History Documentary: In October 1799, 130 Napoleonic French and Dutch prisoners of war were locked in a Norfolk church bell tower for the night. One man managed to escape – sparking a man hunt! Before Waterloo & Austerlitz, this is the story of Jean de Narde — a French petty officer, 28 years old, son of a notary from St. Malo — and the sixty years of shame that followed his death in an East Dereham churchyard.
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*In this episode:*
- The world’s first purpose-built prisoner of war camp
- Napoleon’s French invasion that actually happened
- The one man who got out of the tower
- The tree that gave him away
- The sixty years of guilt that followed
*Further Reading:*
- Rev. Arthur Brown — The French Prisoners of Norman Cross: A Tale (1895, Hodder Brothers). https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23836/23836-h/23836-h.htm
- Paul Chamberlain — The Napoleonic Prison of Norman Cross: The Lost Town of Huntingdonshire (The History Press, 2019) 3 Dereham Heritage Trust — local institutional source, covers the East Norfolk Militia detail and the memorial inscription: https://www.derehamhistory.co.uk/jean-de-narde—1799.html
Secret Bonus Facts:
- The “Lost Town” of Norman Cross: Norman Cross was more than just a prison; it functioned like a self-contained town. At its peak, it housed around 7,000 men and featured its own hospital, school, marketplace, and even a banking system. It was so significant to the local economy that when it was finally demolished in 1816, it was described as a “lost town”. #
- During the Napoleonic Wars, over 100,000 French prisoners were held in Britain — and unlike previous conflicts, most were held for the entire duration. The traditional system of prisoner exchanges had largely collapsed. Some men waited years. Some died waiting.
- To survive, prisoners often became craftsmen. Using soup bones, wood offcuts, and sometimes their own hair, they produced extraordinarily intricate model ships, jewellery boxes and spinning jennies — sold at local markets to British civilians. Some of those objects are now museum pieces.
You’ve scrolled too far. There is nothing down here. But… since you’re here…
Jean de Narde was far from the only one who tried to escape. Norman Cross was the world’s first purpose-built POW camp and was just down the road in what is now Cambridgeshire. It was in a constant state of low-level war with its own inmates. Sixteen prisoners escaped in 1804 alone. In 1805, 500 men charged and broke down the inner fence during a riot, forcing the authorities to eventually replace the entire wooden stockade with a brick wall. And in 1812, General Armand Philippon — the celebrated defender of Badajoz — broke his parole in Oswestry, contacted smugglers out of Rye in Sussex, and crossed the Channel. He rejoined the Grand Armée in August 1812. Unlike Jean, he made it.