It is difficult to think of a time when Britain has not had a housing crisis. Amersham Museum is currently researching the history of social housing in our area and how housing shortages were tackled in the past.

After World War II, the crisis was particularly severe with many displaced families seeking somewhere to live. There had been almost no house building during the war years, the workforce had been dispersed and now there were ex-servicemen and prisoners of war to be re-homed.

The population in the Amersham area had increased dramatically with an influx of refugees, evacuees and families made homeless by German bombers. Many stayed with relatives or were billeted in the area.

However, as the war ended, families were desperate to find a home of their own and escape these overcrowded conditions.

Army camps had been built in the area as temporary barracks for troops in training or in transit and as the soldiers were leaving, dispossessed families seized the opportunity. Some camps were very isolated such as Pipers Wood, at Hyde Heath, which served as a reception centre for returning PoWs and Hodgemoor Wood, on the road between Amersham and Beaconsfield, which became a Polish resettlement camp for over 150 families.

However, a particularly desirable location was the Beech Barn army camp in the heart of Chesham Bois. This was on the main Amersham to Chesham road just past Bois Avenue and was in walking distance of shops and possible jobs. There was a top camp with at least 25 huts, then a school playing field, the Beacon School in Bois Farmhouse and then the bottom camp with about 7 huts and the farm barns.

There were corrugated tin Nissen huts, asbestos huts, and a few wooden huts. Most of the huts only had a concrete floor with a pot-bellied stove in the middle. There were ablution blocks, water towers, a parade ground, a cookhouse, an officer’s mess and even a dance hall which is now the dining room of the Beacon School.

Elizabeth Barry, who lived in Beech Barn camp and now lives in Australia, explains in her memoirs how she came to live in the camp after sharing a tiny caravan in Amersham with other family members.

She said: “One day while on a visit to a friend, the conversation came up about ‘Squatters’. We had three local army camps and it was rumoured people in the town were taking over any army huts that were vacant and squatting in them. My friend advised me to get up to the camp as soon as I could as the word was getting around fast.”

As Elizabeth was on her own with two small children space was found for her although initially this was in the drafty dance hall, with the children’s beds on the stage.

Elizabeth recalls: “We were given the royal welcome by some of the other squatters, who brought a pot of tea, sandwiches and cakes, even bowls of hot soup, which we were very grateful for. This became the regular habit to other families that joined us later. Within a few days I had adjusted to the communal toilets and washing facilities. It was as if we had always been there.”

Getting hold of an empty hut was a real challenge but as the army personnel left more huts became available and the family eventually moved into a wooden hut in the top camp with blankets for walls. The winters were very harsh just after the war and there was thick ice on the inside of the windows. Elizabeth would take the children with her to pick up wood from the hedgerows as it was difficult to find in deep snow.

The Beech Barn camp occupants became politicised and were part of a national campaign to get local councils and the government to take their plight seriously. The families took part in a demonstration in August 1946 which made the front page of the national press. Amersham Council eventually took over the organisation and renovation of the camp and Elizabeth’s family moved to one of the refurbished Nissen huts, now called 16 Beech Barn, Chesham Bois.

She added: “Compared to the wooden hut, our new hut was a palace. It had an inside toilet – there’d be no more going across to the ablution block on dark nights. It had a bath, and a copper to heat up the water, and there was a big kitchen range in the living room. It also had real walls, no more blankets hanging on string. Yes, this was luxury!” 

A mobile shop came to the camp every week loaded with all sorts of groceries. The driver used to move slowly around the track ringing a large hand bell outside the driver’s window to let his customers know he was there.

In 1953, Elizabeth “jumped for joy” when she was finally given a council house in Weller Close.. They were one of the last families to leave the top camp which was demolished.