Monument record MBC43712 - A Second World War agricultural workers’ hostel, Hogpound (now Fernfield) Farm

A Second World War agricultural workers’ hostel is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located at Hogpound (now Fernfield) Farm and centred at SP 80380 32197, the site comprises 14 rectangular buildings that vary in size from 17.5 x 4.5 metres to 51 x 6 metres laid out in eight parallel rows perpendicular to and on both sides of the main farm track. Hogpound Farm was bought by Mr Hickman in the early 1960s, who then changed its name from Hogpound to Fernfield Farm. The buildings were built by a Mr Gee (of Gee, Walker and Slater Ltd) in the 1930s as piggeries. However, at the onset of war, some of the piggery buildings were converted for use as a Ministry of Agriculture workers’ hostel accommodation, used to house a (mostly Irish) labour force to work the land during the war years, which it then remained until the late 1950s (as shown on historic OS map editions). Those accommodation buildings remained intact in 1962 when Hogpound Farm was bought. Some way to the east of the hostel and farm, a sewage disposal site was constructed, which remained extant until 1968, when some concrete remains were all that was visible. One building that was extant in 1944 had been demolished by 1947, but aerial photographs taken in 2019 and personal communication with the farmer confirm that the remaining converted accommodation buildings are extant and repurposed for agricultural use one again (1-7).