August Snapshot in 5: Cornwall
This August ‘Snapshot in 5 post’ features the work of the WLA in Cornwall.
1. Land Girls planting potatoes in Ludgvan, Penwith.
Source: Kresen Kernow Cornwall Archives
2. Betty Clark drives a tractor at the Wings for Victory parade in Truro.
Source: The Women’s Land Army in Cornwall, p.51.
3. Stella Hallums writes on her vegetable gardening days at Lelant, for the Cornwall WLA monthly newsletter in October 1942.
Source: Cornwall WLA Monthly Newsletter, October 1942, p.2
4. Mickie sings one of her favourite songs sang by Land Girls ‘how you gunna keep us down on the farm’. She also remembers driving in the Cornish countryside.
Source: The Land Girl, December 1942.
5. Cornish Land Girl R. Robinson swaps plough for pen, as she writes her own version of ‘It’s Foolish but it’s Fun‘, for readers of The Land Girl magazine.
Source: The Land Girl December 1941, p.7.
Further information on the WLA in Cornwall
Numbers
Land Girls employed in Cornwall from April 1940 to 1947, calculated from the returns published in The Land Girl magazine.
In April 1940, Cornwall employed 55 Land Girls. By October 1943, 1493 Land Girls worked in the county.
Staff members
Chairman: Mrs C Williams, Caerhays Castle, Gorran
Secretary: Mrs Clifford-Smith, WLA Office, 2 Farley Terrace, Truro
Memoirs
Joan Mant, All Muck No Medals: Landgirls by Landgirls (Leicester: Book Guild Publishing Ltd, 1994)
Ellen Mist, Aw-Arrh!: Experiences in the Women’s Land Army (Penzance: United Writers Publications Ltd, 1992)
Sonia Kurta, Charismatic Cows and Beefcake Bulls (Ipswich: Old Pond Publishing Ltd, 2007)
Melissa Hardie, Diana Ayres, and Angie Butler, eds., Digging for Memories: The Women’s Land Army in Cornwall (Penzance, Cornwall: Hypatia Publications, 2006).
List of hostels
Gulval: Kenegie, Kenneggy
Hayle: Penmare Hostel
Ladock
Lamorna: Trevelloe House
Liskeard: Pencubid
Looe: Trelawn
Ludgvan: Cullarian (Tregarthen Farm)
Penzance: Poltair, Ponsandane
Sennen: Sea View
St Anthony: Place House Holiday Camp
St Colum Major: The Old Rectory
St Hilary: Vicarage
Truro: Truro Vean Holiday Camp
Stoke Climsland: Training Centre
Melissa Hardie, Diana Ayres, and Angie Butler, eds., Digging for Memories: The Women’s Land Army in Cornwall (Penzance, Cornwall: Hypatia Publications, 2006), p.21
Find out more
Did you or a member of family work in Cornwall as a Land Girl? If so, then get in touch.
Interested in seeing more material relating to the WLA in Cornwall? Click here or take a look at the archive material below.
