Monument record 1586800000 - Stokencroft School Camp (Wycliffe Centre)

Stokencroft School Camp was built by the National Camps Corporation in 1939 and was used as a boarding school for children evacuated from London during the Second World War. It housed up to 350 children and consisted of prefabricated red cedar huts comprising a dining hall, an assembley hall, classrooms, ablution blocks and dormitories.
In 1939 evacuation schemes were reviewed and it was decided to establish purpose-built children's camps. Construction began in mid 1939 and about 32 National Camps were built. The camps were located between 30-35 miles from towns or cities to be evacuated. By the end of June 1939 London had been allocated 15 camps, Manchester and Liverpool had 6 camps, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham had 3 camps each, Newcastle had two camps, and Sheffield, Hull and Portsmouth had one camp each. The camps were built to accommodate approximately 350 children each and consisted of red cedar huts with cedar shingle roofs (1).
After the Second World War, Stokencroft School Camp was sold to Lancashire Education Committee and renamed Horsley's Green School. From 1947 to the 1970s it was run as a boy's boarding school for secondary school pupils in Lancashire (2).
[From 1972-2013] The site operated as The Wycliffe Centre, a conference centre and the UK Headquarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators (3).
This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence (4).

The camp is visible on 1947 RAF aerial photos and is shown on OS mapping from the late 1950s onwards (5).