At the end of World War 2, some 120,000 Polish servicemen and women who
had fought alongside the allies, accepted the British Government’s offer
to settle in this country. They decided to stay in Britain rather than go back
to their homeland because Poland had fallen under the totalitarian communist
regime of Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Because of the housing shortage
which had been created by the war, the Poles were housed in various temporary
camps around the country. Most of these camps had been constructed during the
war to fulfil various functions including providing accommodation for troops,
and even hold prisoners of war. There were a number of such camps in south
Buckinghamshire, including one at Hodgemoor Wood, which was just off the A355,
between Amersham and Beaconsfield, near Coleshill. Bottrells Lane ran right
through the centre of the camp during its existence.
Picture courtesy www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk
Inside the Nissen hut
which served as a Community Hall. A meeting is taking place
Wherever possible
the Poles were housed alongside their wartime comrades and Hodgemoor Camp was
occupied mainly by ex-servicemen who had fought with the 3rd Carpathian Rifle
Division, and their families. Amersham residents therefore can be proud of the
fact that their local Polish Camp was settled by men who had belonged to a unit
which played a major role in several famous battles of the Italian Campaign.
Monte Cassino was captured by the 3rd Carpathians.
The first Poles
began to move into Hodgemoor in 1946 and the camp’s prefabricated
buildings and Nissen huts soon began to take the form of a Polish village.
There were 180 dwellings some of which were sub-divided into smaller units, and
in all, the population of Hodgemoor Camp reached approximately 600 at its peak
during the 1950’s.
Picture courtesy Henry Wigier
Outside the Church Apart from the dwellings the camp had, right in
its midst both socially and physically, four Nissen huts which served various
needs of the community. The most prominent of these was the church which was
run by a priest Father Josef Madeja, who lived in the camp and performed mass
there every day. In fact on Sundays there were three masses, two in the morning
and one in the evening. The other three Nissan huts served as a community hall
for parties, dances and plays, a weekend school for children, a library of
Polish books, and a pub. The pious Catholic Poles are also renowned for
enjoying the odd glass of vodka or beer.
Picture courtesy www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.ukA Christmas partyThe Poles were very
industrious and most of them, both men and women, worked in the nearby large
towns, mainly Slough and High Wycombe. Many Poles from Hodgemoor worked at the
Mars factory in Slough which was renowned for its high wages and excellent
conditions. Consequently many families were able to afford cars or motorbikes
and so commuting from this isolated place did not present a great problem.
Picture courtesy www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk
Hodgemoor had its own
football team – called Junak.Most Hodgemoor children attended nearby Chalfont St Giles infants and
middle school, which was a bit far to walk to. So as there was no bus service,
some of the car-owners who had finished their night shifts at work, would run
them to school in the morning. They would then bring them back in late
afternoon, after they’d had some sleep.
As the housing shortage
throughout the UK began to ease by the late 1950’s and the camp was
earmarked for demolition, the Poles began to move out. Many, particularly those
who worked in Slough and could afford it, bought houses there. Slough had a
large Polish community long before 2004 when Poland joined the EU and many of
its nationals came to work there. Other Poles chose to live in nearby Amersham
and quite a few settled in Great Missenden.
Picture courtesy Henry Wigier
An Easter parade wends its
way down Bottrells LaneToday, Hodgemoor Wood is a
recreation park but there is a plaque to commemorate its time when it was
literally ‘a Polish village in the English countryside’. However,
this plaque does not mark the end of the Polish Community in the Amersham area.
Whereas in some cases multi-cultural Britain seems to have problems with
assimilating some of its ethnic minorities – with the Poles it was the
opposite. Many of the older generation were worried that the youngsters were
assimilating too quickly, thereby abandoning their roots. So in the late
1970’s a group of ex-Hodgemoor Poles decided to build some sort of central
community place in Amersham to carry on Polish traditions and culture.
Picture courtesy Henry Wigier
Chalfont St Giles Infants
School 1953
Many of these children are
Poles from Hodgemoor
With help from Amersham Town Council and Buckinghamshire Education Authority
who owned Raans Road Secondary Modern School, they were able to build a Polish
Club within a corner of the school’s spacious grounds. The school itself
no longer exists but the thriving Polish Club, officially re-named The
Bor-Komorowski Club after a Polish World War 2 hero, still stands at the end of
Raans Road in Amersham On The Hill.
Picture courtesy Marie Bożena GaffneyMany Hodgemoor residents
owned cars or motorbikes.