THE reputation of the Army’s only remaining detention centre has often gone before it.

Over the years, it has struck fear into the hearts as stories of life beyond its walls filtered through the ranks.

But writer Carole McEntee-Taylor is dispelling some of the myths and telling the stories of the many who have passed through its doors since it was established shortly after the end of the Second World War in Colchester.

Carole, 56, works at the Military Corrective training Centre (MCTC) as it is known today, where she helps those heading back to their lives with the transition.

“I am the housing officer, so I make sure when they leave they don’t end up being homeless,” she explains.

She had not really heard of the centre before she worked there, but soon became interested in the reputation it appeared to have.

“It had such a fearful reputation, but it has changed so much, and so has the attitude towards the welfare of those there.”

Having already written a number of local history books on a raft of subjects, Carole was approached to research the history of her workplace.

“The staff were interested in having something written and had done a lot of good work on it and, in the book, I have done a brief history and then got people who had been there to contact me, so I could have their recollections,” she says.

The resulting book, Military Detention Colchester From 1947: Voices from the Glasshouse, was published last year.

Carole explains the centre was established in what had been a Second World War German Prisoner of War (POW) camp.

“I was actually contacted by one of the British guards who worked there and they recalled that was where the Nissen huts came from.

“It was entirely made of these huts, which stayed until the 1980s.”

She says the detention centre created out of the POW camp served a purpose previously not catered for.

“Originally, they had no form of detention for soldiers, so they would have field punishments and after the Napoleonic wars, they stuck them in civilian prisons.

“The problem with putting them in civilian prisons was a lot of the crimes were not actually civilian crimes, like being Absent Without Leave (AWOL), for example.

“It was felt a specific military detention centre was needed, but the one set up at that time was markedly different from today’s.

“They got them to do lots of pointless punishments like turning a crank handle for hours on end.

There was no purpose, they were just turning air. They would also do shot drills, loading and unloading their weapons,” says Carole, who lives in Tollesbury.

“In the Fifties there were reports of people being shouted at and they had to earn privileges, like having their radios in there.

“I think it was probably quite a strict regime, but most of the guys were used to military discipline.”

She says its fearsome reputation probably grew from the talk of those in the Forties and Fifties who had not readily signed up to Army life.

“Because of there being National Service there were a lot who did not want to be there in the first place so if they ended up in detention it was even harder, she says.”

Former members of staff, visitors, padres and detainees all came forward with their recollections.

“I was really surprised by the number of detainees wanting to have their say. There were absolutely loads, particularly from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.

“There is a fascinating story of a Second World War veteran who went AWOL right at then end of the war and then gave himself up in the late Sixties. Amazingly, he had made it all the way through the war and then just had enough even though it was ending.

“He probably had Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But the records say they made him walk round the grounds once, gave him a meal and then let him go. After all that time, they probably thought it was enough that he came back at all.”

Since those early days, the emphasis changed towards using the time people spent in the centre for training and bettering themselves and this is how its name was changed from the Military Detention Centre to the Military Corrective Training Centre.

An its unpopular nickname, the Glasshouse, is not actually its own.

“It comes from Aldershot,” says Carole, “where there was a glass roof. When that closed, the centre in Colchester became the main one and the name also got transferred somehow.

“Now that the old Nissen huts and the barbed wire at the main gates left over from the prisoner camp have long gone, it is not as intimidating a place and detainees are given a video to watch to prepare them, so they are not quaking at the thought.

“It is not how it used to be.”

Military Detention Colchester From 1947: Voices From the Glasshouse, by Carole McEntee- Taylor is published in hardback, costing £25, and available to buy online (ISBN: 9781783400591).