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.
