Life at Marsworth Hostel

Flowers were also grown and used to decorate the huts and the communal areas at dances and in the Hostel chapel.

When people got their own ration books they were able to do their own cooking. Some family barracks had small cookers installed and would cook up Polish specialities and even bake – those who knew how and had learned from parents or grandparents.

The first Saturday School in the hostel was set up by the parents, volunteer teachers and the priest - many of the servicemen/women who had been teachers or had a good education before the war taught unpaid in these schools. They included Professor Sobkiewicz, Mrs Puszczynska, Mrs Madras and Mrs Helena Czaczka who was a qualified teacher before the war in Poland and who taught Polish history and language.

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Huts and life in Marsworth Hostel

We first lived in a Nissen hut on site 12. The huts were cold and housed up to three families with rooms separated by blankets or curtaining of some sort. We then moved to Site 7 to a rectangular type of hut; these were known as ‘baraky’ (barracks) and were made of wood, plasterboard and felt. These usually housed three families, with plasterboard partitions. There was a big coke and coal store on the right near the entrance to site 8. The concrete base is still visible.

None of the accommodation had toilets - they were in separate blocks, which were also separate from the washrooms. Lutek Foremniak

Marsworth camp itself was very homely. The little huts, divided between numbered sites, housed two families each. Some were semi-circular Nissen huts, but ours was just an ordinary hut. We affectionately called them ‘barrels of laughter’, I remember that people really liked living in them and there was a great community spirit in the camp.

After Africa, though, it seemed very cold – I had brought many books with me to England and had to burn them all to keep warm.

Mainly, the huts served us very well. They were not luxurious but certainly comfortable, furnished with iron-framed beds, a table and chairs, wardrobe and stove. Anything else we needed could be obtained in the second-hand shop at Tring, or improvised. We had a ‘coffee table’ converted from a wooden packing crate.

Bronislawa Glinska

At first meals were cooked in communal areas, but gradually people began to cook for themselves. Bathing and laundry were also communal, there were huge water containers in the camp.

Everything was rationed; we all had cards and supplies were brought into the camp weekly from Tring. No-one went short of anything; we had enough to eat but it was very plain food. There was no waste, a use was found for everything. After a while, we began to establish gardens around the huts. We grew vegetables but some flowers too, which helped the residents feel at home. A lot of us had come from rural backgrounds, so we enjoyed tending our gardens.

Life in the camp was very well organised, and run very much with the wellbeing of the residents in mind. There was a church (chapel), a Polish doctor, and infirmary.
Bronislawa Glinska

Our home was a hut, situated on Site 7. My mum told me when we first arrived at the camp that there was communal catering, then cast iron range cookers were installed in the huts. They were given ration books and then began catering for themselves.

Our hut was furnished with ex-army iron framed beds, mattresses and bedding, folding chairs, table and wardrobes. The floor was covered with black bitumen; on this my mum
put some rugs down and in the middle stood a pot-bellied coke-burning stove, with a long flue exiting through the roof. This was the only source of heating; we also acquired some extra paraffin burning heaters to help with the cold.

There was one large bedroom which was divided into two rooms by a curtain; we also had a bed in the living room which doubled up as a settee.

Jan Baliszewski

For entertainment we listened to the radio and a wind-up record player. We had electricity in the huts, but no running water - mains water was obtained by a stand pipe, which we shared; there were a few on the site.

We had shower and toilet blocks which were shared. The toilets in the block were numbered on the cubicle doors with the same number as the hut; there were also blocks with baths and washrooms for laundry and our huts were clustered around them. These ablution blocks did have hot and cold running water, but were not heated and were very cold in the winter. The hot water was heated by big boilers fuelled by coke on selected days only. 

Jan Baliszewski

Huts were heated by a wood burning stove, which was also used for cooking. Water had to be fetched by bucket from elsewhere. 

Ted Lyjak

Our barrack had a ‘range’ in the large kitchen. Poles very quickly made the barracks into homes; net curtains, flowers and vegetables planted.

There were communal toilets and baths. I used to take a bath in an iron tub by the ‘range’ and didn't use the baths.
Liz (Elzunia) Oleskiewicz

Families were housed in huts known as barracks. These varied - some were made of wood and covered in bitumen with either an asbestos or metal corrugated roof. Others were Nissen huts - half barrel shaped made from corrugated panels, with metal windows and wooden doors.

There were normally two families to a barrack. They were divided inside - curtains or blankets were used to divide them into rooms for children and parents. Heating was provided by large iron stoves.

Some buildings were made from brick and concrete - these were the wash houses, shower areas, kitchens and canteen, medical accommodation and some administration huts. In addition there was a hall for entertainment and recreation areas. 

Barbara Fryc

Allotments, chickens, tobacco etc.

We had on site allotments near to our hut, where my mum and dad liked to grow their own vegetables. They also kept chickens and I loved looking for the eggs. Some people on site grew their own tobacco - I could see the leaves strung up to dry. The camp’s authorities, pressed by Customs and Excise, did eventually stamp out the practice.
Jan Baliszewski

There were vegetable plots near the canal. Each family would have their own area. My father used to grow tobacco and I used to cut the tobacco for him in the shed. We also kept chickens and rabbits and geese in a chicken and rabbit run, fenced off into family sections, near the boundary near Lock 4. I used to collect dandelion leaves to feed the rabbits.

Lutek Foremniak

Mr Olchowicz used to grow tobacco.

Zig Latyszonek

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Work

Immediately after the war we received ‘pocket money’ if unemployed. Officials came to the camp with details of local job vacancies, any work offered was gladly accepted. We knew we had to make our own way and we wanted to settle down, have families and all the usual things in life, so we tried to save as much as possible.

Some professional people, like doctors, nurses or teachers, had to do courses so that they could follow their profession in England, but after the war there were many jobs available for unskilled workers as well. My husband had worked on the railways during the war, so he got a job with British Rail. I worked in a factory; I was a child when the war broke out and unskilled.

Not many people in those days had cars, so to get to work we would take the train from Tring or a local bus, cycle, or walk. My husband cycled to work but later on he learned to drive. Our neighbour by this time had bought a second-hand car, and sometimes gave us a lift to work or the shops. 

Bronislawa Glinska

My father worked in Pitstone as an electrician and commuted to work at first by bicycle and then by motorbike. My mother worked at the Eaton Bray clock factory, but I do not know how she got there. It is possible that my father took her on the motorcycle or she went by local bus. 
Stanislaw Jakubas