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| Nissen Hut in Bentley. Photo courtesy of Graham Westerman |
The Story Of Bentley's Nissen Huts
Every now and then I manage to dig up a piece of Bentley history that has been so well hidden, I knew nothing of it until inspired to look. The inspiration came from a post on my Arksey & Bentley Bygone Years group on Facebook; Tania Robinson was looking for information on Ukrainian miners housed at the Queen's Drive miners' hostel in Bentley, after WWII. I must confess I had never heard of the Ukrainian miners, so I started to look into it. What I found was not so much on Ukrainian miners, but instead a fascinating story of Nissen Huts, Bevin Boys, squatters, courts and conflicts in a very British fight for post-war homes.
Contents
- Bevin Boys
- Bentley Miner's Hostel
- Nissen Huts
- The Miner's Hostel
- After The War
- Post-War Housing Shortages
- The Squatters Of Bentley
- Squatters At War
- The Squatters March To Court
- Evictions At Bentley Hostel
- From Hostel To Homes Once Again
- After The Hostel
- Residents' List
- Squatters 1947 - 1948
- Miners 1949 - 1950
- Residents 1952 - 1956
Bevin Boys
During the early years of WWII the Government underestimated just how many young men would be lost from the coal mines as they were conscripted into the armed forces. By mid-1943 coal mines had lost 36,000 workers. The government's answer to this was to put out a plea to men liable for conscription, asking them to work in the mines voluntarily instead. Few responded.
By October 1943 the country was becoming desperate for coal. The Minister for Fuel and Power Gwilym Lloyd-George announced in Parliament that some conscripts could be diverted to the mines. The plan was explained in more detail on December 2nd by Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour and National Service. A later speech given by Bevin would lead to the term 'Bevin Boys' being used for the conscripts.
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| Ernest Bevin |
From December 1943 until the end of the war in 1945, one in ten young men called up was sent to work in the mines. Many of them were upset at this, wanting to join the armed forces instead. They felt, as miners they wouldn't be valued in the same way. Some were even accused of avoiding military conscription and suffered taunts at their lack of uniform. Conscientious Objectors were sent to work in mines on a separate programme, and some of the Bevin boys were accused of being 'conchies' when they too were conscripted to the mines.
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| Bevin Boys. Photo from History Extra |
Young men were chosen at random from the call-up list and they included young men from all backgrounds, from office workers to manual labourers. On reaching the age of eighteen, the men were sent a card instructing them to report to a particular training centre in five days' time. They received six weeks training (four off site, two on site). They were then issued with helmets and safety boots and sent to work in various coal mines.
The Bevin Boys received a generous £240 a year, but received no medals or the right to return to their previous jobs at the end of the war. They could join the Government's Further Education and Training Scheme (FETS) and receive education fees to study at university though.
Bentley Miner's Hostel
Bevin Boys sent to the Doncaster area for training and work needed to be housed in suitable hostels. One such hostel was erected in Bentley.
In 1938 Queen's Drive, off Watch House Lane, was only partly built. Land to the east was given over to allotments, but land to the west, bordering the mineral railway was unused apart from some works buildings, as can be seen in the 1938 map below (the area ringed in red).
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| Queen's Drive 1938. |
Following the decision to conscript young men into the mines, this land was requisitioned for use as an accommodation site for trainee mine workers. A number of Nissen Huts, to house 250 persons, were built to form a camp there.
Nissen Huts
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| Nissen Huts Photo from Nissen, The Original Steel Buildings - Since 1917. |
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel, semi-circular structure designed primarily for military use. Designed during the First World War by engineer and inventor Major Peter Norman Nissen in 1916, the idea behind the huts was that they had to be economical to supply and construct during wartime shortages. They had to be portable so the simple design was prefabricated for ease of construction and removal. A Nissen hut could be packed onto a standard Army wagon and erected by six men in four hours.
Nissen Huts were made from curved corrugated steel sheets laid over a number of supporting 'ribs'; the semi-circular shape curved inwards slightly at floor level. They were lined with either corrugated iron or a type of hardboard. The space between the interior lining and exterior was used for insulation or services. The floor was made up of tongue and groove floorboards.
At each end were weatherboards nailed to a timber frame. Windows and doors were added to the sides by creating a dormer frame for them to fit into.
Nissen Huts came in three widths, 16ft (4.9m), 24ft (7.3m) and 30ft (9.2m). The length could be any multiple of 6ft (1.83m), and three sheets of corrugated steel covered each 6ft section.
