Amersham
---- News, Views & Information

Hodgemoor Polish Camp
Near Amersham, 1946-62

Written by: Henry Wizgier


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.


Hodgemoor


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.



Hodgemoor

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.

Hodgemoor

Picture courtesy 
www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk
A Christmas party


The 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.

Hodgemoor


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.

Hodgemoor

Picture courtesy Henry Wigier
An Easter parade wends its way down Bottrells Lane


Today, 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.

Hodgemoor
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.

Hodgemoor

Picture courtesy Marie Bożena Gaffney
Many Hodgemoor residents owned cars or motorbikes.


Written by: Henry Wizgier

For more details about Polish Camps in the UK, see www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk

Click here for page about Amersham's housing camps

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