Police Training Centre 1946, Forest Town Hostel

The Forest Town Miners Hostel was first built for Bevin Boys in 1944.  It compromised of rows of Nissen huts and was on land where the Forest Town Library, bungalows and houses now stand. The Bevin Boys  were not there long as the accommodation was needed for Epileptic Evacuees from Worthing, Surrey as their school was being bombed. After just over a year the children and their teachers left the hostel early in 1945 to return back to Surrey.

In the Autumn of 1945 the hostel was being prepared for new occupants and it became the Number 3 District  Police Training Center for former Police Officers who had been in the  armed forces to begin a refresher course.

This photograph shows Police Officers who were there from January 7th to April 6th 1946, and on the back is the signature of each officer, their number and which Police Force they were from.

The Police Training Centre was at Forest Town for around two years when it was then transferred to a former American Army Hospital on Mansfield Road, Sutton in Ashfield.

The hostel did not remain empty for long as it then became home to displaced persons because of the aftermath of the war, these were both men and women of many nationalities including Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians, and the finally Hungarians. The Hostel closed on the 10th October 1959. There is no evidence of it today ( 2023).

Further information can be found in the Book ‘The Forest Town Hostel 1944 – 1959’ by Pauline & Malcolm Marples now only obtainable in Libraries.