Production dropped between the wars but picked up again in 1939. Nissen Buildings Ltd waived its patent rights for wartime production which led to similar buildings being developed, such as the larger Romney Hut.
Nissen Huts were used as temporary accommodation for the military, bomb stores and even churches. Nissen Huts were also useful as construction camps, and as such were chosen as the buildings for use in the miners' hostel at Bentley.
Just what it was like to live at the Bentley camp and train as a Bevin Boy is admirably described by ex-Bevin Boy Michael Short in a piece written for the BBC's WW2, People's War history page.
In the article Michael describes how on December the 4th 1944 he was called-up to work under the Bevin Boys scheme. He was told to report to an officer at King's Cross Station in London and then go by train to Doncaster. He travelled with about 40 other conscripts and he recalls how most of them did not want to go and they made quite a 'glum crowd'.
Arriving at Doncaster they were sent to North Bridge and told which bus to board for Bentley. Arriving in the dark, Michael describes the miners' hostel as a collection of Nissen Huts, joined together by corridors and walkways. Some huts were dormitories and others formed the dining hall, lounge and snack bar.
The new conscripts were registered into the hostel and allocated their sleeping areas. There were twenty to a dormitory and leading off from each were the washrooms and toilets. Each bed had a bedside table and cupboard, all were painted blue and 'looked quite decent'. The evening meal was provided in the dining hall and afterwards they relaxed in the lounge, and listened to the radio.
At 8.00 am the next morning, the trainees were taken by bus to Askern Colliery where their six weeks of training would take place. Training consisted of manoeuvring pit tubs, lectures, lantern slide shows and PE to strengthen muscles. Those who were more used to office work than physical work found it very hard at first. They were taken down the pit after the first week, into the training mine. Learning how to shackle and stop tubs, work with pit ponies and acclimatise to working in the dark, enclosed surroundings was the main focus of this training.
Following a shut-down and return home for Christmas, they returned to complete their training and were then posted to various collieries in the South Yorkshire coalfield.
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| Major Peter Nissen |
Nissen Huts were made from curved corrugated steel sheets laid over a number of supporting 'ribs'; the semi-circular shape curved inwards slightly at floor level. They were lined with either corrugated iron or a type of hardboard. The space between the interior lining and exterior was used for insulation or services. The floor was made up of tongue and groove floorboards.
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| Illustration of Nissen Hut construction. Photo from Shoreham Fort |
At each end were weatherboards nailed to a timber frame. Windows and doors were added to the sides by creating a dormer frame for them to fit into.
Nissen Huts came in three widths, 16ft (4.9m), 24ft (7.3m) and 30ft (9.2m). The length could be any multiple of 6ft (1.83m), and three sheets of corrugated steel covered each 6ft section.
Production dropped between the wars but picked up again in 1939. Nissen Buildings Ltd waived its patent rights for wartime production which led to similar buildings being developed, such as the larger Romney Hut.
The Miner's Hostel
A number of Nissen Huts were erected off Queen's Drive, at the end of 1943 to accommodate the newly conscripted Bevin Boys. This map from 1948 shows the location of the camp in some detail.
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| Map showing the miners' hostel off Queen's Drive in 1948 (ringed in red). |
In the article Michael describes how on December the 4th 1944 he was called-up to work under the Bevin Boys scheme. He was told to report to an officer at King's Cross Station in London and then go by train to Doncaster. He travelled with about 40 other conscripts and he recalls how most of them did not want to go and they made quite a 'glum crowd'.
Arriving at Doncaster they were sent to North Bridge and told which bus to board for Bentley. Arriving in the dark, Michael describes the miners' hostel as a collection of Nissen Huts, joined together by corridors and walkways. Some huts were dormitories and others formed the dining hall, lounge and snack bar.
The new conscripts were registered into the hostel and allocated their sleeping areas. There were twenty to a dormitory and leading off from each were the washrooms and toilets. Each bed had a bedside table and cupboard, all were painted blue and 'looked quite decent'. The evening meal was provided in the dining hall and afterwards they relaxed in the lounge, and listened to the radio.
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| Typical interior of a Nissen dormitory. Photo from Australian War Memorial |
At 8.00 am the next morning, the trainees were taken by bus to Askern Colliery where their six weeks of training would take place. Training consisted of manoeuvring pit tubs, lectures, lantern slide shows and PE to strengthen muscles. Those who were more used to office work than physical work found it very hard at first. They were taken down the pit after the first week, into the training mine. Learning how to shackle and stop tubs, work with pit ponies and acclimatise to working in the dark, enclosed surroundings was the main focus of this training.
