‘Working for your dole’: British labour camps, 1929-1939

After the financial crash of 1929 and during the years of the ‘great depression’ in the 1930s the Ministry of Labour in Britain introduced a series of ‘instructional camps’ for the long-term unemployed, which were supported by successive governments. Over 150,000 men from ‘distressed areas’ were sent to do hard labour in these remote settlements  Using contemporary images and excerpts of oral history from the film ‘Old Hands’ this talk explains the nature of these camps, how they functioned and the responses of the ‘inmates’ to the harsh conditions.