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Checkendon Camp
After @mookster posted this place I decided it was definitely worth checking & it just so happened I was working in the area a few weeks later (at the old Oxford Springs Hotel) so thought Id have a butchers.
Thanks to @mookster too for guiding me to the chapel which Id already walked past without realising this was the building.
After the Second World War, Checkendon was home to Polish war refugees. There were 228,000 Polish troops in the British army and many were displaced after the conflict, ending up living in huts surrounding the woods and common land at Checkendon as well as at Nettlebed and Kingwood Common.
From 1946, they could join the Polish Resettlement Corps, a unit of the army set up to help them prepare for civilian life in Britain.
They were housed in former military camps and support was provided under the Polish Resettlement Act, including dedicated schooling for children and training of adults for civilian jobs.
The camp at Checkendon, was opened in 1948 and offered accommodation in Nissen huts.
Most of these buildings have been dismantled or become derelict but some still survive, scattered through the woods.
The camp, which had been an American base during the war, also had a aforementioned chapel and a morgue, the remains of which can still be found in the woodland.
Unfortunately the chapel is now just a façade on a empty open ended hut used for farm storage.
Lots more info & stories available here Remains of camp where Poles resettled after war
If you have looked at prev posts you will see the most interesting thing here is prob the "laboratory", Im not sure what the deal is here, there was some weird contraptions in here for sure.
The only other notable building was the cell block.
Thats a wrap, thanks for looking
After @mookster posted this place I decided it was definitely worth checking & it just so happened I was working in the area a few weeks later (at the old Oxford Springs Hotel) so thought Id have a butchers.
Thanks to @mookster too for guiding me to the chapel which Id already walked past without realising this was the building.
After the Second World War, Checkendon was home to Polish war refugees. There were 228,000 Polish troops in the British army and many were displaced after the conflict, ending up living in huts surrounding the woods and common land at Checkendon as well as at Nettlebed and Kingwood Common.
From 1946, they could join the Polish Resettlement Corps, a unit of the army set up to help them prepare for civilian life in Britain.
They were housed in former military camps and support was provided under the Polish Resettlement Act, including dedicated schooling for children and training of adults for civilian jobs.
The camp at Checkendon, was opened in 1948 and offered accommodation in Nissen huts.
Most of these buildings have been dismantled or become derelict but some still survive, scattered through the woods.
The camp, which had been an American base during the war, also had a aforementioned chapel and a morgue, the remains of which can still be found in the woodland.
Unfortunately the chapel is now just a façade on a empty open ended hut used for farm storage.
Lots more info & stories available here Remains of camp where Poles resettled after war
If you have looked at prev posts you will see the most interesting thing here is prob the "laboratory", Im not sure what the deal is here, there was some weird contraptions in here for sure.
The only other notable building was the cell block.
Thats a wrap, thanks for looking
