Rotherham writer Ray Hill's book features Polish soldiers who stayed after war

Ray remembers: “When I was a lad in the 50s I visited my grandparents (Ogdens) regularly. They lived on Saville Street in Dalton.

“I played with some of the other young lads on the ‘backs' – the narrow road behind the houses - at football.

“There was a brick wall and then a high wire fence that was the boundary to a large field that was bordered by Doncaster Road and Laudsdale Road in East Herringthorpe.

“At the far end was what we called the Polish Camp but was in fact the miners’ hostel built in 1946 to house the miners recruited to work in the local mines due to the shortage caused by the war.

“A few years later it was used to house the Polish soldiers who had fought alongside our own soldiers but decided to come over here rather than stay in their homeland.”

“It seems the entrance was on Laudsdale Road and it wasn't just for the Poles. Our own soldiers were there as they waited to be demobbed and resettled.”

Wartime sweethearts’ 75-year marriage

When he appealed for stories about the camp for his book, he said several people told him about Polish people who settled here and got married. Some romances met with hostility from families, he learned.

Ray said: “I received a post from a woman in Canada. She said her father Bazyli Kragiel was in the camp just after the war after fighting alongside the 8th British Army and he was awarded three medals.

“He worked in the local mines and moved into lodgings on Herringthorpe Valley Road. He then married the daughter of the family he was living with.

“They had a daughter in 1951 and then in 1956 emigrated to Canada, where he worked in the mines there. He died there in 1997, never having gone back home to his family in Poland.”

In the early 1960s the camp was demolished and maisonettes were built on a new road called Lady Oak Road. Ray and his parents moved there in late 1963.

Ray’s book is called Memories of Dalton Brook. It is available from Rotherham Visitors Centre on High Street or order a signed copy by post from Ray at 24 Greenfield Road, East Herringthorpe, Rotherham, S65 3NX for £6. Make payment to Rotherham District Civic Society. Ray’s phone number is 01709 850035.