I am a historian researching the Bedfordshire Women's Land Army during the 1940s. I have so far been able to identify over 700 young women who served in Bedfordshire.
I have written an Outline History for a local history magazine and plan to publish further information and photographs through the Bedfordshire Libraries website in the early summer of 2006.
As part of my research over the last three years, I have interviewed 18 former Land Girls who served in Bedfordshire and deposited the tape recordings with the Sound Archive of the Imperial War Museum, London. You may have read "The Land Army and The Bennett Girls" on this site. I interviewed both Mary and Hannah (the two remaining sisters).
I have also held reminiscence sessions at Bedford Central Library, where former Land Girls met up and brought along photo albums. Over 100 of them completed a questionnaire giving information about their WLA service. The resulting data will be deposited at the County Record Office, Bedford, at the completion of the research.
If you are, or know of, a former Bedfordshire Land Girl who has not yet contacted me, I would like to hear from you. I have a short A4 questionnaire which I ask you to complete, to help me piece together the story of the WLA in this county. Over 1000 young women served in Bedfordshire between 1939 and 1950, either working directly for private farms or for the War Ag (Bedfordshire War Agricultural Executive Committee), living in a hostel.
There were some 17 hostels, including training hostels in Bedfordshire and I am keen to find out as much as possible about them. Does anyone have any knowledge of Houghton Conquest hostel?
If you can help me, please contact me,
Stuart Antrobus:
stuartantrobus@tiscali.co.uk
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