Finnamore Wood Camp before the Borstal

 When most long term Marlow residents hear the words Finnamore* Wood their thoughts tend to bring up images of the borstal or young offenders institution that occupied the site between 1960 -1996. This is a post about its happier predecessor - Finnamore Wood Camp. This was in operation by the National Camps Corporation during the second world war and just after for evacuated and then war damaged children. 

National Camps Corporation Ltd. 

The Camps Act 1939 allowed for the setting up of rural camps with permanent facilities for use by schools in urban areas to give their youngsters a health boosting break in the countryside. The National Camps Corporation was a largely government funded not for profit group that would run the sites. With the threat of war looming, the possibility of using the camps for evacuation purposes in war time was also considered. A report from 1939 relating to the first camp completed mentioned it had no dedicated class rooms as such although there was a hall that could be put to this purpose "if necessary".  This suggests the focus was then still more on short term holiday use but it's not true that eventual use for evacuation was an afterthought. Very soon the designs reflected the need for proper educational facilities and all round the year accomodation. The site at Finnamore Wood was one of the first decided upon for a camp. In July 1939 it was confirmed that the site would be used for evacuation in war time as well as peacetime use. 

The corporation bought the site when the council agreed to divert a footpath that ran across the would be camp to Chisbridge Cross. 

The Girls Arrive

It's said the camps generally took three months to be made ready. This includes the construction. Standardized designs and parts were used for efficiency. So all of the camps would have looked fairly similar, with cedar wood buildings on concrete foundations with shingle roofing. Although it's said there was a standard provision of buildings such as about 4 classrooms, 5 dorms etc, descriptions of facilities at different sites show they were not quite as uniform as the bare records suggest. Of course some of this reflect different uses put to the same building on different sites. 

In the spring of 1940, Finnamore Wood Camp saw the arrival of the female high school age pupils of Beal Modern School in Ilford - an area regarded as "sensitive" or especially at risk of enemy action. Accompanying them was headmistress Miss Shepherd. The boys of the school went to a different camp at Kennylands, Sonning. Marlow has a great number of young evacuees and accommodating them all classrooms was often a juggling act. So the authorities must have been pleased to have a school arrive in their midst who would be self sufficient as regards facilities. 

The schools were expected to provide their own school room furniture as well as things such as books and stationary. The camps corporation took care of the domestic arrangements and provided the food. A weekly charge was made by the corporation per pupil for the board and lodgings and towards the cost of maintaining the facilities.  This was paid by the education authority in Ilford but they were able to claim it back from the department of health as an evacuation expense. 

Roughing It In Camp?

While the young ladies were obviously very far from the comforts of home and family, the word "camp" shouldn't make us visualize them huddling in draughty tents! The facilities were provided with central heating which it was painted out few children would have experienced at home. There was a classroom devoted to domestic science and the girls were taught cooking, clothes mending, gardening and crafts such as knitting and quilting. There was a games room, laboratory and rest rooms as well as the necessary kitchen, bathing and washing facilities. The girls slept in metal bunk beds in dormitories. If any hoped to get in any mischief after lights out, they would have been disappointed to find there was also a bedroom for a teacher at one end. Outside there was room for organized games and  allotment gardens - dig for victory! Some of the senior girls also helped with crop harvesting in the locality - digging potatoes, gathering oats, and collecting acorns for pigs. They were not the only young helpers doing such important work - the senior boys at Borlase in Marlow itself  participated in farm camps over several summers and many older Marlow people remember gathering berries for the jam factories  and rosehips for syrup etc. 

A Royal Visit 

In 1940 the King and Queen visited the camps occupied by both the boys and girls of Beal Modern School. The royal visitors spent a considerable time touring the facilities and seeing examples of the pupils work. At Finnamore, the Queen said she thought the girls would be just as capable of spending a winter in the country as their male fellows. Both remarked on how the children seemed to settle quickly into their new situation and that they looked "healthy and happy". The following year a reporter who watched the girls perform a nativity play at Holly Trinity Church in Marlow noted that it was very clear the girls "have benefitted from so considerably from the wonderful health given properties of the Buckinghamshire air".  Against this we must submit an epidemic of diarrhoea that occured in December 1943 which was serious enough to be feared the start of a diphtheria outbreak. There was thankfully a small hospital and a permanent nurse on the staff. 

