We are pleased to publish Rob David’s latest article on the Basque children and the little-known colony at Wigton.
In 1937 ‘colonies’ for Basque child refugees were established in Cumbria at Brampton, Carlisle and Wigton, as well as for a few months over the winter of 1937-38 at Ambleside. There is a substantial archive on the colonies at Brampton and Ambleside at Carlisle Archive Centre, but information about the colonies at Carlisle and Wigton has been harder to come by. Both of these colonies were established under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. Some information about the colony at Carlisle exists in the archive of the ‘Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth: The Generalate Archive’ although what can be made available is heavily redacted. Information about the Wigton colony has emerged following a gift of a photograph of two of the children accommodated there to the Basque Children’s Association ’37 UK accompanied by testimony from the daughter of one of the children. Consequently, it has been possible to rescue its history from obscurity.
To read the entire article, please click here.