Eden Camp owners Howard Stanley and Paula Peace
I’ve never been able to forget my first visit to the Eden Camp Modern History Museum. Like most people who grow up in and around York, I went there on a school trip with my primary school and perhaps less like all people — I found it terrifying! Aged six or seven, I probably wasn’t able to tell the difference between a moving figure and a real Nazi soldier. The memory stands testament to what Eden Camp does best, it’s a brilliantly realistic insight into what the Second World War must’ve been like for the people who really experienced it. Don’t worry, the rest of my class made it out tear-free.
If somehow, you’ve never been, Eden Camp is a historical attraction almost like no other. It’s a standing testament to Second World War history, complete with aircraft, sounds, smells, and an archive of artefacts — all of which has been built by its local owners on the site of a real Prisoner of War Camp. From its origin in 1942 right up until 1948 it housed Italian prisoners who had been captured in North Africa.
It wasn’t until 1985 that a local businessman named Stan Johnson, father to Howard Johnson who now co-owns the site, bought the camp, and over the decades since, step by step it has been renovated and transformed into one of the country’s proudest museums, hosting more than 100,000 visitors every year.
This now brings us to the point of this story. After decades in the hands of the Stanley family, this January its current owners, Howard Stanley and his partner Paula Peace, instructed estate agents Christie & Co to put the museum up for sale. But why now? We asked the pair that very question.
“We’re immensely proud of everything we’ve achieved, preserving 80-years of history. But it’s our retirement. I’m 65 in a few weeks’ time, and we’ve all got to be sensible.” Says Howard.
He adds, that when his father passed away around a decade ago, he and Paula took a decision to divide the site in half, so that half could serve as a museum and the rest could be used for hospitality and retail which was run by Paula.
“She basically made the money which allowed me to spend it on the site and on the vehicles. It’s taken us 10-years to turn it around, and get the site in the condition that it deserves to be, to preserve the artefacts that we currently hold.”
Now home to over 100,000 rare items, Eden Camp holds one of the greatest collections of the nation’s Second World War treasures found anywhere in the country.
Paula adds, “We put our life on hold to be honest, working seven-days-a-week. I’ve aged about 20-years in 10, but it’s been really rewarding!”
If you’ve still never been to the museum, Howard says now is the time: “It’s just an amazing day-out. It’s too easy to forget what people go through in times of war as we’re seeing now in the Ukraine and Gaza. We need to keep educating the next generation on how stupid and futile war is so that we remember why we should not repeat it.”
On the sale, Howard said, “If and when it happens, it’ll happen and it’s as simple as that.”
“We both felt that it was the right time to pass the reins on to some new custodians that will have exactly the same principles that we have and will continue it for the next 40-years.”
For anyone worrying what the new Eden Camp might look like, Howard confirmed to me “It will not be sold unless it’s kept as a museum, that’s without a shadow of a doubt.”
Head to www.edencamp.co.uk/ to book your tickets today.
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