Following a shut-down and return home for Christmas, they returned to complete their training and were then posted to various collieries in the South Yorkshire coalfield.
For Michael Short's full article go to The Bevin Boy.
After The War
The miners' hostel at Bentley was occupied until April 1946, after which it was vacated when the occupants were transferred to another hostel in Doncaster. As with many similar buildings around the country at that time, leaving them vacant at a time of severe shortages of housing, would prove disastrous for the authorities.
By October 1946 there were 1,038 squatters' camps in England and Wales, occupied by 39,535 people. Another four thousand people had squatted in Scotland.
The squatters camps were well organised and great efforts were put into making the huts feel like home. Communal cooking, laundering and nursery facilities sprang up. Men took turns to keep the boilers going, women took turns to do the camp shopping and children collected rubbish to make bonfires. Squatters Protection Societies were formed in the interests of the inhabitants and a sense of solidarity prevailed in the camps.
In the end the authorities, after passing the buck between departments, had to act, and the struggle which ensued saw many families take on the Courts and Government in a bid to keep roofs over their heads.
After moving into the empty hostel, police and watchmen kept guard to prevent others doing the same. The families were visited by a Ministry of Works official and although left for the time being, didn't think they would be allowed to stay. The water supply was left on for them, but the electricity was cut off.
By the 14th of August seven more families had evaded police patrols and settled in the miners' hostel. No doubt they were spurred on by events in other parts of the country, where the Squatters Movement was gathering pace.
Meanwhile the authorities were realizing the seriousness of the situation and were expecting action from the Government, as one quote from a Ministry of Works official described (below):
The same official pointed out that while the situation at Bentley and Warmsworth (another miner's hostel) was different to that of other Service Camps, the same principle was involved.
The Ministry of Works offered 850 former Service camps to the Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan, to help him in his emergency housing drive. Premises redundant to Service needs and not earmarked for use by other Government Departments were released for housing. Unfortunately Bentley was not one of the camps released for housing; in fact it was revealed that the Ministry of Works required possession of the hostel for mining trainees within the next three months.
By the end of August 1946 seventy families had moved into the hostel, making nearly 300 people. A daughter was born to Mrs Olive Thomas in the hostel dining hall where three other families were living. The nurse who attended Mrs Thomas was handicapped by the lack of heating and hot water. Following this, a deputation of the squatters sought out members of the Housing Committee of the Bentley Urban Council to request heating.
Following verbal notice given to the squatters by the Ministry of Works, it was reported on July the 23rd 1947 that summonses were being prepared against 90 families to appear at Doncaster County Court.
On the 10th of August Ernest Lenin Pratt, a 21 year old Bevin Boy and Chairman of the Squatters' Committee at Queen's Drive paid a 24 hour visit to London and presented the Ministry of Works with a 30,000 signature petition against the Ministry's eviction threat. Mr Pratt also went to the Fuel and Health Ministries and to 10 Downing Street, but didn't see Mr Attlee (the Prime Minister).
By now, it was being reported that the Ministry wanted the hostel for Polish and other foreign mining trainees, which further angered the squatters. The families were summonsed to appear at Court on Thursday August the 14th; they planned to march to Court carrying banners and chanting slogans.
Opening the case for the Ministry of Works, Mr H. L. B. Shepherd (Leeds) said the premises were Nissen Huts put up after the land had been requisitioned.
On August the 6th 1946 and at various dates afterwards, the defendants walked in and established themselves in various huts. In June this year (1947) each family was visited, warned they were trespassing and told to leave.
The court was told the Ministry of Works wanted the hostel under a miners' training scheme and might be required for Poles, Irishmen, British workers or other nationalities.
Mr A. E. Stephenson (for the defendants) said "What these people bitterly resent is that they allege they are being turned out for Poles."
John Wilford, Secretary of the squatters' association, said 352 people, comprising 95 families and including 40 miners, were living on the camp. A committee was formed and each family had a rent book and £250 was collected. It was refused by the authorities and the money handed back.
The Judge, A. C. Caporn, appreciated that the defendants had not been obstructive or a great deal of the court's time would have been wasted. Undoubtedly they were trespassers, but he proposed to use his discretion to allow the defendants to try to find somewhere else to go. He gave them one month or face eviction. Each family must also pay ten shillings a week rent for the remaining four weeks.
After the hearing, the squatters marched back to the hostel and held a meeting in the square. They decided to send delegates to meetings at the L.N.E.R plant works, two or three collieries and four factories to enlist their sympathy and support. A committee meeting was then fixed for that night.
