Boys home,during ww2 Bourne End

[McDouall]

side view of the house known to me as the Homestead taken about 1950

[McDouall]

rear view of the homestead taken about 1950

[anonymouse]

Thanks Don - got the pics, thanks. I'm too young to remember any part of this, of course; the house will have been demolished around the time I started school (not in Bourne End). My mother and her sister are both puzzled as to why your enquiries should have been met with the response they did. After all, the place and its occupants were far from being a secret in Bourne End, and local businesses both served the Homestead, and as it appears, employed some of the boys. And of course, you all went to school in the town!

GRAHAM

[McDouall]

hi Graham.
yes it is a mystery, but then again it was far from a nice place to have lived.
Back about 1997-9 I tried  a lot to find  anything there was to find but never except for the man who was living in NZ did I find anything.
My sister at that time was a researcher by profession and she came up with a blank as well.
2 men who lived in or near Bourne End during WW2 remembered the place.
But officially i drew a complete blank.
think about it!
The place was used by LCC for perhaps 5 years, surely there were records.
Before living there I was for a short time in a home in Berkshire.
When researching for a book I wrote i found plenty of evidence that ,that home existed.
I must admit it is much harder to chase up leads when living in Australia & it was a lot harder 10 years ago then it is now.
Looking back someone must have told me its official name was "The Homestead hostel" whereas I only knew it as the Homestead.
Thanks for your input
regards Don

[McDouall]

just for the record The Homestead in 1905
regards Don

[anonymouse]

Don - there isn't anything specific to The Homestead under Bourne End in the Bucks Archives in Aylesbury. There is catalogued a lot of material relating to evacuees to Bucks in general, but this will take some time to go through to see if any of it touches on the place; it might very well be of a more
(to use the horrid officialese) 'overarching' nature.

GRAHAM

[IMBER]

Hi Don

It's been suggested above that the London Metropolitan Archives would be the location for LCC records.  Have you followed up on that? Then there's the point about who you contacted in Reading.  Who was that, and why when Reading is in Berkshire.  From a brief look it appears that the LCC records contain a very large amount of information about evacuees and various properties LCC owned outwith London.  For example, there's a reference to Craufurd College in Maidenhead being used .  That's only a hop from Bourne End. Could it be possible that LCC facilities in that area were managed from one location and the records kept together under a description other than Homestead. Just a thought.  If the records were destroyed as part for some reason then a list was probably kept of such records. Then you mention you were in Berkshire at one point.  Where was that? Perhaps there is a Rootschatter who is familiar with the LMA and would have a look for you.  It might be necessary to start a new thread for that.

Imber

[McDouall]

G`Day Graham,
thank you for that snippet  of information, About all I can hope  is someone else who was there comes forward, but at this late stage in ones life, that might not be as easy as it sounds, regards Don

[McDouall]

Hi Imber.
It has been about 10 or so years since I spent a lot of time researching The Homestead hostel.
Cannot remember why I was directed to Reading.
The home I was in was called PoundCroft. A fine building that is still called PoundCroft, situated  in the village of East Hanney Oxfordshire, but was in Berkshire then {1945}
Prior to being placed in this home {July 1945}I was billeted with a family in the same village as an evacuee from September 1939 until July 1945.
The home Poundcroft was closed in October 1945 & I with two other boys being the last  boys there, were then taken to The Homestead in Buckinghamshire.
I think I have mentioned That the homestead home was shut down in March or April 1947... I was the last boy there.
I then went back to live in foster care in East Hanney.
Came to Australia in 1952.
So  all I can do now is hope there is someone who knows more then I about the Homestead.
regards Don