A huge fire last summer at a Cotswold business park repurposed from a World War Two prisoner of war camp needed six fire crews to bring under control when the blaze broke out at the site.

Additional forefighters from Hereford and Worcester were sent to assist Gloucestershire crews at Northwick Business Centre on August 17 last year after the devastating inferno took hold at a building occupied by Coating Technologies Ltd.

The business park was created in 1943 as a prisoner of war camp, but became a US base and hospital in advance of D-Day preparations.

A Worcester firefighter said at the time of the incident: "The building was well alight with three jets, a hose reel jet and a water carrier all tackling the blaze which was split into sectors by crews."

Unit 94 at the commercial and industrial park, which is in the hamlet of Paxford and just north of Blockley, was destroyed in the blaze which began just before 7.30am and lasted for six hours before it was brought under control.

But Chipping Norton Builders (CNB), who are headquartered at Chipping Norton's Elmsfield Industrial Estate and carry out bespoke projects, now have the go-ahead from Cotswold District Council to put up a brand new replica building at the Paxford site, which is the UK production base for Coating Technologies Ltd.

The firm specialise in bonding technology and have been in operation for 40 years. As of last year, the company expanded with production facilities in Slovenia.

Joe Johnson, director of CNB, which employs 12 staff, told Punchline-Gloucester.com: "We are still awaiting some details on the permission before we can plan the timing for the work. The site isn't listed, but the brief will ensure that the replacement factory looks the same as the building that stood there originally."

The handling details and agreement over asbestos contamination at the site are understood to be the focus of final clearance on the work.

Records show that in 1943, Northwick Park became an American field hospital and it was part of the Spencer-Churchill estate. In the following year, it was turned into a POW hospital under the International Red Cross and two years after the end of the war was handed over to the Ministry of Works to become a home for displaced Polish families who lived there until the 1960s.

● Earlier this year, two men avoided a jail term after a cannabis factory was found to be in operation at an address in Northwick Business Park.