During the 4 years the pupils were at Finnamore they involved themselves in many of the charity appeals of the villages and towns around them. For example they performed plays, songs and dances in costume as part of Marlow's Wings for Victory Week, at the band hall in town. They helped decorate Hambledon church for it's harvest festival and performed another nativity play for charity at Frieth church. It was noted that there was some difficulty in transporting the girls from their fairly isolated camp spot into places such as Marlow because of petrol and vehicle shortages but camp manager Will Berry performed his miracles and they "got about" more than expected. 

Post War Use 

After the war, the National Camps Corporation retained ownership of Finnamore Wood Camp. It was used memorably to provide much needed respite to French, Belgian, Polish and Czech children whose childhood had been cut short by the time spent living in war zones. The first  party seems to be a group of 8-14 year old French boys and girls who came in April 1943 under a scheme organized by the British Emergency Council For Help to France and the Committee for Young People in Occupied Countries. All of the arrivals had either been bombed out or were children of arrested, killed or still missing parents. They arrived at Northolt aerodrome after what must have been an exciting flight for many.  They spent several weeks in the camp and this was followed up by stays in Marlow homes. It was hoped that after the soup destroying experiences the poor little ones had passed through, the stay here would give them "a fresh outlook on life" as well as boost their physical health.  This group was followed by many many more in the 1940s. The local youth groups such as the scouts took a big role in helping entertain the visitors both by going to the camp to organize activities and by hosting them at events in Marlow. Miss Jackson of the WVS collected books, footballs, tennis rackets and games for the camp - one of hundreds of practical things this hardworking woman woman did to make other lives better both during the war and after it. 

In 1948 the American, Argentinian and Brazilian rowing teams competing in the Olympics were hosted at the camp. Apparently there were some complaints about its "out of the way" location but they were to compete at Henley so they were really quite conveniently placed as regards location if not transport links. 

A VILLAGE FOR CHILDREN

Although the National Camps Corporation retained ownership of the site throughout the 50s they were generally winding down as an organization. Many other camp sites around the country had already passed into other hands. In 1956 the Pestalozzi Village children's organization were considering buying Finnamore Wood Camp. They submitted outline plans to accommodate initially 50 children from 4 countries in their "village". The aim was to provide "strong citizens" through an international residential education programme for "needy but intelligent" children from European and Commonwealth countries. They would be accommodated in houses with other children of the same nationality. Although the Wycombe Rural District council gave tacit approval to the idea, it was subject to certain restrictions such as a cap on overall numbers of people to live there. Whether these restrictions were too off-putting or there was another reason, the Pestalozzi group did not take on the site. The camp equipment was sold off and the spot came under notice of the Home Office. In 1958 the rumours it would be used as a borstal for those in the last stages of the sentence was proved well founded and it opened in 1960. 

*Although we seemed to have settled on the "Finnamore with a middle A" spelling as the standard one these days, Finnemore with a middle E has proven to be overall the most common in historic records. But fancy spelling it Finnemoor, Finnamoor or the 17th c favourite Fennymoor?  You would have plenty of people in the past who would have agreed all were right! With the habit of old Bucks dialect speakers to swallow the middle letter in any word, they would have sounded the same anyhow. 

Related Posts:

Other posts about life in Marlow area in the second world war and immediate aftermath can be found in the index here

Index for posts about places near to Marlow (our focus) including the Finnamore area can be found here

General posts about Marlow history here

Post written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Sources include: 

The Journal of Education. November 1939, W. Stewart & Company  

On national Camps - Miscellaneous Publications. Ministry of information (1946). United Kingdom: HMSO

Sessional Papers. (1959). United Kingdom: H.M. Stationery Office.