On September the 20th, more than a month since the court hearing, 60 out of the original 95 families remained at the hostel. Other families had started moving out during the previous week. Some left to return to relatives and others went to the Ellers Avenue camp.
Ministry of Works employees bricked up doorways and covered windows with wire mesh to prevent other squatters moving in.
Mrs Eileen Jagger, one of the original squatters, wrote to the Queen appealing for her help. Her husband, a miner from the age of 14 and demobilised from the Royal Marines 18 months ago, would not like the idea of mining trainees "taking over his roof," she said.
Replying to another letter from Eileen Jagger asking for his help, Mr Churchill said "Full sympathy is felt for your position," but as it was a local matter, Mrs Jagger's letter had been sent to the local Conservative agent who would probably be able to advise her. Mrs Jagger said Major W. H. Webb, Doncaster Conservative agent had been to see her and promised to do all he could to help.
Mr Ernest Pratt (Chairman of the Committee) whose service as a Bevin Boy was ending that October, was hoping to be appointed as a lock keeper on the River Lea, a tributary of the Thames. The position came with a house.
Another court hearing in early October ended with Judge Caporn giving final notice for possession, with 14 days grace to allow remaining families time to find alternative accommodation. 38 families still lived at the hostel despite a strict order preventing trespass on the premises after September 11th.
On September the 29th a notice was taken out and served on all except one of the defendants. Mr H. B. Shepherd for the Ministry of Works was now applying for an order for committal to prison on the defendants, for having disobeyed the original court order.
The Judge said there was no need to send the defendants to prison, but they still needed to be removed from the premises and someone would have to find them accommodation as they 'could not simply lay down in the street'.
One squatter, Mr James Bernard Church said he had tried to find accommodation all over but had not found any. Another squatter, Malcolm Williams said "I am an ex-serviceman and skilled miner and I have never had rooms. My wife was in lodgings when I was in the Forces and I only went squatting to live with my wife. They don't want miners in the area.
"There are more now than is required and there is too much coal lost already. The Union will tell you this is a fact, yet the hostel is wanted for miners and there are skilled miners in it."
The furniture of the first eleven was taken to a Ministry of Works site at Hatfield Aerodrome for storage after Ministry officials, a district welfare officer, police and County Court Bailiffs arrived to carry out the eviction. There was no trouble during the evictions and everyone left in an orderly manner.
Two women and six children were taken to Pontefract Welfare Institution as they had no alternative accommodation. The men were offered accommodation at Springwell House (Doncaster Welfare Institution), but none arrived that night.
Mrs Margaret Church and Mrs Joan Barlow, who had arranged to go with their children, refused at the last minute because they thought they would be separated from their children at Pontefract. In fact, there were no such restrictions. Mrs Church, who had lost her younger child a few months earlier, decided to go to relatives at Exeter.
By the 15th of January 1948 all the squatters had left the hostel or been evicted. As soon as the premises were vacated work started to prepare the camp for the arrival of 500 foreign mine workers for Yorkshire collieries. The miners were part of a programme to bring ex-miners/prisoners and stateless persons, such as Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Yugoslavians and Germans to work in British mines.
For all the lengthy attempts to evict the squatters from the hostel in favour of moving in foreign miners, it seems as though this use was quite short lived. The electoral registers for 1949 and 1950 show mostly single men living there. These would have been British miners as only British Nationals would be registered to vote. No documentation regarding foreign miners could be found.
The 1951 electoral registers do not show any entries for the hostel at all; presumably this was when the conversion to homes took place. By the 1952 registers the miners had left the hostel and a new street name appeared in the electoral registers - Queen's Court - which replaced 'The Hostel', a term previously used in the registers. With Britain still in the grip of an acute housing shortage Nissen Huts were still providing a roof over many families' heads in the absence of proper housing. And despite a programme of temporary bungalow building in prefabricated concrete (prefabs), the huts were still needed as temporary dwellings.
It seems to be the case with Bentley that once the hostel was no longer required for miners it was converted into homes once more, but rather than squatting, the new occupants were moving in on the right side of the law.
The experiences of this second wave of occupiers in the huts must have been very different from those of the squatters, who had to basically live with what was already there, and endure electricity and heating cuts. From accounts of other converted camps in the country, the conditions although not ideal, were very different in the legitimate hostels. Partitions were put up for each family, often these didn't reach the curved roof, which reduced privacy, but at least they had a number of 'rooms' they could live in. Most of them were fitted out with two bedrooms, a kitchen, toilet, stove and bath. Outside there were paved paths, kitchen gardens and washing lines.
All the huts were given numbers too, the new addresses bringing a lift in status to those living there no doubt.
