Land at Pont-y-gwindy, part of Pwll-y-pant Farm to the west of Pont-y-gwindy Road, was taken over by the Home Office in 1938. A complex was erected by Glamorgan County Council to house people from Cardiff, Barry and Newport who might be forced to evacuate during the expected war. In 1943-4, two American Railway Shop Battalions (RSBs) were garrisoned at the camp. There were bungalows for the officers; other buildings were of brick construction, with eight men in each, and apparently luxurious compared to standard British Army accommodation of the time having indoor toilets and washrooms. In the latter stages of the war, following departure of the Americans in July 1944, the buildings were used to house German prisoners of war. After the Second World War, what had been the American officers' bungalows were used to house local families and the southern part of the site was used as a council depot and government offices. By 1960 the camp had become disused and construction of the Pontygwindy Estate had started; eventually all was demolished and built over by the Pontygwindy Industrial Estate - no buildings remain and only some 200 metres of the alignment of what is now Hills Court survives of the camp's original street pattern.
Sources include: Dennis G Sellwood, 'The Friendly Invasion' in the Journal of the Caerphilly Local History Society, June 2002; Glyndwr G.Jones, 'Wartime Caerphilly: Recollections of the years 1939-45' in Chronicl Caerffili, No.2 (1974), p26 on.
B.A.Malaws, RCAHMW, 18 November 2013.