Sayers Croft Local Nature Reserve

Sayers Croft is a large outdoor 'learning camp' located in the village of Ewhurst, Surrey. It is one of the few remaining 'Camp schools' built by the National Camps Corporation in 1939 to provide fresh air and fun activities for inner city children and offer a refuge for civilian evacuees in the event of war breaking out. The first occupants of the centre were children from Catford Central and Browhill schools in East London who arrived in May 1940, as the construction work was being completed. The boys, supplemented from other schools as World War II continued, lived at the Centre throughout the war. After the war, the centre was used to rehabilitate Dutch children following the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Sayers Croft began taking groups of children from London on residential visits. The National Camps Corporation was not a success, its assets were subsequently transferred to local authorities. The Centre transferred to the Greater London Council, and was run until 1990 by th

Location

Waverley