A camp for French and Dutch soldiers and sailors was built at Norman Cross during the Napoleonic War. Between 1796 and 1816 roughly 10,000 prisoners were held there, of whom at least 1,700 died and were buried in the Camp's cemetery. Several thousand English troops were stationed there as well, to guard the POWs.
Huntingdonshire Archives has microfilm copies of some records concerning the Camp now held at the Public Record Office in Kew, including the general entry books of Dutch and French prisoners. We also have a list of all known marriages between English soldiers and local women, and of baptisms of any of their children, compiled from Stilton and Glatton parish registers. Please ask a member of staff if you wish to see these.
Our searchroom library has a copy of T.J.Walker's book The Depot for Prisoners of War at Norman Cross (1915) and of S.Berrill's Norman Cross Prison Camp (1989).
We also have a photocopy of the L'Entente Society circular inviting subscriptions towards the memorial to the prisoners, with a drawing of the proposed memorial, 1914 (accession 4655).
Models made by the POWs can today be seen at Peterborough Museum and at the Norris Museum in St Ives.