Bucks Free Press  - 14th July 1939, 16th February & 4th October 1940, 19th Dec 1941,  27th Feb 1942, 28th May 1943, 19 April, 5 & 19 Jul 1946, 23rd Jul 1948, 16th Nov 1956, 4th Jan 1957,  6th June 1958 

Kelly's Post Office Directory 1939. 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Burton Grave, Marlow Cemetery

This grave is subsiding heavily and this leaning to one side. Hence the wonky image! 

In loving memory Elizabeth Burton who passed away July 27th 1936 age 77. 

Also of: Mary Alice Burton, sister of the above. Died August 28th 1937 age 75. 

"Life's victory won, now cometh peace" 

 To look for information about any particular person on this blog use the A-Z Person Index on the top drop down menu. 

For other grave images see the index 

here

Index of posts about general Marlow history here

© MarlowAncestors 

Life in 1950s Marlow Part Two Employment and Homes

Employment 

Major employer Wethered Brewery off the High Street, celebrated a bicentenary in 1958 with two garden parties for employees. Other larger employers in the town were the local council, Poppets Beads and the building trade in general. 

Poppets beads were plastic costume jewelry items. The company moved into the former cinema in Spittal Square in 1953. The old projectionist's room was used as the manager's office and the old seating area for production. Many of those employed by the company actually worked from home, only visiting the factory to collect the beads which they then strung into necklaces and other pieces. Both men and women were involved in the bead making. The same company also made aircraft parts as a sideline! In 1955 this division moved into its own Chapel Street premises with only a tiny bit of work still taking place amongst the bead making in the old cinema. Soon the cinema was deemed too small also and Poppets left to take over a nearby disused lamp shade factory. The former cinema was eventually acquired by the local council who intended to demolish it and use the site for housing, though this did not end up happening.

On a smaller scale in terms of employment there was Sunnydene and Quarry laundries, the newer cinema in Station Road, Toy Works Limited a toys, games and sporting goods factory in Court Garden (established 1943), the Victoria Engineering Company in Victoria Road, the Greenwich Saw Mill, the Marlow Coach Building Works in Newtown Road (which mainly built caravans such as the Marlow Tudor), C.C.K Limited at 53 High Street which produced women's scarves etc, Dairymaid Ice Cream Supplies in Crown Lane (commercial supplier, run by S.A Hawken), Mines and Putnam high class furniture makers in Station Road, Arnold's factory in Marlow Bottom which made wooden needlework boxes and automatic bottle wash machines plus possibly furniture, the Westhorpe sand /gravel pits and the various local schools, shops, pubs, cafes / tearooms, hauliers, and farms.

Toy Works as mentioned above proudly stated that though a few parts had to be imported from France or Germany most of their products were made with local labour only. Many of their toys were traditional wooden ones like bagatelle boards. The packers were usually female.

C.C.K Limited had moved to Mill Road Marlow from London because of the Blitz and chose never to return to the city after the war ended. Their products were made of plain or printed silk, rayon and wool. As well as fashion scarves they manufactured practical aprons in plastic or woven materials. I haven't been able to find out if their products were actually stocked by any shop in Marlow itself or whether they were all sent elsewhere.

I am aware that a Louisa Dereford and George Dereford ran "Marlow Mosaics" in this era but whether this was their own artistic enterprise solely or whether it was a business that employed additional mosaic artists I am unable to say at this point.

Employment opportunities in the 1950s could still be much constrained by the gender of the job seeker. It worked both ways of course- no one would employ a male nanny or maid but women had especial difficulties. The local press routinely carried job adverts that specified the gender that the successful candidate would have to be, and for the majority males were what was being sought. Some roles you might not predict did go to women more than men however. The traditional assigning of poultry on farms to the care of women for instance is reflected in the desire expressed by the owners of Bencombe Farm at Marlow Bottom in an advert for a female employee to run the poultry and turkey deep litter system there.

