Squatters Camp at The Vache in 1946

"Orderly Lawlessness"

Post-war homelessness and overcrowding after the War sparked a
nationwide movement of squatting. One of the first of these occurred at
The Vache which had been commandeered during the War, and within the
grounds many Nissen Huts had been built.

Britain's Labour Government, long under fire for
failing to straighten out the housing shortage, last week had a revolt
on its hands. The leader was a lean ex-Commando-man, John Mann, of
Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire. Mann had been sharing a small,
unsanitary cottage with his wife, his five-year-old son, and ten
strangers. At the local pub one night, Mann heard a Polish captain say
that a deserted army camp at nearby Vache Park was being readied for
Polish soldiers of General Anders' army in exile. Mann decided to get
there first.

At dawn, he and a handful of homeless veterans
bloodlessly routed three Polish guards and seized Vache Park. Next day,
120 families had moved into the spacious army huts. After a flurry of
resistance, local authorities capitulated.

From Vache Park, the squatters' revolt swept over
Britain. Near by, at Beech Farms, Chesham Bois, Polish soldiers raced
squatters to grab empty huts, staked their claims by installing beds.
When they returned with the rest of their belongings, the beds were on
the lawn, the squatters in the huts. At Prestwick, Scotland, R.A.F. men
were called out of movies and dance halls to guard their quarters. At
Chandler's Hill Camp, Iver, Buckinghamshire, soldiers sent vain S.O.S.
calls to the police when the squatters moved in, wound up amicably
sharing the camp with them. At Hamilton, Lanarkshire, 19 squatters each
paid a £1 fine for trespassing, then marched from court right back to
their commandeered camp. Into the antiaircraft establishments at
London's Cricklewood Park, a veteran named Arthur Bunce led 15 families.
Said his major: "Jolly good luck to you, Bunce. I would do the same
thing if I were in your shoes."

Death at the War Office. Most of Britain felt like the
major. But the Labor Government squirmed. A reporter asked the Ministry
of Works how it stood on the squatters' revolt. "Oh," said a spokesman,
"we stand well back. But they must be going crazy over at the Ministry
of Health, and they say at least 20 generals expired at the War Office."
Timidly the Cabinet recommended that all squatters who were occupying
camps essential for military or civilian training should move at once.
Instead, veterans even began moving into empty private homes.

This strange new mood the BBC called "orderly
lawlessness." The squatters were not just people who had grown tired of
waiting for new houses. Many were people who had never had houses
before. Said Squatter Violet Bree at Vache Park: "Is it not wonderful?
So much space! We used to live in one room with my mother-in-law—I was
terrified of her. They say it will be ten years before we get a house,
but I do not mind if we can stay here. There is another room behind
there (they are going to knock a door through) with a telephone. I never
had a telephone before."

But afterthoughts, as they must to all refuels, came
to the squatters of Vache Park; this week, they found themselves paying
Leader John Mann seven-and-six a week against a rainy day.

Here's an old film from Pathé News:

Squatters in Chalfont St Giles (1946) - An army camp taken
over by squatters.

Here is an old aerial photo
of the village. (Close-up view
here.)
See the Nissen Huts in the grounds of the Vache in the bottom right hand
corner.

Memories of local residents who lived in the Squatter's Camp can be
found here.