Hereward Labour Camp

The Hereward Labour Camp

Photographed circa 1930-35

The problem of unemployment has dogged governments for centuries but there has never been a simple solution. From the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), when the vagrant or vagabond class had increased to require legislative attention, the only remedy the state had to offer was the Poor Law system which extended relief but ignored the distinctions between the destitute caused by trade depression and the congenital loafer.

The worst period for unemployment in Britain was between the two world wars of the 20th century. The situation had begun to deteriorate soon after the First World War ended in 1918 and by 1921, the number of unemployed had risen from 700,000 to over two million. The general election of 1929 was largely fought on the unemployment issue and resulted in a Labour victory, due mainly to the hope of more jobs and the promise of greater benefits. But the economic depression of 1931 followed, when the number of unemployed in Britain reached its highest total of 2,947,000, or 22 per cent of the working population, and as other countries were similarly affected, it had assumed the importance of an acute world problem.

The number of jobless in Britain was so high that it could not be ignored politically because life in the more distressed areas was miserable and causing unrest and social concern. The government therefore decided that its strategy to cope with the problem would include the opening of instructional centres and the introduction of physical training classes.

The scheme was based on the premise that long spells of unemployment made men soft and demoralised and they were therefore unsuitable candidates for regular employment. The camps were designed to give the men manual work in market gardening, forestry or the building of recreation grounds, coupled with a programme of physical training, and so through a regime of strict discipline, the rekindling of the work ethic and the enhancement of their skills, they would become accustomed to regular hours and hardened up for the heavy work needed under ordinary industrial conditions.


The huts used for living accommodation and other services at the Hereward Camp (above) and the open central area used for recreation (below). The avenue of Lombardy poplars can be seen lining the entrance road with Moody's glasshouses in the distance on the right.



One of the lorries used at the Hereward Labour Camp, pictured circa 1936 with the driver, a local man, John Edward Lunn, aged 30, who lived in Eastgate, and (below) some of the inmates on work duty.


These three photographs were probably taken at Castle Bytham quarry where many of the men worked on a regular basis.

The removal of the men from their own communities was deemed to be essential if the experiment was to succeed. "The progress of re-conditioning will be quicker and more effective if carried out away from the distressed areas", said a report from the Ministry of Labour. "Attendance at the camps is therefore proposed for 12-week periods with efforts to place trainees in jobs initiated after eight weeks. Trainees will receive an allowance dependent on good behaviour and progress, in addition to their unemployment benefit, and expenses to cover lodgings and the cost of transport. Clothing will be provided free, a pair of boots, overalls and oilskins, at a cost of 35s. per man."

The Labour government, with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister, also warned that a tough line would be taken with those refusing to attend training courses and in 1930, the Ministry of Labour declared: "The stage has been reached when such men should have their benefits disallowed if they refuse without good reason to take a course of instruction when it is offered to them."

Unemployment, however, remained high, the vast majority being men aged over 18 years, but the new instructional centres were absorbing only a modest number, about 10,000 men a year. In 1934, new legislation provided for temporary summer camps in tented accommodation but attached to the permanent centres.

The first of the camps was opened at Blackpool in May 1929 but by 1937, there were 22 centres including permanent and temporary summer encampments, housing about 21,000 men a year, among them a residential camp at Bourne with associated summer camps at Kirkby Underwood, Aslackby and Pickworth (Rutland). A Ministry of Labour training camp was already in existence at Bourne, run in association with the Forestry Commission, and is clearly marked on a map of 1904. It was these premises which were used for the new experiment of intensive training for the unemployed.

The twenty huts at Bourne were built of both wood and corrugated iron and sited on the edge of the wood, but other purpose-built camps in Britain consisted of Nissen hut colonies located on land also controlled by the Forestry Commission. The trainees attended for three-month periods of military-style discipline and pick-and-shovel labour. They were given clothing on arrival, corduroy trousers, a jacket and working boots, knife, fork, spoon and enamel cup. There was a dining room with wooden benches and tables covered with oilcloth on which were served wholesome and plentiful meals, handed out from an adjoining kitchen through hatches to the trainees as they filed in.

