Wales to Delamere Park

[bpuchala]

My name if Barbara Puchala and I just found this site - very interesting and I hope helpful.

I'm trying to find out about my parents history in the camps. I have family pictures from 1947-1952 that bear the label "Delamere Park" and some labelled "Oulton Park" so was trying to find out more about.

My parents were Marion and Maria Puchala. I have a document from the War Office sent to my father with the address of 34 Fifth Avenue, Delamere Park, Nr. Northwich, Cheshire.

I was born in 1947 in Pontypridd in Wales which seems to be nowhere near Delamere.

I don't recall any mention of their moving and I always assumed we were at Delamere until we emigrated to Canada in 1952.

I'd like to know if anyone remembers my parents and may have some idea how I got from Pontypridd to Delamere.

[sandianna]

Sorry I can't help you with any news about your parents or how you came to live in Wales.
I also lived at Delamere Park from 1953/58 and remember many polish friends.
My address was 4, 12th Avenue and (I think) 14, 16th Avenue?
I still remember the place with such clarity and have many happy memories during our time there.
I hope you get to hear from someone who can help you with your search...good luck.

[valdi]

Hi, my name is Waldemar Mrozinski.

There was a large Polish community at Penley in North Wales and it is possible that your family moved there first from Pontypridd before relocating to Delamere Park. This link may provide some clues:

www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/wrexham/pages/penley.shtml

I was born on the camp in our hut at Number 10, Central Avenue. It hasn't been easy piecing together the family geneology and historical background with so little documentary material to go on, having to rely mainly on my mother's vague recollections and the indispensable Google.

Good luck!

[ZosiaB]

Hi Barbara
After the war most of the Polish army came to the UK and were temporarily housed in army camps and hostels were they were demobelised and found work. There was a Polish miner's Hostel in Pontypridd where your parents must have lived and you were born. Miner's hostels did not have facilities for families so when you came along your parents would have been moved to a family camp such as Delamere. Check out these sites.

www.museumwales.ac.uk/media/4/6/1/9/glo-allpoles.pdf

www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk/delamere1.htm

Zosia

[wiesiek]

From: Wiesiek (Vic) Wojcik

Hi everybody, especially those of you from Delamere Park. I must have been very busy over the years not to have known about this web site. What a fantastic idea!! I am probably the newest recruit.

I lived in Delamere Park from 1948 when my mother Zuzanna, my brother Jan and I arrived from Southern Rhodesia to join my father Jozef and left for London in 1961.

Penley in North Wales was a Polish hospital and I had my appendix operation there in about 1955.

Oulton Park was a Polish Camp for a number of years but then the land was sold off by and it became a car/motorbike racing track in about 1952 +.

Most of the Polish inhabitants were moved to Delamere Park and I remember some that had arrived in Delamere Park, namely Pozniak family, Minkiewicz family and others (names are blurred at present). The name Puchala rings some bells as well as Mrozinski.

There were not many children of my age that lived full-time in Delamere Park because a number were at Polish Schools in Herefordshire and one or two at Fawley Court, a Polish Grammar School in Oxfordshire. Both run by the Marian Fathers.

I went to nursery school in Sandiway. and then primary in Northwich, St Wilfreds followed by St Bedes in Chester.

I would be interested who ZosiaB is.

That`s all for now but would be pleased to hear from others that remember me and share our memories.

Wiesiek