By 1956, occupancy of the huts had dropped considerably. As new council house building programmes gathered momentum, many of the families were able to move into bricks and mortar houses at last.
With electoral registers not available to view between 1956 and 1961, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the huts ceased to be used as accommodation, but judging by the drop off in occupancy in 1956, it can only have been a year or so at most before all the families left for more permanent homes.
Judging by this map of 1961 (below), some of the Nissen huts were removed after the families vacated them. Of the few that remained, certain businesses set up shop there. Among them were a garage, A Hill, Coachworks (1954 - 1964), a crisp factory, Kay and Fryer, shop fitters (1955 - 1967), Musk & Co Ltd, lingerie manufacturers (1958 - 1964), a metal finishing company, Finishing Engineers Ltd (1955 - 1972) and Colyer's, pub furnishing company (1963 - 1972)*.
*Dates worked out from appearances in telephone directories.
As these businesses moved out, the remaining Nissen huts were finally taken down in the 1970's and new houses and bungalows were built on the land, creating the streets Rowan Garth, Thorn Garth and Cross Gate. Queen's Court, a name created for the addresses of the huts in the 1950's, was retained among the new streets.
There is one column of names on each table and two 'year' columns. If a person was living at the hostel in one or both of those years, it is indicated in the columns with a 'Y' (for 'yes').
Many thanks to all contributors of photos and information.
The story of the Bentley Hostel Squatters was pieced together from national newspapers available at The British Newspaper Archive.
Alison Vainlo
First written 2019, updated 2020
Post-War Housing Shortages
Six years of war had taken its toll on housing in Britain. Properties had been lost through bombing; house building had been halted, and a general lack of maintenance for existing housing resulted in severe shortages of homes for returning servicemen and their families. Many couples and families were forced to live with parents or relatives in cramped conditions. The Government were so out of touch with the severity of the housing situation, they were totally taken by surprise when the public began to take control of the situation themselves.
So began a "Squatters Movement" in the summer of 1946, which would see sweeping seizures of empty properties up and down the country in an effort to force the Government into taking the housing situation seriously.
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| Squatters move in to an empty property in London. Photo from RandomPottins |
Empty military camps became the focus for the squatters at first, but as they filled up, other properties were also targeted. Shops, disused school buildings, stadiums, hotels and coastal holiday properties were taken, and once installed, the occupiers could not be moved easily.
The Government responded with a confident view that the squatters would "see reason" and "move out when the situation had been explained to them." An article in the Observer commented:
The Ministry piously hopes that squatters, after certain explanations, will 'return to the homes from which they have come.' What homes? Bits of caravans or crannies in the over-crowded lodgings or premises of others from which they are desperately trying to escape? The fact that ex-soldiers who have had plenty of camp life in their time should now regard an army hut as a little bit of heaven is surely strong enough evidence of their misery and despair. Nor are they likely to be terrified by the talk of winter weather.
By October 1946 there were 1,038 squatters' camps in England and Wales, occupied by 39,535 people. Another four thousand people had squatted in Scotland.
The squatters camps were well organised and great efforts were put into making the huts feel like home. Communal cooking, laundering and nursery facilities sprang up. Men took turns to keep the boilers going, women took turns to do the camp shopping and children collected rubbish to make bonfires. Squatters Protection Societies were formed in the interests of the inhabitants and a sense of solidarity prevailed in the camps.
In the end the authorities, after passing the buck between departments, had to act, and the struggle which ensued saw many families take on the Courts and Government in a bid to keep roofs over their heads.
The Squatters Of Bentley
On August 6th 1946, two families moved into the disused miners' hostel at Queen's Drive, Bentley. They were - George and Eileen Jagger with their five year old daughter, and Edmund James Pass and his wife Hannah, with their sixteen month old son. Eileen Jagger and Hannah Pass were sisters, and Mr Jagger served in the Royal Marines during the war. The families had previously lived in Malton Road, Sunnyfields with the sisters' mother. Nine adults and two children shared two bedrooms, a box room, a living room and small kitchen.
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| Headline from the Yorkshire Post, August 13 1946 |
After moving into the empty hostel, police and watchmen kept guard to prevent others doing the same. The families were visited by a Ministry of Works official and although left for the time being, didn't think they would be allowed to stay. The water supply was left on for them, but the electricity was cut off.
By the 14th of August seven more families had evaded police patrols and settled in the miners' hostel. No doubt they were spurred on by events in other parts of the country, where the Squatters Movement was gathering pace.
