was used to store tanks for the TA. It was not unusual to be woken up on a Sunday morning in Brown Street by the tanks travelling past and up Sandy Road to the Moor. It may still be possible to see some of the damage done by the tracks as they chewed into the edge of the footpaths. I was born in 1942 and unfortunately cannot remember the young WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) my mother told me was billeted with us and with whom I apparently shared my bed in Newbarns Street.
By Andrew Hamilton
If you have any pictures of the camp or hangar please send them to us for the site. We would love to have them.
The images below show the hangar in a vandalised state just before its demolition, and during its demolition in March 2008.
Spitfire LA198, which hangs from the ceiling of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, was repaired in the Carluke hangar on the 11th of May 1948. For more information click here.
The hangar also once held the plane of Rudolf Hess. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom, but instead was arrested. For more information click here. |
