Searching for Italian Prisoner of War

Trying to find info on my grandfather. Very limited info - was Italian POW at Gatewarth Farm, Cheshire, England in 1943. Don't know where to start looking for info on this. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Hi Bob,
Do you know if it was actually a camp or just a farm where PoWs were billeted? All I'm getting online is a Gatewarth Community Recycling centre to the West of Warrington, so might no longer exist if it's the same place.
Try the council archives as a first resort, see if they have any info. I've also asked on a FB PoW group I help run, so if someone has anything I'll let you know.
EDIT: Gatewarth Farm (if it's the same place) appears on maps until the late 1980s, so it's probably gone now.
There was a PoW hostel over at Penketh, on the site of a Heavy Anti-Aircraft battery, both of which are long gone. There's probably a connection to Gatewarth, since the PoW labour may have come from there.

 

Thanks Gordon, much appreciated.
Yes that's it exactly! It was my grandparents farm and unfortunately its all gone now. I understand the Itailian PoWs were used as labour on the farm. That's an interesting connection to Penketh, i'll look more into this.
Many Thanks,
Bob

 

No worries, Bob. Your grandparents would have contacted the County War Agricultural Executive Committee to apply for the labour, and if successful the prisoners would have been allocated to them, possibly from Penketh but that's an educated guess.
There was an established payment scale due to the CWAEC from your grandparents (they wouldn't have directly paid the prisoners themselves), but there would have been a discount if they were billetted directly on the farm and didn't have to travel.
You should also try posting on our sister site WW2Talk. I think there's at least one member over there who could probably give you chapter and verse on sources.

 

Thanks again for this, definitely feels like a route forward, maybe there are some records associated with the CWAEC. Interestingly i think the prisoners did end up living at the farm near the end of their stay.
I can see the Penketh camp was very close by and had some Italians staying - The Italian connection
I'll post a tread on WW2Talk and see what else can be established.
Many Thanks