How The Escape Was Nearly Foiled:

A man by the name of Garfield Davies, (brother of John Davies, tenant of Island Farm) who owned  Newbridge Farm, was ploughing one of his fields adjoining the camp. As he approached the hedgerow, near to the camp boundary wire, he became aware of prisoners, along the length of the wire, watching him work. Keen to show to the Germans that he was a skilled ploughman he set off towards the other side of the field. Out of the corner of his eye though, he noticed that the prisoners had now lost all interest in his ploughing, but this got renewed as he approached the wire again. There was a very large flat stone only a short distance from the wire and as he skirted around it, rather than risk damaging his plough, the prisoners stared as if mesmerised. On his next run Mr Davies had to plough further away from the stone but this time only a handful of prisoners watched.

During the early hours of the following morning, Mr Davies heard shots from the camp and saw many lights flashing. Later in the day, when he went to inspect his newly ploughed field, he found out why the prisoners had shown such apparent interest in his ploughing; especially when in the vicinity of the large stone.  The large stone camouflaged the exit to the tunnel. Had Mr Davies been careless enough to have hit the stone, not only could he have damaged his plough, but he could have also caused a cave-in or the discovery of the tunnel.

Modern Day Picture Of View From Escape Hut To Gerald Davies' Field