Meanwhile the authorities were realizing the seriousness of the situation and were expecting action from the Government, as one quote from a Ministry of Works official described (below):
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| Yorkshire Post, August 15th 1946 |
The same official pointed out that while the situation at Bentley and Warmsworth (another miner's hostel) was different to that of other Service Camps, the same principle was involved.
The Ministry of Works offered 850 former Service camps to the Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan, to help him in his emergency housing drive. Premises redundant to Service needs and not earmarked for use by other Government Departments were released for housing. Unfortunately Bentley was not one of the camps released for housing; in fact it was revealed that the Ministry of Works required possession of the hostel for mining trainees within the next three months.
By the end of August 1946 seventy families had moved into the hostel, making nearly 300 people. A daughter was born to Mrs Olive Thomas in the hostel dining hall where three other families were living. The nurse who attended Mrs Thomas was handicapped by the lack of heating and hot water. Following this, a deputation of the squatters sought out members of the Housing Committee of the Bentley Urban Council to request heating.
Squatters At War
The Ministry of Works clearly did not win the hostel back in the three months given, because, by July 1947 ninety five families were still occupying the premises. Of the ninety five there were 103 children under the age of five, 50 children over five, 25 expectant mothers, 58 ex-servicemen and 40 miners.
On the 12th of July it was reported that the ninety five families had been told they faced eviction as the National Coal Board required the premises. The families expressed their determination to resist eviction and appealed to Doncaster M.P. Evelyn Walkden to intervene, but he could not do anything until the notices had been served.
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| Headline from the Lincolnshire Echo, July 12th 1947 |
On the 10th of August Ernest Lenin Pratt, a 21 year old Bevin Boy and Chairman of the Squatters' Committee at Queen's Drive paid a 24 hour visit to London and presented the Ministry of Works with a 30,000 signature petition against the Ministry's eviction threat. Mr Pratt also went to the Fuel and Health Ministries and to 10 Downing Street, but didn't see Mr Attlee (the Prime Minister).
By now, it was being reported that the Ministry wanted the hostel for Polish and other foreign mining trainees, which further angered the squatters. The families were summonsed to appear at Court on Thursday August the 14th; they planned to march to Court carrying banners and chanting slogans.
The Squatters March To Court
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| Headline from the Yorkshire Evening Post, August 14th 1947 |
On the 14th of August 1947 three hundred squatters from the Queen's Drive hostel marched the two and a half miles to Doncaster County Court. Summonses for trespass against 88 families were to be heard. Originally 99 summonses were issued, but eleven families had left the hostel. Nominal damages of ten shillings were claimed against each family.
The march was led by Ernest Pratt (Chairman of the Squatters' committee) and was described as 'orderly'. The protesters decided not to demonstrate outside the court itself, but made their voices heard along the route with banners bearing slogans, such as: |
| Bentley squatters marching to Court. Photo from the Yorkshire Evening Post, August 14th 1947 |
'We fought for our country, do we give it away to Poles and D.P's?' (Displaced Persons).
'We wish to live in peace.'
'The miners need homes more than the Poles.'
'Why should we keep the Poles in comfort. There is plenty of room in Poland, or is there?'
'Squatters. We are about to be evicted. What no houses? Yes or No?'
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| Squatter's banners. Photo from the Yorkshire Evening Post, August 14th 1947 |
Opening the case for the Ministry of Works, Mr H. L. B. Shepherd (Leeds) said the premises were Nissen Huts put up after the land had been requisitioned.
On August the 6th 1946 and at various dates afterwards, the defendants walked in and established themselves in various huts. In June this year (1947) each family was visited, warned they were trespassing and told to leave.
The court was told the Ministry of Works wanted the hostel under a miners' training scheme and might be required for Poles, Irishmen, British workers or other nationalities.
Mr A. E. Stephenson (for the defendants) said "What these people bitterly resent is that they allege they are being turned out for Poles."
John Wilford, Secretary of the squatters' association, said 352 people, comprising 95 families and including 40 miners, were living on the camp. A committee was formed and each family had a rent book and £250 was collected. It was refused by the authorities and the money handed back.
The Judge, A. C. Caporn, appreciated that the defendants had not been obstructive or a great deal of the court's time would have been wasted. Undoubtedly they were trespassers, but he proposed to use his discretion to allow the defendants to try to find somewhere else to go. He gave them one month or face eviction. Each family must also pay ten shillings a week rent for the remaining four weeks.
After the hearing, the squatters marched back to the hostel and held a meeting in the square. They decided to send delegates to meetings at the L.N.E.R plant works, two or three collieries and four factories to enlist their sympathy and support. A committee meeting was then fixed for that night.
