Refugees in Morpeth – the ‘Crash’ Camp

Media coverage of celebrations marking 80 years since VE day and VJ day got me thinking about Morpeth’s ‘crash’ camp. All I knew was that a camp for Polish refugees had once existed on Morpeth Common. I decided to find out more. My first stop – Northumberland archives at Woodhorn – delivered less than I was expecting; a few oral history recordings. So let me tell you what Google has delivered. 

UK citizenship was offered to 250,000 displaced Polish troops (and their dependents) who had fought against Nazi Germany. They were offered refuge after the Soviet takeover of Poland under the terms of the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, the first ever ‘mass immigration’ legislation of the UK Parliament. Though it’s worth a passing mention that 50,000 ‘Huguenots’ had arrived in England from France in the 17th century to escape religious persecution. So, not the first ‘mass immigration’ - and anyway what about the Normans, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons? 

Morpeth Common Camp (aka ‘Crash camp’) was built early in the 2nd World War to accommodate British troops and comprised about 50 huts on a site close to the old isolation hospital and what is now ‘Craik Park’. It was one of 50 such camps around the country which provided a home to Polish families between 1947 and 1962. Around 300 families arriving at the camp during 1947 found no running water, heating or cooking facilities. They depended instead on communal toilets, bathhouse and dining hall. Several families shared each hut with no dividing walls between them. 

It is difficult to imagine how hard it must have been for them to cope with life in exile and under such harsh conditions. Oral history recordings at Woodhorn give some insight based on childhood recollections of people who lived through it; the same people who trekked daily across Morpeth Common to attend St Roberts school. It seems that a community developed around the chapel, the club and the community hall/cinema. They found work – many in the coal mines – rebuilt their lives and eventually moved out of the camp which closed in 1962 with no trace remaining now. Links to the Polish airmen based at RAF Morpeth (ie. Tranwell) are hard to establish, but surely there must be a connection. 

All of which leaves me thinking about current small boat arrivals on the South coast. 

                                                                                                            John Gowing