London Brick Company Hostel Drayton Parslow

A Memory of Drayton Parslow.

My parents, Arthur and Olga England, ran the Hostel at Drayton Parslow back in the 1960's for the London Brick Company. The Hostel was situated opposite Love Row, where the Hostel was is now known as Prospect Place. It used to be the old Naval Records base during the war and had a secret passage from Brown's to the Naval Base. Brown's was a house owned by Mr Brown and was, if not during the War, an Automotive Insulations factory. This passage was used by Winston Churchill when he visited the base. My father was the Manager of the L.B.C Hostel and my Mother ran the kitchen. The men who lived there were mainly displaced persons after WWII and came from all over Europe. Many had survived the Concentration and Death Camps and had no homes to go back to after the war. I grew up there with my brother John and learnt a lot from the men who lived there. They were kind and generous and always ready to help others if they needed it.
The Hostel was home for the men who lived there and they were encouraged to keep to their customs and also encouraged to learn English. Many become British Citizens and were proud to do so. During the 1960's the L.B.C recruited 100 Italian's from both Italy and Scilly and were brought to Drayton Parslow Hostel. I can recall them arriving with their suitcases or parcels containing all they had to make a new life for themselves. The Hostel had a large garden that produced fruit and vegetables that were used in the kitchen. When there was a glut of Strawberries in the garden my Mother gave them to the School as a treat for the village children. The gardener was named Michael and both John and I would help out with weeding, planting salad crops or strawberry plants. Sadly, the village did not embrace these men and kept away from them. I say sadly as the village missed out on learning from these men who would have been happy to part of village life. Children in the village were not allowed to play with me as they saw the Hostel as something to be ashamed of and the people who lived there. So I was bullied at school for living on the Hostel. My memories of the Hostel are happy ones as I learnt about the customs of the people who lived there. Like having Christmas on January 6th as well as December 25th. I learnt the stories of different countries and how Easter was celebrated as well. One person was a Russian Cossack named Koslov, who always gave us Easter eggs and told us the Christmas story of Babushka at Christmas time. This is just one memory among many of the men who lived there.
My parents helped many of the men trace family and managed to reunite some of them. One was Illya Bjillababa ( not sure on the spelling), he was reunited with his sons and one moved to England and lived in Leighton Buzzard. Others were also reunited with children they thought were lost, but not many. I was privileged to have known these men and proud to have been brought up on the Hostel and would not have changed anything; not even being bullied by the children in the village, as it was their loss not to have known such people.

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