THE NATIONAL CAMPS CORPORATION (NCC)

Those who attended Wyre Farm Camp School or The City of Coventry Boarding school

between 1940 and 1982, would only know that the camp school was created by the National Camps Corporation in1939 and served initially as an evacuation camp for Coventry boys during WW2 before becoming a Coventry boarding school run by Coventry Education Authority.

No one seemed to wonder why an organisation that was known as The National Camps Corporation only had one camp school or why only Coventry had a such a distinctive boarding school / evacuation camp. 

In 2009, on our Facebook page, Rosemary Webb Rehill - daughter of the school bursar, posted that her brother Steve Webb, thought there was another similar camp school somewhere in Yorkshire! I googled around and found the Bewerley Park Camp School at Pateley Bridge. That wasn't the one apparently. I then found Linton Camp School at Grassington. Spot on! So now we knew there were three almost identical camp schools in the UK that had been owned by the NCC! Could there be more? The search began....

SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES IN THE INTERWAR YEARS.

The interwar years in the UK, saw the establishment of various educational initiatives aimed at providing alternative learning environments for children.  For example, it saw the emergence of progressive educational institutions that deviated from conventional schooling methods.

One notable example is Summerhill School, founded by A.S. Neill in 1921. Located in Suffolk. Summerhill was established to provide a space where children could grow in a 'free-range' environment, emphasizing self-directed learning and democratic principles. Neill's philosophy centered on fitting the school to the child, rather than forcing pupils to conform to traditional educational expectations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School

Additionally, the interwar period saw the rise of work camp movements in Britain. These camps were often part of broader critiques of urban living and industrial society, promoting rural ideals and communal living as alternatives. Such movements provided opportunities for individuals, particularly the unemployed, to engage in productive labour in rural settings, reflecting a desire to counter the socializing influences of city life. 

While some progressive schools and communal living experiments during this era may have been associated with specific ideological or religious groups, detailed information about such institutions is less readily available. The period was marked by a diversity of educational experiments, each with unique philosophies and practices, contributing to the rich tapestry of alternative education in the UK.

THE NATIONAL CAMPS CORPORATION

The National Camps Corporation (NCC) was formed in late 1939 with assistance from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), and was given 1.2 million pounds; half grant, half loan; by the government to build fifty camps in remote areas initially to enable children from towns and cities to be able to experience something the countryside and animal life. According to Sir Clifford Morris FRPS

That's fifty camps, not one or even three! So clearly it was a much bigger undertaking than just Wyre Farm Camp School. In actual fact. it appears that the money ran out after thirty one had been built. The cessation of the construction of new camps was mainly due to the increased costs as a result of war, and the realisation that such camps were not a completely adequate solution to the problem of evacuation. I think they also had had  stiff competition from the RAF for suitable land in the build up to WW2.

There seems to have been 3 precepts involved - 

• The idea of creating summer holiday activity camps for children in some of the biggest and smokiest cities in the UK to experience the fresh air and countryside and animal life.
• To develop what they called 'Camp Consciousness' probably in the build up to WW2.
• and  the possibility of the camps being used for evacuation in the event of another war - which of course transpired.

The  idea of the camps becoming boarding schools seems to have been a later idea - post war. In fact an early role for the Wyre Farm Camp School was to be a work camp for agricultural workers!

Nonetheless, the House of Commons passed ‘The Camps Act’ which was given the Royal Assent in May 1939. Each camp was designed to accommodate approximately 350 children. The average cost of each camp was £25,000. 

The government appointed chairman was Lord Wyndham Portal of Laverstoke who had risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel during the First World War and was awarded the Distinguish Service Order (DSO) and was a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). After the first war he was a Director of the Great Western Railway before entering politics. After the Second World War he was to become Chairman of the GWR up until nationalization. Lord Portal and members of his board visited 155 possible sites for camps which were to be built as residential schools, each for around 400 children."

Although originally designed as camps for schools or for holidaymakers, their role was dramatically redefined with the onset of war in 1939, and the camps were used as evacuation centres for some of the thousands of children who were moved out of urban areas. In the post-war era the camps became sites for an education experiment in living and learning of course.

The camps also offered children from poorer, urban backgrounds a unique living experience in rural environments. Consequently, the health benefits of these environments were strongly promoted.