It was not uncommon for it to be specified that a prospective female employee who directly engaged with the public would need to be good looking as well as professionally competent. For example when Mac Fisheries in Marlow High Street wanted a female shop assistant in 1955 their advert in the Bucks Advertiser said that she must have a "good appearance and attractive personality". They do however get marks for specifying that the delivery van driver that they also found wanted at the same time could be male or female. That would have been quite unusual.

Marlow's first female police officer, W.P.C Ellington, arrived in 1954 after she transferred from High Wycombe.

Female workers doing exactly the same job as men were paid less than them. It was reasoned men had families to support so needed more money however this reasoning was of course nonsensical as thanks to the recent war the number of households with a female breadwinner had probably never been higher. Pay rates for those doing the same job also varied by age in many industries. Younger workers on farms, in most shops or in certain Post Office roles for instance whether male of female were paid less than those of the same gender over 21 or over 32 depending on the job. 

Get the right position and you never knew where it might take you. The Reading Mercury of 16th August 1958 reported that  Angela Chalk of Marlow and another former stable girl at Pinches stables in Field House Farm had the previous year won jobs working in the stables of a wealthy countess in France.

Those seeking a new situation either locally or further afield could make use of the I.H.B employment agency at 92 High Street Marlow or the government labour exchange. Under the Notification of Vacancies Order 1952 employers in most categories had to recruit only through scheduled employment agencies or the labour exchange. This was intended to mean the government could prioritize filling jobs in critical industries ahead of any others. Understandably, it was not popular with those employers who were de-prioritized. They could advertise a position in the newspaper but applicants had to go through official channels to make any application and stood a chance of being refused permission to contact the advertiser if it was thought they could be of better use to an essential industry or service. Men over 64 and women over 59 could apply for jobs without restriction as presumably they were considered too "old" for the essential industries. The order was rescinded in 1956.

Though the farming industry was less of an employer than it had been previously, it was still an important part of the national economy. A Young Farmer's Club had been formed in Marlow by 1954. Farm hands worked from 7.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and half days on Saturdays. Increasingly other workers were getting their Saturdays off and a couple of weeks of paid holidays a year too. This coupled with the low agricultural industry pay and the long daily hours involved meant the abandoning of land based jobs by country people. Between 1948 and 1954 the number of female farm workers in the Marlow District fell by three quarters and that of males by over half. Mechanisation could only make up for these losses to a certain degree.

General labour shortages generally meant employers had to think of other ways to attract staff. Fines and Putnam the furniture makers of Station Road advertised that their employees could enjoy music while they worked as well as a canteen. Those wanting domestic staff in Marlow often reassured prospective candidates that they would be included in fun outings as part of their job.

Homes

The 1950s was still a notable era for the building of social housing. The council put out tenders for the building of 14 new council houses at Westhorpe Road for instance in 1954. In 1959 the last 38 older houses remaining in Dean Street were ordered to be demolished as the long standing Marlow slum clearance schemes first stage finally drew to a close. Multiple homes in Queens Road were similarly declared unfit for human habitation and compulsorily purchased for future demolition at around the same time. By the end of the decade the council was the biggest landlord in the town. 

The former Carriers Arms in Wycombe Road (now demolished) was used by the council as a hostel for those who had nowhere else to go in the early and mid 1950s. They took over the premises from the Ministry Of Housing. It is possible that originally evacuees or refugees had been put in the building. There was a critical shortage of even this temporary type of accommodation. There were still families living in metal shacks early in the decade at Beechwoods and in converted wooden sheds at Marlow Bottom (as owners and as tenants). The Marlow Bottom situation incensed Wycombe Rural District Councillor Mrs McKelvie who lambasted her colleagues for dragging their feet on providing new homes, rental or to buy, for those living in such structures. The situation was more complicated than it seems. Planning restrictions from on high meant people who had bought land in the village and had put up a temporary home on it while they raised funds for a more substantial structure were prevented from completing their dream despite having sufficient money to do so. In other words it wasn't only poverty (though it certainly could be) that forced people into living in such structures. Home owners could be ready, willing and able to make their shack a comfortable home but were told such work would contravene new planning regulations curtailing fringe developments. In a hope of exceptions or a governmental change of heart people clung on in their shacks or tried to sneakily extend or improve them without being noticed.