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| Yorkshire Evening Post, August 15th 1947 |
On September the 20th, more than a month since the court hearing, 60 out of the original 95 families remained at the hostel. Other families had started moving out during the previous week. Some left to return to relatives and others went to the Ellers Avenue camp.
Ministry of Works employees bricked up doorways and covered windows with wire mesh to prevent other squatters moving in.
Mrs Eileen Jagger, one of the original squatters, wrote to the Queen appealing for her help. Her husband, a miner from the age of 14 and demobilised from the Royal Marines 18 months ago, would not like the idea of mining trainees "taking over his roof," she said.
Replying to another letter from Eileen Jagger asking for his help, Mr Churchill said "Full sympathy is felt for your position," but as it was a local matter, Mrs Jagger's letter had been sent to the local Conservative agent who would probably be able to advise her. Mrs Jagger said Major W. H. Webb, Doncaster Conservative agent had been to see her and promised to do all he could to help.
Mr Ernest Pratt (Chairman of the Committee) whose service as a Bevin Boy was ending that October, was hoping to be appointed as a lock keeper on the River Lea, a tributary of the Thames. The position came with a house.
Another court hearing in early October ended with Judge Caporn giving final notice for possession, with 14 days grace to allow remaining families time to find alternative accommodation. 38 families still lived at the hostel despite a strict order preventing trespass on the premises after September 11th.
On September the 29th a notice was taken out and served on all except one of the defendants. Mr H. B. Shepherd for the Ministry of Works was now applying for an order for committal to prison on the defendants, for having disobeyed the original court order.
The Judge said there was no need to send the defendants to prison, but they still needed to be removed from the premises and someone would have to find them accommodation as they 'could not simply lay down in the street'.
One squatter, Mr James Bernard Church said he had tried to find accommodation all over but had not found any. Another squatter, Malcolm Williams said "I am an ex-serviceman and skilled miner and I have never had rooms. My wife was in lodgings when I was in the Forces and I only went squatting to live with my wife. They don't want miners in the area.
"There are more now than is required and there is too much coal lost already. The Union will tell you this is a fact, yet the hostel is wanted for miners and there are skilled miners in it."
Evictions At Bentley Hostel
Five months after the eviction orders were made in court, 28 families remained at the hostel. Eleven of the families were evicted on the 7th of January 1948. Four more had to go by the end of the next day and the remainder had to leave the following week.The furniture of the first eleven was taken to a Ministry of Works site at Hatfield Aerodrome for storage after Ministry officials, a district welfare officer, police and County Court Bailiffs arrived to carry out the eviction. There was no trouble during the evictions and everyone left in an orderly manner.
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| Mrs Violet Rock packing belongings at the hostel with neighbour Mrs Rose Buckle, who were preparing for eviction later that week. Yorkshire Evening Post January 7th 1948. |
Two women and six children were taken to Pontefract Welfare Institution as they had no alternative accommodation. The men were offered accommodation at Springwell House (Doncaster Welfare Institution), but none arrived that night.
Mrs Margaret Church and Mrs Joan Barlow, who had arranged to go with their children, refused at the last minute because they thought they would be separated from their children at Pontefract. In fact, there were no such restrictions. Mrs Church, who had lost her younger child a few months earlier, decided to go to relatives at Exeter.
By the 15th of January 1948 all the squatters had left the hostel or been evicted. As soon as the premises were vacated work started to prepare the camp for the arrival of 500 foreign mine workers for Yorkshire collieries. The miners were part of a programme to bring ex-miners/prisoners and stateless persons, such as Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Yugoslavians and Germans to work in British mines.
From Hostel To Homes Once Again
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| 1953 aerial photo showing the Nissen Huts (ringed in red). Watch House Lane is below and York Road is diagonally top right. |
The 1951 electoral registers do not show any entries for the hostel at all; presumably this was when the conversion to homes took place. By the 1952 registers the miners had left the hostel and a new street name appeared in the electoral registers - Queen's Court - which replaced 'The Hostel', a term previously used in the registers. With Britain still in the grip of an acute housing shortage Nissen Huts were still providing a roof over many families' heads in the absence of proper housing. And despite a programme of temporary bungalow building in prefabricated concrete (prefabs), the huts were still needed as temporary dwellings.
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| A Nissen Hut now converted for use as homes. Photo courtesy of Graham Westerman. |
It seems to be the case with Bentley that once the hostel was no longer required for miners it was converted into homes once more, but rather than squatting, the new occupants were moving in on the right side of the law.
