ARCHAEOLOGISTS are to explore the secrets of an "emotional" World War Two location in the Lake District this summer.

The Calgarth Estate at Troutbeck Bridge was built in 1942 to house wartime workers at the nearby Short Sunderland "Flying Boat" factory at White Cross Bay.

In 1945 its hostels provided shelter and sanctuary to 300 Jewish children - fondly known as "The Boys" - who had survived the hell of Nazi concentration camps.

Now, the Lake District Holocaust Project has secured £48,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards an archaeological survey and dig at the site, where the Lakes School was built.

The £62,000 project will be led by world-renowned archaeologists Caroline Sturdy Colls and Kevin Colls, and will include a cutting-edge technological survey to identify what remains of the estate lie hidden below ground.

This will be followed by excavations to uncover the remnants of hostel accommodation on the estate where single workers from the factory slept.

Each of the six hostels on Calgarth Estate housed 50 people in small, individual rooms furnished with a bed and a chest of drawers. For the child Holocaust survivors who had spent years in terrible conditions, the bedrooms were utterly luxurious.

Trevor Avery, director of the Lake District Holocaust Project, said: "This is an amazing opportunity for everyone to become involved in a project that is literally unique in the UK, and it is here in the Lake District.

"The story of Calgarth Estate in the Lake District and its connections with the flying boat factory at White Cross Bay is fascinating. Added to that, no other location in Britain has such a strong, physical connection to the Holocaust and makes this of national importance."

Calgarth Estate stood from 1942 to around 1964. It was home to 200 families and 300 single workers, and it had a school, shops, entertainment hall and laundry.

The single-storey houses were nicknamed “Shorts Palaces” by the residents and had indoor bathing and central heating, still rare for working-class people in the Lake District in the 1940s.

The estate was gradually demolished over time, and the Lakes School opened on the site in 1967. Most of the former residents were rehoused on the newly built Droomer Estate in Windermere.

Caroline Sturdy Colls is is Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Genocide Investigation at Staffordshire University. She completed the first archaeological surveys of the former extermination camp at Treblinka, Poland; and the sites linked to the Nazi slave labour programme at Alderney, in the Channel Islands.

Kevin Colls is the lead archaeological project manager at the Centre for Archaeology at Staffordshire University. He has 20 years’ experience and his specialist subjects include archaeological field techniques, urban archaeology and forensic archaeology.

The survey and dig will take place over the summer and autumn of 2019, and members of the public will be encouraged to volunteer and learn about all aspects of excavation, conservation and exhibition work.

The Lake District Holocaust Project was established in 2007 to commemorate the links between the child Holocaust survivors and the community that welcomed them. The story was featured on BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are? in 2018, when TV star Judge Robert Rinder made a poignant visit to Windermere to find out more about his grandfather, Moishe Malenicky, who recuperated there after the war.