Slades Hill army camp facts for kids
Slades Hill army camp was an important place during World War II. It was a camp for the British Army and also had special guns called anti-aircraft guns. These guns helped protect London from German planes that were trying to bomb the city. The camp was located in a part of London called Slades Hill, in Enfield.
Building the Camp
The Slades Hill camp and its gun area were built right at the start of World War II. Before this, in 1938, some smaller, movable guns had been placed nearby for a short time during a tense period called the Munich Crisis.
The road leading to the camp, which was just a dirt path before, was made into a proper road. Today, people in the area still call it Camp Road. Two small streams, the Merryhills Brook and the Salmon's Brook, are also near the camp site. South of the camp, there's a shooting club called the 26th Enfield Rifle and Pistol Club, which has been there since the Boer War.
Anti-Aircraft Guns
The special anti-aircraft guns were placed on a nearby hill called Hog Hill, just north of the camp. There were four of these large guns, called QF 4.5-inch Mark II guns. They were originally designed for navy ships but were changed to be used on land in 1938.
These guns were set into strong concrete bases. Their job was to shoot down German bomber planes attacking London. People said that when the guns fired, they were so loud that the main doors of the nearby Chase Farm Hospital would blast open!
In 1941, Winston Churchill's daughter, Mary, joined the British Army's Auxiliary Territorial Service. She was sent to work at this gun battery before moving to another one in Hyde Park.
After the War
After World War II ended, the army camp was changed into an office where army records were kept. It finally closed down in the early 1960s. Later, much of the camp area was covered with dirt and waste materials from local road-building projects.
