Eric and Joan Peden
Squatters at Wolverley Camp
On 17th September 1946, Joan and Eric Peden, were living with Joan’s parents in the overcrowded conditions of North End House in the village of Wolverley. The Webster family had just sat down for tea that evening when Eric dashed in and told everyone that families were moving into empty huts at the former American hospital. Eric said that he was going to try and get a hut for him and Joan, and left for the camp with Joan’s brother John.
By Thursday the number of families squatting in the former American hutted camp at Wolverley had risen to 22, with just 3 local Wolverley families, while 19 families were from areas in Kidderminster.
Eric and Joan Peden
Joan was to write of those events later, “Do you remember, you squatters how our husbands stormed ‘The Bastille’, at Wolverley camp”. “Who started the ball rolling doesn’t matter; but the men pulled off the wooden boards that were nailed to the windows and across the doors”.
Due to the threat of eviction by The Ministry of Defence, Eric wrote to the council of those days asking to be rehoused. Kidderminster Rural District Council, Housing Chairman, Mr G.N.P. Humphries, gave an unsympathetic response to Eric’s letter at the council meeting early in February 1947 saying. “ Through his own act, Mr Peden has got himself into difficulties, but the fact that he will probably be ejected from the camp does not justify him having consideration over and above other applicants for council houses”.
Eventually Joan and Eric were rehoused on the nearby Fairfield estate, where Joan lived for many years along with other members of her family.