There was also a washroom for ablutions and laundry with hot and cold water, a recreation room, library and sick bay. The huts were large and well built, weatherproof, well lighted and comfortable.

Work began at 6 am and lasted from ten to 12 hours. The tasks were manual, usually digging ditches, cutting down trees or building roads, and former police officers or army sergeant majors were employed to oversee the workers. Camp life was austere, the living conditions basic and in the evenings or at weekends there was little to do as the camps were deliberately built in remote spots, far from the temptations of the pub or the dance hall. In Bourne, it was a mile outside the town as it was then. For their trouble, the inmates received two or three shillings and a packet of Woodbines each week.

Photographed circa 1930-35

A memorandum from the Ministry of Labour elaborated on the arrangements at the camps such as Bourne: "All these centres are residential, unemployed single men being brought here from the depressed areas. They receive their board and lodging and in addition, a small sum weekly for pocket money. Against this expenditure is set off the amount of unemployment pay to which they are entitled. Where necessary, working kit is served out to them. The residential centres provide the most effective method of improving the employability of the men."

Each work camp took trainees from a designated area, initially from the distressed mining communities, but from 1934, recruitment was broadened to cover any place in the country with high unemployment. Attendance was supposedly voluntary, but there was a great deal of pressure on those individuals selected to accept a place and they were told that existing benefits could be lost if they refused.

Despite its remote location on the outskirts of Bourne, inmates from the Instructional Centre, as it became known, did join in the community life of the town whenever the opportunity arose. In 1931, the Bourne United Charities bought the land which is now the Abbey Lawn and they carried out most of the work of turning it into the park that we see today.

COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE
A plaque on the left hand column at the main gate commemorates their efforts with the inscription: These grounds were purchased in the years 1931-34 by the Trustees of Bourne United Charities in order to preserve the same as an open space for ever and the work of levelling and laying out the grounds was carried out by trainees from the Ministry of Labour Instructional Centre, Bourne.

The men also played an important role in the celebrations for the coronation of King George VI on Wednesday 12th May 1937. Not only did they take part in the morning church parade through the town with other local organisations, but they also staged a boxing tournament on the Abbey Lawn during the afternoon followed by a physical training display in the evening.

Assessment of the labour camps has been divided with favourable and hostile evaluations. Contemporary critics dubbed them slave camps and one trainee, Willie Eccles, said that his experiences at Glenbranter in Argyllshire, Scotland, mirrored the way the Nazis treated people while Wal Hannington of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, described them as compulsory labour camps which constituted a big step nearer by the government to impose a fascist administration in Britain.

Instruction centres such as Bourne received a substantial number of participants. Between 1928 and 1938, over 120,000 unemployed men spent time in them but few were eventually placed in real jobs. Unemployment persisted until 1939 but with the outbreak of the Second World War, it ceased to be a problem. The labour camp in Bourne was closed and converted for use as a Home Office approved school.

The public perception of the camp at that time is indicated by a news item in the Stamford Mercury on Friday 26th May 1933 when reporting the departure of the manager, Mr M J Potts, who had been appointed to a similar post in Scotland after 2½ years in the job. The summer camp under canvas at Pickworth, also under his control, had just been established, and the strength of the two was then 410 with 250 of the men at Bourne, drawn mainly from distressed areas. The newspaper said:

A visit to the centre at Bourne is in itself a tribute to the thoroughness of the work undertaken, the little colony having a spick and span appearance. Mr Potts's aim throughout has been to make the men under his command as happy and as comfortable as possible in surroundings in which they have gained a number of new interests in life, and he is naturally sorry to leave the camp in the development of which he has played so large a part. His new post is a station concerned with training men for overseas work and he carries away with him the good wishes of a host of friends.

Mr Potts had played an active part in the community life of the town and was an enthusiastic player with Bourne Tennis Club. He was succeeded by Mr J Workman who had been manager of a similar centre in Norfolk.

THE CAMP STAFF

A large administrative and manual staff were required to run the camp and here they are photographed circa 1939 at the entrance with a backdrop of the famous poplar trees that lined the roadway.