The number of evacuees housed at such camps came to under 9000 nationally. In November 1940 the Minister of Health Malcolm MacDonald described the camps as "one of the most significant pieces of work that Parliament has lent its hand to in recent times". 

Under the Articles of Association the National Camps Corporation was set up under the Camps Act, 1939, and managed by a Council. The members at the time were:

Lord Portal, D.S.O., M.V.O. (Chairman).

Patrick Abercrombie, Esq., F.R.I.B. A.

Sir Samuel Gurney-Dixon, J.P.

George Hicks, Esq., M.P.

Sir Edward Howarth, K.B.E., C.B.

Dame Florence Simpson, D.B.E. Percy Thomas, Esq., O.B.E., P.P.R.I.B.A.The members are unpaid apart from Sir Edward Howarth, who receives a salary of £2,200 per annum as managing director. The cost of the central organisation of the Corporation was approximately £7,700 for the year ended 31st March, 1943, which represents just over 3½d. in the £ on the total sum dealt with in the period.

Thirty one identical camps were set up in the end. Two camps were given to the corporation, and the others purchased.

The Architect - A Coventry Connection.

The camps were built of standardised units which were designed by Mr. Tait, of Messrs. Sir John Burnet Tait and Lone, consulting architects to the corporation. All the buildings are of Canadian cedar with cedar shingle roofs. Each camp laid out on the site by an architect chosen from a panel drawn up in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects. The contracts for making the woodwork for 30 camps were let on 22nd May 1939 to four different firms. 

THOMAS S. TAIT 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_S._Tait

Thomas Smith Tait (18 June 1882 – 18 July 1954) was a Scottish modernist architect. He designed a number of buildings around the world in Art Deco and Streamline Modern styles, notably St. Andrew's House (the headquarters of the Scottish Government) on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, and the pylons for Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Tait also worked with Sir Basil Spence who designed Coventry Cathedral - 

Tait's Tower
Tait is perhaps best remembered for his contributions to the design and master planning for the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938, held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Tait was appointed as head of a team of nine architects, which included Basil Spence and Jack Coia. Tait's vision was of a modernist, utopian future, and the Empire Exhibition was the largest collection of modern architecture built in United Kingdom in the first half of the 20th century. Dominating the whole exhibition was "The Tower of Empire", designed by Tait himself. The 300-feet-high tower was erected on the summit of the hill in the centre of the park and had three observation balconies, each capable of carrying 200 people.

Tait's distinguished career seemed to come to an end with the outbreak of the 2nd World War - the cut his career short. The building of the camps was his final project - he died in 1941.

Canadian Cedarwood

The huts at the camps were all very similar and were designed for the purpose by Tait. Tait sourced the best Canadian cedarwood for the camps - 

"Cedar’s unique properties and characteristics have been recognized and appreciated throughout history. The Western Red Cedar has great cultural, economic, and spiritual significance to the Native American peoples of the Pacific Northwest. They used every part of the tree in every aspect of their life. The continuing popularity of cedar is due to its striking natural beauty, durability in an exterior environment and its extremely low maintenance, and affordable price.

Western Red Cedar is found in coastal forests along the upper Pacific coast of North America, from southern Alaska to northern California. The principal supplying region is the coastal forest area of British Columbia (where the Western Red Cedar is the official tree). Cedar naturally grows in mixed softwood forests intermingled with other species such as Douglas Fir, Pacific Coast Hemlock, and Sitka Spruce. Western Red Cedar forests are largely managed forests. In a managed forest environment, natural regeneration, controlled harvests, and a planned reforestation program try to ensure a perpetual harvest with good forest conservancy practices.

Western Red Cedar grows in low to mid elevations, along the coast and in a wet belt of the interior. It prefers cool, moist locations, and a slightly acidic soil. A mature tree can attain a height of 180 feet with a trunk diameter of 8 feet. The Western Red Cedar is slow-growing and long-lived. A specimen can live upwards of 1000 years, and has one of the longest lifespans of any North American softwood. Cedar has a low density of 22 lbs. per cubic foot, with a low specific gravity of 0.33. This makes it one of the lightest softwoods available, but also soft, and prone to indentation. The low density also gives cedar it’s excellent thermal insulation properties."

In the next post below we look at the some of the other lookalike camps built by the National Camps Corporation.