The Scotsman – German Prisoners for Stobs Camp

2 November 1914

Arrangements are being completed for interning a large number of German prisoners at Stobs Camp, about four miles south-west of Hawick. Huts will be erected for the accommodation of the prisoners on camping-ground below Winningtonrig, on the north side of the Barnes Burn. Two large areas, divided by a road which runs from the Barnes brae by way of Winningtonrig, will be taken in for the purpose. The fields are those which were occupied this summer by the Officers Training Corps from the Scottish and English Universities, and which in some former training seasons were dotted with the tents of the Territorial battalions of the Royal Scots (Wueen’s Edinburgh, & c.) It is proposed to erect 40 huts to the south-west of Winningtonrig and 60 to the north-east on the other side of the road, but as they will be double huts there will really be 200 each providing sleeping accommodation for 30 persons, or a total of 6000. There will also be dinningrooms, cook-houses, and other accommodation, and all these will be enclosed by a “death line” made of barbed wire. Outside the barbed wire there will be barrack stores, guard room, cells, & c. The huts will have a concrete base, and the weather-boarding will be surmounted with corrugated iron roofs. The inside of the huts will be lined with asbestos sheeting. It is estimated that the cost of the huts will be almost £50,000. It is stated that a number of the prisoners may be taken to Stobs immediately, in which case they could be accommodated in the huts, less than a dozen in number, which are at present at Barnes, overlooking the proposed compound, and in other places at the Castle.