THE NATIONAL CAMPS CORPORATION (NCC)

THE NATIONAL CAMPS CORPORATION

Originally Wyre Farm Camp School Cleobury Mortimer.

The Camps Act 1939

Newspaper paper evidence suggests that Wyrefarm Camp School wasn't built specifically for Coventry as originally thought. Newly discovered evidence suggests that the earliest proposal for a Coventry Camp School was proposed by Coventry industrialist Sir Alfred Herbert at Town Thorns, near Brinklow about the time The Camps Act 1939, as we shall see in a further article. It would seem the Wyrefarm location was likely offered first to towns nearer to Brimingham and even when it was offered, Coventry rejected it - well, at first. The full story will be posted soon.

Wyrefarm Camp School was built by The National Camps Corporation Ltd., a government-funded non-profit organisation created under Section 1 of the Camps Act 1939. The NCC served as an operating company for England and Wales. The function of the NCC in regard to the schools, were in the maintenance and management of the camps. 

The NCC formed 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 the countryside and animal life.

The NCC combined several educational and social ideas current during the inter-war years. These included providing holiday and activity centres in the countryside for children from industrial towns, creating ready-made evacuation centres in the event of war, and promoting what became known as 'camp consciousness'—an educational philosophy centred on communal outdoor living.

Origins of National Camps Corporation

In the 1930s, government ministers were worried about working class children living in cramped accommodation in polluted industrial cities.

The original purpose of these camps was to provide holiday accommodation for city children, who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to experience the countryside and nature.

In the context of preparations for war, in February, 1939, the Home Secretary announced that the Government had decided to proceed with the building of a number of camps. As a result, the Camps Act was enacted on 25 May 1939.

The Purpose of the Camps

The real purpose of the camps was that in peace time they should be school camps for children during the major part of the year and used for adults in the winter months, and, in time of war, for refugees. 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.

It was intended that approximately 50 camps would be built as a supplement to the accommodation available for evacuation from the more vulnerable areas.

The Camps Act 1939 prompted the creation of the National Camps Corporation to oversee the camps. In March 1939, Lord Portal was announced as chairman of the company. Lord Portal and members of his board visited 155 possible sites for camps which were to be built as residential schools. In practice, however, the NCC also had to compete with the RAF for suitable sites.

The Camps Act provided "a sum of £1,200,000, for the construction, maintenance and management of the camps. The share of England and Wales was £1,032,000" half of which was as a loan.

In England and Wales, 31 camps have been erected; one of these is occupied by an evacuated orphanage, the others, with one exception, are occupied by local education authorities of vulnerable areas for occupation by school children, together with the necessary teachers and staff."

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".

THE NCC COUNCIL

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.

Sources

Hansard.parliament.uk. 20 July 1944.https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1944-07-20/debates/a9b328c3-efc7-4cc6-9ab2-087417e41a8e/NationalCampsCorporation

Mr Clifford Morris FRPS Source no longer available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Camps_Corporation#cite_note-:2-2

CONSTRUCTION OF THE CAMPS

The government expected that the corporation would construct fifty camps, but in reality, only 31 were built in England and Wales, with a further five in Scotland. Wyrefarm was one of the thirty-one National Camps Corporation schools constructed in England and Wales under this programme.

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.

The Corporation considered 155 sites for camps, all of which had been personally inspected by the chairman or managing director of the NCC.

Some were taken by the Royal Airforce before the corporation could decide on them. The design of each camp was similar, consisting of huts made out of Canadian Cedarwood, designed by architect Thomas Smith Tait of Messrs. Sir John Burnet Tait and Lone. Each camp has been designed to accommodate about 350 children and 13 teachers in peacetime, but the camps are so laid out that they can be doubled if necessary in an emergency.

Each camp followed a standard layout designed by the architect Thomas Smith Tait of Sir John Burnet Tait and Lorne. Built mainly from Canadian cedarwood, the camps included dormitories, classrooms, a dining hall, assembly hall, kitchen, hospital block, staff accommodation, boiler house and other service buildings. They were fully electrified, centrally heated and designed for year-round occupation.

Each camp had a static water tank, required by law as a defence against incendiary attacks.

The outbreak of war significantly increased construction costs owing to rising labour and material prices. At the same time, the Government decided that the camps should become permanent residential schools rather than seasonal holiday camps. This required additional classrooms, enlarged medical facilities and other adaptations for year-round occupation, all of which increased the capital cost.

The Corporation, within the limits of its capital, was compelled to restrict the scope of its building owing to higher costs. The average cost of each camp was in the region of £25,000.

Contemporary reports emphasised not only the children's safety from air attack but also the perceived educational and health benefits of rural life:

Not only were the children in these camps more secure against the evil acts of the Nazi airmen and safer from their bombs, but they have gained other permanent benefits. The fresh natural air of the countryside made them more healthy; contact with Nature has broadened the minds and refreshed the spirits of town children. They are healthier and better educated than they were before.

The First Camp

The first NCC camp to open was Kennylands, near Reading, in February 1940. On 30

September that year it received a visit from members of the Royal Family. It also attracted the attention of the German propagandist Lord Haw-Haw, who mocked the quality of the fish served to the children in one of his broadcasts. Despite such publicity, the school continued to operate successfully throughout the war and for many years afterwards.

On 12 June 1945 a further Camps Act transferred responsibility for the National Camps Corporation from the Minister of Health to the Minister of Education.

During the post-war years, most camps were sold to county councils and local education authorities for continued use as residential schools. By 1948, 30 of the 31 camps in England and Wales were still in educational use for eleven months of each year.

On 22 September 1955, the Ministry of Education appointed a Receiver to the National Camps Corporation Ltd., which subsequently went into liquidation.

The Architect - A Coventry Connection.

The National Camps Corporation adopted a standardised design for all of its camps. The buildings, designed by the Scottish architect Thomas Smith Tait of Sir John Burnet, Tait and Lorne, consisted of prefabricated Canadian cedar buildings with cedar-shingle roofs. Individual camps were then adapted to their sites by architects selected from a panel approved by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

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.

A Coventry Connection

With Thomas Smith Tait there is an intriguing Coventry connection. Tait had worked alongside the young architect Sir Basil Spence, who would go on to design the new Coventry Cathedral following the destruction of the medieval cathedral during the Blitz.

Tait's Tower

Tait is best remembered for his contributions to the design and master planning for the Empire

Thomas Smith Tait 

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.

The outbreak of the Second World War curtailed many of Tait's ambitious architectural projects, including the National Camps programme, which ended well short of its intended fifty camps. Nevertheless, he continued to practise after the war until his death in 1954.

Canadian Cedarwood

The huts at the camps were all very similar and were designed for the purpose by Tait. Tait specified Canadian Western Red Cedar for the camp buildings because it combined light weight with durability and excellent natural insulation. Its resistance to decay made it particularly suitable for prefabricated buildings intended for year-round occupation, while the cedar shingle roofs complemented the woodland settings in which the camps were built. Much of the timber came from the managed forests of British Columbia, where Western Red Cedar has long been valued for its strength, longevity and resistance to weather.