9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31 March, 7.30pm. Tickets £16 (£12 for under 21s)
Bicycles, which were often used as transport from the girls’ accommodation to the farms were vital, once they got to know their way around the country lanes. Having your own (or a WLA bicycle) gave you freedom of movement in a country area. There were no road signs, so as to not aid the enemy in attack. Dimmed bicycle lamps at night also made it extremely difficult for the girls to find their way around.
“Another time I was biking home for lunch when the cows were being taken for milking. Behind them were some troops from Grange Camp. Not wanting them to see a Land Army girl frightened of cows I rode through them when a tail flicked out and hit me in the face, knocking me off the bike. There I sat, my bike on top of me, a dirty face and the troops laughing.
Mrs. K.A. Scott. [Maiden name unknown]
Source: ‘Bedford on Sunday’ newspaper, 24 April 1977, p5. Courtesy of Stuart Antrobus
From left to right, top to bottom:
For more on the history of cycling, please click here to visit Sheila Hanlon’s excellent website.
Charlotte Smith meets some of the Women’s Land Army – Land Girls and Lumber Jills – who kept Britain in food and timber during the Second World War. They were invited to a tea party at the offices of Defra in London. Earlier in the year a memorial was unveiled to the Land Army at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire, following a fund-raising campaign. Produced by Sally Challoner.
Article describing the land workers at Norwich celebrate the harvest.
Source: Article (cropped) from The Landswoman, November 1918, page 247-248
Positive reports of Land Girls working on Mr Thistleton Smith’s Farm in Norfolk.
Mr Thistleton was seen as a ‘pioneer of woman farm labour in Norfolk.’
Source: The Landswoman, April 1918, page 80.
Photos of Timber Workers in Norfolk.
Source: The Landswoman, February 1918, page 26.
Accompanying text on the Timber workers in Norfolk.
Source: Article (cropped) from The Landswoman, February 1918, p25
