Monument record MBC47855 - Workers’ Hostel south of Bicester Road, Aylesbury

A workers’ hostel of World War II date is visible on historic aerial photographs as buildings and was/were mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located on the south side of Bicester Road, Aylesbury, and centred at SP 80842 14392. A line of ten single storey probably wooden, accommodation huts is visible on aerial photos in 1943 in a field of clear ridge and furrow earthworks on the south side of the Bicester Road. By 1945 the site has expanded to include six longer huts on the same orientation and three lines of four and two longer huts with what are probably general buildings in between and a large possibly communal dining room, function room or similar at the north of the site; workers were provided with two full meals plus a snack daily and they slept in single bunk cubicles. A sick bay, dining room and welfare facilities were also included at hostels. The site is surrounded by industrial buildings and factories along the Bicester Road and was constructed to house 450 workers. Workers’ hostels were constructed after the National Service Hostels Corporation was set up in 1941 to cater for the needs of the increased number workers required during World War II. Photos from 1950 show the full extent of the site still remains but the programme was reduced from 1954. The site can still be seen in 1961 but has reduced in number of buildings in 1971 and again in 1978 and by 1994 the whole site has been redeveloped for industrial buildings. (1-13)