May: Performing!

 Land Girls and Lumber Jills at Play  No Responses »
May 012017
 

Performing

From left to right, top to bottom:

  • Land Girls entertaining the troops at Thundersley Hostel, Essex. Source: Lorna Cosgrove
  • A get together after a day’s training. Versatile Iris Joyce types, farms and also plays. Source: Northamptonshire Records Office
  • Women’s Land Army in Retford in 1949. Source: Catherine Procter
  • One Saturday afternoon Ipswich Hope House in 1943. Source: Kara Lynn
  • Lady Godiva played by Brenda Collinge, Hulcote Moors Hostel, Bedfordshire. Published in the Bedfordshire Times on 1st June 1945, p6. Source: Stuart Antrobus

WW2 Photo: Land Girls entertaining the troops at Thundersley Hostel, Essex.

 WW2 Photos  No Responses »
Jun 052015
 
I have a photo of Land Army Girls including my aunt Lilian Taylor in 1943 doing a show for the troops who were going off to war the following day. My aunt is the can can dancer on the right and was about 20 at the time. She is still alive, quite fit for her age and lives outside Montreal. She went to Canada after the war ended and has lived there ever since.
Entertaining the troops at Thundersley Hostel, Essex. Courtesy of Lorna Cosgrove.

Entertaining the troops at Thundersley Hostel, Essex.
Courtesy of Lorna Cosgrove.

Book: Voices From History: Essex Land Girls by Dee Gordon

 Latest News  No Responses »
Apr 032015
 
Essex Land Girls

Please click on the image above to order a copy through Amazon.

During the war, Essex became a likely place for ladies of the ‘Women’s Land Army’ to contribute to the war effort. Many came from Essex but women came from all over. Often women would move from the city with no prior experience of farm life, to ensure that Britain would not starve in wartime.

Local historian Dee Gordon has embarked on a research project about these remarkable women culminating in a new book ‘Voices From History: Essex Land Girls’. It includes interviews with some of the last surviving land girls, as well as original sources such as letters and diary extracts, unearthing some truly amazing stories.

Dee Gordon was born in the East End of London. In 2000 she sold her London-based recruitment agency to concentrate on her writing career. She is the author of numerous local history books, including Southend Memories, Haunted Southend, The Secret History of Southend and The Little Book of Essex. She lives in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.