A SPOT OF CULTURE

Trainees at the Hereward Camp were encouraged to pursue the arts as part of their rehabilitation and one of their most popular subjects was music. A group known as the Collegians Concert Party, comprising both staff and inmates, was particularly active in the years before the Second World War and raised a considerable amount of money for charity with their concerts in Bourne, Stamford and other neighbouring towns.
One of the staff members of this versatile group was Leonard Hawke, baritone, who held the distinction of being the first artiste to be heard on the radio when daily broadcasts began in Britain. He had been associated with the stage since boyhood and took part in the first official broadcast from station 2LO, forerunner of the BBC, at Marconi House in the Strand, London, on 15th November 1922, when he was the opening artiste to appear on the programme and sang two songs, Drake Goes West and For You Alone.
"The conditions were vastly different from the efficiency of the BBC in later years", he remembered in 1939. "None of the artistes in the first broadcast were paid. We were all cramped in quite a small room, the temperature was hot, in spite of the time of year, and we all had to sit without our coats. The items were announced by a man called Stanton Jeffries into a microphone as big as a jam jar and then he had to dash over to the piano to play the accompaniments."
Mr Hawke subsequently broadcast eight times and in 1937 took part in the popular radio programme Scrapbook for 1922 when the early days of broadcasting were recalled.

The camp was not without its tragedies. This account of how one inmate died appeared in the Stamford Mercury on 31st May 1929.

KICKED TO DEATH
SHOCKING TRAGEDY AT TRAINEES' CAMP AT BOURNE

A gloom was cast over the trainees' camp at Bourne on Friday, when it became known that one of the inhabitants had died as the result of being kicked by a horse earlier in the week. The unfortunate young man was Donald Miller, of Edinburgh, and at the inquest in the evening, conducted by Major C W Bell (the coroner), Donald James Miller said his son was 20 years of age. Since the completion of his apprenticeship, he had been unemployed. He had only a slight knowledge of horses before he went to the training centre.

Heard a Thud

John O'Brien, a trainee, stated that he and deceased were taking the horse to water under the supervision of Mr Patterson. After having watered the horse he handed one of the reins to deceased, whilst both of them were standing behind the animal. Deceased took the rein he had given him, and went to get the other rein of his own horse. The rein fell to the grounds, and deceased, who was still standing behind the animal, endeavoured to pick it up. The horse lashed out and kicked him. Witness heard a thud, and he told Mr Butler that a man had been kicked. They had had dealings with the horse before, and the instructor had told them that if the reins touched under the horse's tail it was likely to kick, but it was quiet when in the stable. That was the only complaint they had had with the horse, and at the time of the accident they were doing their ordinary work. As far as he was aware there was nothing to upset the horse.
Dr A Stein stated that upon arrival at the camp he found deceased suffering from a laceration of the face. He had him removed to the hospital, and had attended him ever since. He was conscious up to the previous day. There was no fracture. In witness's opinion Miller died from septicaemia which had developed 24 hours after the accident. As soon as he arrived at the hospital deceased was inoculated with anti-tentanic serum, but there were no signs of tetanus.

Richard Pearce Butler, chief instructor at the camp, said deceased had been working with the horse for a week, and, in his opinion, he was quite competent for the work he was doing. No trainee had ever complained about the horse.

"One of the Nicest Boys."

The coroner said that he did not propose to call any further evidence, as it was quite clear to him what had taken place. The men were employed at their ordinary work, and he thought it was rather remarkable that that was the first accident that had occurred. The horse had done what many other horses did when they did not like the rein getting under their tails, and, unfortunately, that accident had happened. He returned a verdict that death was in consequence of septicaemia, following being accidentally kicked by a horse.

The coroner and Inspector Markham expressed their deep regret with deceased's parents in their great loss. Colonel Hogarth, who is in charge of the camp, also expressed his deep regret. The deceased, he said, was one of the nicest boys he had out of the 600, and he would like, on behalf of the staff at the camp, himself, and the trainees, to express their sincere sympathy with Mr and Mrs Miller.