LINTON Camp, once a safe haven resounding to the sounds of children at play, lies derelict and crumbling in the Wharfedale countryside.

It was one of around 30 camp schools built by the National Camps Corporation in rural locations around England. The architect T S Tait was responsible for the design of the buildings.

The original purpose of these camps was to provide holiday accommodation for city children, who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to experience the countryside and nature.

With the onset of the Second World War in 1939, Linton school along with other national camps, was utilised for evacuees as it was thought at the time that children from industrialised towns and cities were vulnerable to enemy air raids. It was opened in July 1940 with most of the evacuees coming from Bradford.

The timber frames and floor joists of the buildings rested on brick and concrete piers.The sides were covered in timber cladding and they were overhung by cedar shingle roofs. They also had red brick chimney stacks.

There was an outdoor swimming pool and an air raid shelter.

Provision on the site would also have provided shower blocks, a greenhouse, a headmaster’s house, a central boiler house, and a water tower.

A playing field occupied the eastern part of the site.

After the war the camp remained open as a special residential school having been purchased in 1957 by Bradford Metropolitan District Council. The authority ran the school as a boarding school for children - around 90 in total -with behavioural difficulties or those who couldn’t be accommodated at home for various reasons. A number of the children were sent there on medial grounds, such as those suffering from asthma.

There was an extensive programme of refurbishment in 1960-61. This included enclosing of the verandas at the end of the accommodation blocks and the addition of corridors down their sides.

The residential school officially closed in May 1986. It was then used periodically as a summer scout camp, but has now remained unused for some years. It has since been home to ‘travellers’ and been a victim of vandalism and theft. Most of the internal fixtures and fittings have been stripped out of the buildings, the assembly hall being the most derelict of them all.

The land to the south of the site and adjacent to the former playing field contains archaeological remains of a medieval settlement which is a designated scheduled ancient monument.

The settlement likely contained several buildings as well as around 20 small folds and paddocks, and a medieval quarry. The settlement and medieval field systems are visible as earthworks.