Nissen Hut

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Nissen Hut HB15-07-096-A is errected on a concrete slab base with concrete block perimeter walls. The roof is a semi-circular shape in corrugated iron sheet.

The hut is located within the Gosford Forest Park estate.

Historical information

The present hut is one of two surviving Nissen huts at Gosford Forest Park which constitute some of the last physical remnants of a large military/POW camp established within the Gosford demesne during the Second World War. Although the huts themselves almost certainly date from the war years, they are no longer in their original wartime locations and were erected in their present positions sometime between 1952 and 1977.

Gosford demesne had been the seat of the Acheson family, who ultimately became Earls of Gosford, since the plantation period. Construction of the present castle, to designs by Thomas Hopper, began in 1819 and continued into the mid 19th century. By 1920 the family had vacated the castle, leaving it empty for much of the inter war period. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the vacant castle and surrounding demesne were requisitioned by the War Department and adapted for military use.

Troops began to arrive at Gosford in January 1940, and by 1942 the army controlled more than 85 acres of the 650-acre demesne. The castle was converted into a barracks for officers and enlisted men, while an extensive military camp was constructed in the surrounding parkland. The camp consisted largely of Nissen huts, a standard prefabricated building type widely used by the British army for accommodation, storage and administrative purposes. By the end of the war, the Gosford camp contained almost 200 huts, demonstrating its importance as a military training and accommodation centre.

A range of units were based at Gosford during the war, among them artillery regiments such as the Royal Artillery (including a young Bombardier Arthur Lowe, who was later to become a household name as a TV actor), as well as the Royal Ulster Rifles, the Reconnaissance Corps and the Pioneer Corps. The requisitioned land was used not only for the camp itself but for drilling, tactical training, firing ranges and armoured vehicle exercises. From late 1943 to early 1944, elements of the US Army were also stationed at Gosford, and an airstrip near the demesne was used by American artillery spotter planes.

In 1945, after the departure of military units in advance of the D Day landings, the camp was repurposed as a prisoner of war camp for German POWs. Around 400 prisoners are thought to have been accommodated in the existing Nissen huts. Contemporary newspaper accounts describe at least one hut being used as an inquest venue, following the accidental death of two prisoners, with Irish and Ulster Tourist Association posters as internal decoration to make it less austere. Another hut was used as a prisoners’ chapel. The POWs also constructed a small stone structure within the demesne (thought to have functioned as a perpetual motion water pump - DHR 00068:006). Prisoners began to leave the POW camp in August 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

By early 1946 the camp at Gosford had been vacated, and the huts and lands were gradually derequisitioned. Land Agent’s records show that 192 Nissen huts were present at the end of the war, of which 131 had been used for the POW camp. The huts were already noted as being in deteriorating condition, and in November 1946 the majority (178) were offered for sale. However, not all were disposed of at that time, possibly because of their condition or because the estate wished to retain some for practical use.

Aerial photographs taken in the early 1950s show the bases of many former huts but also demonstrate that the locations of today’s surviving huts were empty at that time. This confirms that the current huts are not in their original wartime positions. Newspaper accounts indicate that some derelict huts were still present on the site in the mid 1950s, although (as structures believed to be temporary) these are not recorded on OS maps of 1954-5, which show only the perimeter fences of the former camp.

In 1958 the Gosford estate was purchased by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry Division and later developed as a Forest Park (opened in 1969). The two Nissen huts now standing at Gosford were erected in their present locations between 1952 and 1977, most likely for Ministry of Agriculture purposes, using huts relocated from elsewhere within the demesne. However, there is a small possibility that they were moved or used during the 1970-74 use of the castle and part of the demesne by armoured military reconnaissance units. Their continued use for storage today reflects the adaptability and durability that made Nissen huts such a ubiquitous feature of wartime and post war landscapes.

The two surviving Nissen huts are among the few remaining physical elements of the former military camp at Gosford and they demonstrate the continued use and reuse of Nissen huts after the war, with some fabric likely to have been replaced over the years. The present location of hut A is outside the original lands requisitioned by the army, while hut B is located within the boundary of the former camp but not in its original position.

References:
Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/2/17/3 OS County Series 6 inch maps 3rd edition (1906)
2. PRONI OS/6/2/17/4 OS County Series 6 inch maps 4th edition (1954-5)
3. PRONI AM/1/5/11A Air Ministry photographs 1952
4. PRONI D1670/5/1 Miscellaneous correspondence and maps concerning requisition of Gosford Castle during WW2
5. Large-scale OS maps: 1954, 1977, 1990 https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk/
6. Armagh Guardian, 15th October 1920
7. Daily Mirror, 12th April 1922
8. Dublin Builder, 2nd December 1922
9. Armagh Guardian, 17th August 1923
10. Liverpool Daily Post, 7th December 1935
11. Country Life, 14th December 1935
12. Armagh Guardian, 19th January 1945
13. Armagh Guardian, 2nd March 1945
14. Newry Reporter, 29th May 1945
15. Newry Reporter, 4th August 1945
16. Armagh Guardian, 12th April 1946
17. Belfast Newsletter, 23rd March 1954
18. Belfast Telegraph, 13th November 1957
19. Belfast Telegraph, 28th February 1958
20. Portadown Times, 11th April 1958
21. Belfast Newsletter, 20th December 1961
22. Armagh Guardian, 28th February 1963
23. Belfast Newsletter, 16th April 1964
24. Belfast Telegraph, 8th February 1968
25. Belfast Telegraph, 16th February 1968
26. Belfast Newsletter, 17th February 1968
27. Portadown Times, 23rd May 1969
28. Portadown Times 30th May 1969
29. Lurgan Mail, 14th August 1970
30. Newry Reporter, 20th August 1970
31. Portadown Times, 12th March 1971
32. Portadown Times, 9th April 1971
33. Belfast Telegraph, 9th April 1971
34. Portadown Times, 28th February 1973
35. Belfast Newsletter, 10th November 1973
36. Belfast Newsletter, 8th June 1974
37. Newry Reporter, 10th October 1974
38. Belfast Newsletter, 6th January 1981

Secondary Sources:
39. Dictionary of Irish Architects www.dia.ie
40. Foreman, Melody (2024) Dad’s Army Goes to War. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books Ltd
41. HED Defence Heritage Record
42. HED Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest
43. National Library of Scotland OS maps Ordnance Survey Maps Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 - National Library of Scotland
44. Robinson, M.P. and Griffin, R (2016) The Royal Armoured Corps in the Cold War. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books
45. The Second World War in Northern Ireland (www.facebook.com)_
46. US Army Center of Military History https://history.army.mil/
47. Wartime NI https://archives.wartimeni.com/

Evaluation

Nissen Hut HB15-07-096-A is located within the Gosford Forest Park Estate. However, research indicates that its position does not correspond to the known Second World War layout or the documented group of original WW2 Nissen huts on the site. Therefore the hut is of insufficent special architectural or historic interest to consider it suitable for listing and is an RO.