{"id":23462,"date":"2025-03-01T20:06:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T20:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/?post_type=events&p=23462"},"modified":"2025-09-20T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T19:06:08","slug":"working-for-your-dole-british-labour-camps-1929-1939","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/events\/working-for-your-dole-british-labour-camps-1929-1939\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Working for your dole’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Breaking rocks in a Government run labour camp c1930s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Using contemporary images and excerpts of oral history from the film Old Hands<\/em> <\/a>this talk explains the nature of these camps, how they functioned and the responses of the ‘inmates’ to the harsh conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[755],"tags":[2052,2053,2050,2051,2049,2054],"class_list":["post-23462","events","type-events","status-publish","hentry","category-workhouses-poverty-laws","tag-1929-crash","tag-1929-1939","tag-camps","tag-great-depression","tag-instructional","tag-labour"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Working for your dole' - Bristol Radical History Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/events\/working-for-your-dole-british-labour-camps-1929-1939\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Working for your dole' - Bristol Radical History Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. 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