Report - Checkendon Polish Camp - July 21

[Bikin Glynn]

Checkendon Camp

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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.

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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.

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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 https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/ne...-of-camp-where-poles-resettled-after-war.html

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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.

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The only other notable building was the cell block.

Thats a wrap, thanks for looking


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[trikey]

Some nice features there

 

[Calamity Jane]

Nice photos. Looks well hidden in those woods. Interesting back story.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Some nice features there

yeah some interesting if not strange stuff

Nice photos. Looks well hidden in those woods. Interesting back story.

Im guessing there is a lot more hidden away too.

 

[Mikeymutt🐶]

Nicely captured mate. I love that chapel. This is a place I would love to wander about.

 

[HughieD]

Interesting explore that mate, not least for the stuff left behind.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Interesting explore that mate, not least for the stuff left behind.

Thanks mate its a nice place for a wander but easy to get lost lol.

 

[Wally_urbex]

Just up the road from me. Nice take on it anyway mate

 

[Ordnance]

Some background info on the camps

Polish Post-War Resettlement Camps in the United Kingdom

The devastation caused by World War II left hundreds of thousands of Polish forces and individuals displaced from their homes and families by the year 1945. Loved ones had been lost. Houses, flats – and even whole villages – had been destroyed. And with the February Yalta Conference confirming...

culture.pl

 

[Daniel likes exploring]

Nice one. Missed that Henley paper piece when finding something for the words for YT and to read to camera, Found someones web blog of some sort. He had family there I think if remember right. I did August. Never seen on here. That lab, to do with trees, plants, in the woods, odd place for it and that lovely 1990's monitor for the computer. Looks like 1940's torture instruments that plug in some of it!. Guess used into late 90's by the more modern stuff. I had a few places pinned on the garmin GPS device around the neck, used old map to match upto google, get numbers by pining on map. some places, 1 or 2 came to nothing. bases but buildings gone. might be 1 place, Still I had a nice time with what I got. The lab I called the unknown building as could see from above on google. cell block, what I thought with the doors. 4 little cells was it, not many, Odd thing to want there but with lots of people, guess a bit of funnyness at some point

Some are buried at the checkingdon church, I went to have a look at the end then home.

 

[Down and beyond]

I remember you going here that day it does look proper history !

 

[Bobling]

Best report I've seen on this place well done. I spent today with my mother-in-law who is 86 and lives just by those woods. She remembers American Drs who became friendly with their family and who used to give them ice-cream (something they had never had before) and order them dolls from the US. She also remembers watching small boats go out, I guess from Henley, to Dunkirk. Crazy eh?

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Best report I've seen on this place well done. I spent today with my mother-in-law who is 86 and lives just by those woods. She remembers American Drs who became friendly with their family and who used to give them ice-cream (something they had never had before) and order them dolls from the US. She also remembers watching small boats go out, I guess from Henley, to Dunkirk. Crazy eh?

|Excellent bit of local insight there, I always find it fascination to hear peoples stories from somewhere I have explored.

 

[JakeV50]

That's a lovely one! Not seen it before, nice to see it's still in good shape with lots of original features still with it.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

That's a lovely one! Not seen it before, nice to see it's still in good shape with lots of original features still with it.

@mookster & a few others did a report last year, but yeah its relatively uncovered.