Overton Hall (1939-1940) and Amber Valley Camp (1940-1945)
A decision was made on 2 September 1939 for the pupils and staff of Derby School to be evacuated immediately away from the town of Derby due to its proximity of the then Derby Electricity Power Station in Full Street in the centre of Derby. This was followed on the following day by the declaration of war on Sunday 3 September 1939. As a temporary measure from September 1939 until June 1940 they first went to Overton Hall in Ashover near Matlock.
Once Amber Valley Camp was finally built and completed in June 1940 Derby School moved from Overton Hall to the new accommodation at Amber Valley Camp, Woolley Moor some five miles (8 km) away. The boys all walked this distance and subsequently, an annual sporting event “The Five Mile Walk” was inaugurated.
Amber Valley Camp was one of the National Camp Corporation premises. In the 1930s this organisation began to set up wooden buildings complete in every way on sites in the countryside so that urban children could enjoy and experience Britain’s national surroundings. The total number of similar camps built were 31 in England and Wales and 5 in Scotland.
They proved to be useful in the 1939-1945 war as evacuation centres and even in some instances as military camps. After the war Derby Corporation Education Committee used Amber Valley Camp for monthly visits by the town’s secondary school children.
Originally the camp itself consisted of six buildings used as dormitories, there were two ablution blocks, a sanatorium, a double staff bungalow (one part housing the Camp Manager - Commander De Denne (RN Retd.) and the Rev Allan Grime and his family occupied the other section. The dining room allowed 300 pupils to take meals. In addition, there were four classrooms in a block and a further hut was the craft centre. Another block housed a physics lab and a chemistry lab and provided an office for Les Bradley – the Headmaster. Classes were also held in the school hall, the Woolley Moor Methodist Chapel and a nearby public house. The dormitories were called after Derbyshire places, including Wingfield, Melandra, Eyam, Dovedale, Cromford and Bakewell. The only building now left at Amber Valley is the old dining room, which is now the headquarters of the Ogston Sailing Club.
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