Tucked away in the grounds of a payroll and HR company in Kent is a small piece of Olympic history.

Set in the grounds of Cobdown House, Ditton, is a modest prefabricated hut which was Finland’s contribution to the 1948 Olympic Games – a sauna.

Now, a campaign has been launched to save what is believed to be the oldest surviving sauna in Britain.

Held just after the Second World War, the 1948 games were hosted by the UK, but were known as the Austerity Games.

No grand new stadiums or Olympic villages were built. Instead, the athletes were housed either in existing buildings near Wembley Stadium or in military camps - including one in Richmond Park where the sauna was sited.

A Finnish company called Puutalo Oy, which specialised in prefabricated buildings, donated the sauna to help the athletes relax.

The company was heavily engaged at the time in selling homes and even schools to Britain to help us recover from the effects of the German bombing.

The sauna was designed by one of the country’s top architects – Tolvo Jantti – who had earlier helped design the Helsinki Stadium intended for the 1940 Olympic Games, which were cancelled because of the war.

The simple building comprises an entrance hall with a single-cubicle toilet and a small kitchen opposite.

To the left is the changing room – with hooks for 40 people – and a massage parlour with two massage tables.

To the right is the shower room, with one hot and one cold shower and a foot bath. Off the shower room is the sauna cabin itself.

The cabin has four rows of benches that could easily take 10 people, with the heat produced from the sauna oven which burnt birch logs.

In its heyday, the sauna had a uniformed attendant who would prepare birch twigs for the bathers to massage themselves with. The birch leaves produced a soothing oil and also gave off a comforting aroma.

Outside the building is a plaque commemorating the sauna’s Olympic origins.

The Albert Reed Paper Milll at Aylesford had an extensive staff sports and social club at Cobdown, and also close connections to Finland as it was a major importer of their timber

They invited the Finnish athletes to train at their Ditton sports fields ahead of the Games.

Afterward, the grateful Finns donated the sauna to Albert Reed for use by members of their social club.

There is a photograph of the then Finnish ambassador giving an address at the official opening of the sauna in Ditton on June 18, 1949.

An article in Sport and Country magazine from 1954 shows it being used by Reeds staff.

Later the cabin became the property of the Cobdown Sports Club, which in 2016 became K Sports, where it continued to be used by a small but enthusiastic sauna club.

It closed in 2020 due to faulty electrics and fire hoses, and a broken sauna oven.

Recently, the business services company Advo bought Cobdown House from K-Sports and discovered it had inherited the sauna too.

Now there is a move afoot to have the sauna listed and brought back into productive use.

A campaign is being led by the British Sauna Society and is supported by the Finnish ambassador, Jukka Siukosaari.

MP Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford) has also got involved.

She said: “As a former heritage minister, I am passionate about preserving historic buildings.

“The sauna is such a quirky addition to our local heritage that it is much loved.”

“Listing it not only protects it, but also opens up opportunities for funding that could potentially restore it to its former working glory.”

The Sauna Society believes the Ditton cabin to be the oldest surviving sauna in the UK and one of the few remaining links to the 1948 games.

It is hoped that a listed status might help release grants to restore the sauna to working order.

Mr Siukosaari, who visited the building in July this year, said: “The sauna has been an integral part of the Finnish way of life for centuries.

“For us Finns, the sauna is a spiritual as well as a social institution, which delivers undisputed health benefits as well.”

He said: “Our top athletes have also recognized the advantages of the sauna.

“Five-time Paris 1924 Olympic medallist, Paavo Nurmi, said that having a sauna in between races vastly aided his recovery time and allowed him to perform at a maximum level.

“The London 1948 Olympics athlete’s village sauna is possibly the oldest surviving Olympic sauna to date.”

“Its preservation is important not only because of its unique architecture, but also for its history relating to Finnish-British relations and what it means for our common sporting history.

“Recognising the importance of the building and restoring the sauna for public use would be a story worth telling for generations to come.”

*Photographs courtesy of the British Sauna Society.