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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: colin norman on Wednesday 10 June 15 18:14 BST (UK)
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Around 1957, my father was stationed at RAF Washington Hall near Chorley, Lancs. My family were allocated married quarters in bungalow number Z3 at Woodlands, a collection of otherwise abandoned huts just across the road from a recreation ground. Two other families lived in Z1 And Z2. We lived there for a year or so. I was 6 or 7 at the time. I'd really like to find out where the site of Woodlands is, so I can visit it. I've managed to find and visit all seven of the other RAF camps I lived on in my childhood so this is the last one. Does anyone have any information that could help me find the place, please?
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It is the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Training Centre now at Chorley. International Training Centre
Southport Rd, Chorley
01257 266611. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for this.
I've already managed to locate the Washington Hall camp itself. It's the Woodlands AMQ location I'm looking for. It was separate from the camp but I don't know how far or in what direction. We believed at the time that it had been a WWII displaced persons camp as it was just a mass of abandoned huts and static water tanks.
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Look up RAF stations on Wikipedia.
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Woodlands hostel was on the south side of Southport Road (around SD571179). It was originally built for workers at the ROF at Euxton.
The site is now occupied by the Woodlands campus of Lancashire College (until recently Edge Hill University).
Across the road are the playing fields of Parklands High School, which used to be Chorley Grammar School.
Views of the site are readily accessible on Google Streetview.
The other main hostel for the ROF ("Highways") was further west, next to Euxton Balshaw Lane railway station. It was redeveloped as a housing estate in the 1960s. The pub there (The Talbot) replaced an earlier one of the same name, which was known as "Smoky Joe's".
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There's a 1:2500 map from 1960 available to view at www.old-maps.co.uk. It may jog the memory as to where your block was.
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Thank you for this. I couldn't wish for a more thorough reply.