For private buyers in Marlow two estate agencies come auctioneers were available in the shared premises of no 37 High Street, Simmons with Gray and co, at no 84 there was George Kendall estate agent, valuer and auctioneer and at no 3 auctioneer and estate agents Lawrence and Laird. New homes were being thrown up everywhere possible in the Marlow urban area during the 1950s once materials and labour shortages caused by the war had eased, including the Wycombe Road and Oak Tree Road area, at Highfields, Lock Road, Chiltern Road, Riverside Drive, Gypsy Lane and Spinfield Park. While shortages of materials did remain private homes could only be built with a (hard to come by) licence from the council, Under rules set down by the Ministry of Housing priority was to be given to social housing on all potential urban development land.  

Bungalows remained highly desirable homes. A small 4 room bungalow in Wethered Road with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room could be bought in 1954 for £1750. Most homes were in the £2,000 - £4,500 bracket however.

Not every home yet had electricity in the 50s. Some of the older pre-war council houses for instance received electric lights and sockets in 1957 but others remained without it. Certain Chapel Street homes would not install electricity until the 1970s. The Electrics Company (Marlow) Limited in Market Square despite its name sold many calor gas appliances. These were not only stoves but lighting apparatus, gas powered fridges and gas fueled irons too. Many people kept oil lamps in case of winter power failures. Where electricity was present it was not necessarily installed in every room of a house. In any case in the early 1950s winter electricity demand often outstripped supply and Marlow users could expect one, even two, scheduled days a week when their supply would be turned off. These were notified of in advance as colder days drew near. The southern Electricity Board had an office and showroom in the High Street.

Coal and coke for fires were supplied by amongst others G.E Stevens of West Street and George Deane and Co (who had taken over the business and name of old Marlow company W.T Porter). Deanes were also one of the town's removal companies so very useful to have around! Early in the decade coke and coal supplies were not sufficient for the town needs due to nationwide problems. This left families having to severely ration their use of hot water at times.

By no means all Marlow homes had a bathroom in the 1950s, or even an indoor loo. Indeed there were houses without bathrooms in Wycombe Road in the mid 1960s, and in South Place even later, in the 1970s.

Antique furnishings were clearly popular amongst 1950s Marlovians. Bishop Limited in West Street specialised in antique silver, Sheffield plate and fine porcelain and there were at least two further antique shops on the town. There was also Walker's Antiques in the High Street. Secondhand but not antique furniture was sold by Taplins in Oxford Road. Buying secondhand furniture was seen by many as preferable as pre-war items were regarded as better quality. 

New furniture, carpets and other home furnishings could be bought from Norman Heals at 44 High Street as did Alan Hunt's Market Square shop. Mr Hunt's wares could be bought by way of a hire purchase scheme with payments spread over a period of up to two years. He also sold bedding from his second premises in Spittal Street. Hines and Putnam of Station Road were high quality upholsterers early in the decade who proudly made and marketed the "Marlow Suite" of sofa and armchairs. They moved from Marlow later in the decade but seem to have continued to make the Marlow suite. 

Washing machines could be purchased from Platts radio and television shop but there was still laundry services in the town -Quarry Laundry offered a free sock darning service to their customers - and hand washing in tubs wasn't yet quite redundant. Older people thought it superior! 

Pretty much every little usual item for DIY or home maintenance could be bought from the packed Chalk's ironmongers in the High Street, which under different but related families had a long heritage in Marlow. See my post here for the history of this building.

Not every home had a telephone by any means in the 1950s but the public call box provision in the town was expanding. The hamlet of Munday Dean got its first box during the 1950s.

For sources for this series of posts see Part One.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.