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| Two young residents of the Queen's Court huts. Photo courtesy of Den Lowe |
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| Family life at the huts. Photo courtesy of Graham Westerman |
The experiences of this second wave of occupiers in the huts must have been very different from those of the squatters, who had to basically live with what was already there, and endure electricity and heating cuts. From accounts of other converted camps in the country, the conditions although not ideal, were very different in the legitimate hostels. Partitions were put up for each family, often these didn't reach the curved roof, which reduced privacy, but at least they had a number of 'rooms' they could live in. Most of them were fitted out with two bedrooms, a kitchen, toilet, stove and bath. Outside there were paved paths, kitchen gardens and washing lines.
All the huts were given numbers too, the new addresses bringing a lift in status to those living there no doubt.
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| Babies, washing lines and domesticity at the Queen's Court huts. Photo courtesy of Graham Westerman |
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| Childhood at the huts. Photo courtesy of Graham Westerman |
By 1956, occupancy of the huts had dropped considerably. As new council house building programmes gathered momentum, many of the families were able to move into bricks and mortar houses at last.
After The Hostel
Judging by this map of 1961 (below), some of the Nissen huts were removed after the families vacated them. Of the few that remained, certain businesses set up shop there. Among them were a garage, A Hill, Coachworks (1954 - 1964), a crisp factory, Kay and Fryer, shop fitters (1955 - 1967), Musk & Co Ltd, lingerie manufacturers (1958 - 1964), a metal finishing company, Finishing Engineers Ltd (1955 - 1972) and Colyer's, pub furnishing company (1963 - 1972)*.
*Dates worked out from appearances in telephone directories.
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| 1961 map of Queen's Drive and the remaining Nissen Huts. |
As these businesses moved out, the remaining Nissen huts were finally taken down in the 1970's and new houses and bungalows were built on the land, creating the streets Rowan Garth, Thorn Garth and Cross Gate. Queen's Court, a name created for the addresses of the huts in the 1950's, was retained among the new streets.
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| Modern map of the Queen's Drive area |
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Residents' List
Were Your Ancestors Among The Squatters, Miners, Or Residents Of Bentley Hostel?
Gathering together all the data from the electoral registers, it has been possible for me to produce the following A - Z lists of residents. There are three sections in all - a Squatters list, a Miners list, and a Residents list, featuring the three phases of occupancy after the Bevin Boys left. Notes to accompany each list explain how they work.
Squatters 1947 - 1948
This table lists every voter squatting at the hostel in the years 1947 and 1948 (the 1946 register does not include any records for the hostel).
There is one column of names on each table and two 'year' columns. If a person was living at the hostel in one or both of those years, it is indicated in the columns with a 'Y' (for 'yes'). As it is an A - Z list, some couples of the same surname as others may be separated on the list according to their first name initials.
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| A - C |
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| C - G |
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| G - J |
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| J - M |
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| M - S |
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| S - Y |
Miners 1949 - 1950
This table lists every British miner eligible to vote, who lodged at the hostel during the years 1949 and 1950. Unfortunately no records of foreign miners said to be housed here too, could be found. Oddly, there are some single women listed among these male occupiers too which I cannot explain.There is one column of names on each table and two 'year' columns. If a person was living at the hostel in one or both of those years, it is indicated in the columns with a 'Y' (for 'yes').
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| A - D |
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| D - J |
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| J - P |
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| P - W |
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| W - Y |
Residents 1952 - 1956
This table lists every adult eligible to vote, living legitimately at the Queen's Court converted huts from 1952 to 1956. The year 1951 showed no entries for a hostel or Queen's Court and therefore must have been vacant while alterations were carried out.
There is one column of names on each table and four 'year' columns. Each dwelling was numbered, so the 'year' columns contain dwelling numbers on this table. The 1955 list shows some numbers in red, this is because on the original scan of the page, the numbers were partially hidden by a crease in the book fold. Only parts of each number could be seen, so where it was obvious there was only a single number (1 - 9), they are indicated by a red '0'. For numbers in the teens (11 - 19), they are indicated by a red '1'. Similarly, numbers in the twenties are shown by a red '2', thirties by a red '3' etc. All other black numbers could be seen and are correct.
As it is an A - Z list, some couples of the same surname as others may be separated on the list according to their first name initials.
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| A - B |
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| B - D |
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| D - H |
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| H - K |
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| L - N |
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| N - S |
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| S - W |
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| W |
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Many thanks to all contributors of photos and information.
The story of the Bentley Hostel Squatters was pieced together from national newspapers available at The British Newspaper Archive.
Alison Vainlo
First written 2019, updated 2020
