Not far from  the town of Fairford on the fringes of the Cotswolds stood the largest of the many Polish  Resettlement Camps that sprung up all over the UK after WW2. These Camps, run by the National Assistance Board, were officially known as hostels but we knew them as  "obóz" camp. The  displaced Poles,  men and women who served in the Allied Armed Forces under British  Command during the war, together with their families and dependents who have been able to get to England from camps in Africa and India, made their homes in the now disused Army and Air force camps.

In 1947 the abandoned American 32nd Field Hospital close to Fairford, with  long metal corrugated nissen huts and some brick huts joined by a covered walkway,  became home to over a thousand Polish Displaced Persons. Although the administration and day to day running of the camp (hostel ) was in the hands of the Assistance Board with an English Warden, the  camp evolved into, as near as possible, a self-contained Polish village.  In 1950 there were 1,215 residents in the camp, this figure was increased by 150 in school holiday time, when the teenage children came home from their boarding schools in Bottisham and Didington in Cambridgeshire, Lilford in Northamptonshire and Stowell Park in Gloucestershire. To begin with, the younger children went to a Polish school in the camp and later to English schools in the area. There was a chapel with a Polish priest, Fr. Jan Czapski, a junior school and nursery with Polish teachers, a sick bay with a maternity unit staffed by Polish doctors and nurses. To help with the administration of the camp there were a hand full of English speaking Polish ex-servicemen.

To make ends meet people were encouraged to find work outside the camp.  Many travelled as far airfield as Swindon and Gloucester. But finding a job was not easy as there was a policy that no Pole could be placed in a job if there was an Englishman that could do it. The jobs Poles were offered were low paid and very menial, jobs that the native population did not want.  Yet the unions often objected creating problems not only for the Poles who wanted to work and pay their way but also for the National Assistance Board that had to maintain  the unemployed Poles. There was a communal mess that provided breakfast, lunch and supper for the young, infirm and unemployed.  Those, however who had a job paid rent on the nissen huts and  for their upkeep. To start with there were no proper cooking facilities in the huts, people cooked on little electric rings and on top of the round coke stoves, you can just see one in the corner of the picture below. As years went by conditions  in the camp improved. The authorities replaced the round stoves with  proper coal fired ranges and the communal mess closed down. The old and infirm were relocated to other camps like Stover Park in Devon,  Penhros and Penley in North Wales were there where  facilities to look after them. Stover and Penhros became retirement homes for the Poles and are still in full use to this day.

The English saying "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy " never applied to the Poles, despite their ordeals throughout the dark years of war and the uncertainty of exile, Poles worked hard and played even better. The camp had an entertainment "hall"  nissen hut, this was used weekly as a cinema, always well attended, all the national day celebrations were held in the hall and last but not least regular dances, with a live band, attended not only by residents but also by Poles living in other camps nearby, like Daglingworth camp  and Stowell  Park camp, Poles always liked a good knees up. Sundays, after  mass and  lunch, people went for walks, in good weather families in their Sunday best promenaded around the camp and park, exchanging small talk with friend and neighbours.

Ships' Names and passenger lists

of  Polish DPs from Africa and Europe.