From time to time I get messages from our readers which I am pleased to accept, who sometimes pass on documents or photographs of interest.
One reader recently got in touch with the Chronicle office, who turned out to be a former officer at Feltham Borstal and the Young Offenders’ Institution, with a request that I get in touch.
This I was happy to do and was given the news that he had a number of documents from the old borstal which he wanted to pass on.
It would appear that when the old building was to be demolished he found a number of records had been thrown out.
He inquired of the governor if this was a mistake and was told his orders were to get rid of it all. But if there was anything he wanted to help himself. The officer realised there were interesting records among the items and took all there was and for many years these have been in the loft of his house.
He wanted to speak to me to see what he should do with the collection. I met him and his wife who told me the story and soon my car was filled with a collection of files, journals, minute books, registers, photograph albums and records including a straight jacket.
After a glance through some of the items I offered them straight away to the Local Studies Department at Hounslow Library where James Marshall the librarian was delighted to receive the collection which he described as remarkable and interesting, and the most impressive and significant recent deposit to the library’s archives.
I have retained some interesting files to go through which will be passed on in the near future.
For instance there is a copy of a letter of the 10th January 1916 from the War Office to the Under Secretary of State at the Home Office thanking the Home Department for consenting to allow the borstal institution at Feltham being used for the Interment of aliens in sympathy with the Allies.
These were Danish sailors who gave themselves up as Germany considered Denmark to be part of the homeland and therefore were considered our enemy. The borstal was then considered to be a prisoner of war camp.
This had an unusual side effect on the officers who had the privilege of purchasing their groceries through the suppliers to the borstal.
This stopped when the institution became a prison and the officers complained that as the Feltham shops were some two miles distant and by the time they got there the shops were sold out.
A number of them signed a petition to the authorities but there is no record if the privilege was restored.
There was another serious problem with the large number of inmates which had risen from 400 to 1,600 was the removal of effluent.
The building was not on the main drainage and the waste water and sewage was taken to the farm at Stanwell and used as a fertilizer. The ground there was becoming a lake so permission was sought to put in pipes to the Ashford Road to join up with the sewage system.
During the Second World War, many incendiary bombs were dropped on and around the building which were dealt with by the staff, but a large bomb exploded on the nearby Greenham gravel pit which blew in many windows.
During the air raids all the inmates and officers slept on the ground floor.
In 1946 a branch of the Young Farmers Club was started and a Middlesex Regiment Army Cadet Force unit was formed.
This was of particular interest to me as my late brother Stanley was C.O. of the Feltham army cadets and had oversight of these lads when they went to annual camp and told me how the boys were conscious of the privilege they had at being away from the institution.
These notes reveal that the Feltham Borstal Institution was a community of its own as well as being part of the wider community of Feltham.
In those days the boys would help out at carnivals held in the area and give shows of their handicrafts and art in the area. Sports days were held to which local folk were invited with tours round the building and workshops.
Unfortunately as we all know things have changed from the former training school to the present Young Offenders’ Institution and its security.
