DAGLINGWORTH CAMP Gloucestershire

Not far from the pretty little village of Daglingworth in Gloucestershire stood a drab WW2 army camp. The row upon row of black corrugated metal nissen huts served to house American soldiers. At the end of WW2 the empty camp was purchased by the Ministry of Works and turned into a Polish resettlement camp administered by the National Assistance Board. Originally the camp was to serve as a transit camp in which Polish dependants, arriving from Displaced Persons camps in Africa and Europe, where reunited with their loved ones and then dispersed to other camps throughout the UK. Although the camp was isolated from other areas of development and was considered unsuitable for permanent housing never the less it became home to hundreds of .Polish families for nearly 15 years. The Polish way of life and culture flourished in the camp, with a nursery and junior school, a church and entertainments hall. Daglingworth camp closed in the 60s the huts were pulled down and the land returned to agriculture.

At one end of the camp were clusters of huts built on concrete bases with walls of timber with metal sheeting and corrugated asbestos roofs. The huts were very basic with no running water inside. The brick built huts with chimneys seen in the photos below were shared ablution blocks with hot and cold running water, toilets, baths and shower cubicles. People did their best to make their huts homely, net curtains in the windows with flowers and vegetable gardens around the huts.

Today, looking at the open fields which lay above the village of Daglingworth, it is hard to imagine that between 1947 and 1962 there was a camp of nissen huts and barracks which was home to hundreds of Polish Displaced Persons.

Józef Winiarski remembers his life the camp.

I was forced to leave Poland in 1943 at the age of 20 and ended up in Italy where I joined he Polish II Corps under the command of General Władysław Anders. In October 1946 I arrived in England with the Polish II Corps and was sent to Fairford camp in Gloucestershire. At that time Fairford was a transit camp for army personnel and their families so after a few months, in July 1947, I moved to Daglingworth and lived there until 1956 when I moved to Swindon in Wiltshire. I married my late wife Alina in 1958 and we had 2 sons.

Housing & Work:Until my move to Swindon I worked in the building industry. For the first 3 years at the Chivers building site in Cheltenham and later for Laings. In the camp my home was a nissen hut (beczka) where I had one room, split in two. The furniture consisted of two single beds and an army style wardrobe for clothes.

Religion: A camp chapel served our spiritual needs where we attended Holy Mass and other religious services. I remember our first priest well, he loved to play football and frequently would join other young men in a kick about, his other duties included teaching religion at the camp school. Unfortunately I can't recall his name. When he left Fr. Stanisław Śmieja became
our priest.

Most people in the camp attended church services and took part in religious ceremonies like First Communion and Corpus Christi Processions as shown on the photos. The altars were built and decorated by the parishioners on the backs of nissen huts and all the children in the camp took part in the processions.


DAGLINGWORTH SCHOOL register shows that over the life time of the camp around 300 children went through the school.
Click for a full list

School – the school in the camp was mainly for young Polish children who were taught Polish language, history and geography, as well as all the other important subjects. I remember the head teacher’s name was Mr Gilson and when he retired (before the camp closed), I believe he moved to Birmingham.

Social Life - All the usual Polish customs, traditions and religious celebrations were observed at Daglingworth. We had a very active social life , with lots of dances,

“Akademie”( national celebration days) and entertainment evenings. I belonged to a dance troupe, and besides dancing at various events in the camp, we also used to travel to other camps. There were several Polish DP camps in Gloucestershire, wherever we were asked to put on a display of Polish national dancing

Middle:-Dancing Troop.

Left:- Józef .Winiarski with his dancing partner.

Right:- Józef dressed in a Polish Lancer's uniform

Polish Army uniforms through the centuries.

I also sang in a Male Voice choir (conducted by Mr Bajorek) and additionally 4 of us were in a separate group (“Rewelersi”) under the watchful eye of Mr Franciszek Towalski. Sadly I do not remember the names of my fellow singers.