From Susan Marie Ward’s blog post: ‘My mother, (far right) and her best friend Betty Green, (far left), lean out of the window of the Land Army Hostel in Lynn Lane, Shenstone – 1948’ – it’s good to see this material liberated from the confines of Facebook and out onto the winder internet.
There’s a nearby blog I love that’s going from strength to strength. It’s a blog I’ve plugged before, and it’s by Susan Marie Ward, who’s a great local historian. Susan lives out in South Staffordshire, but has historical connections to Aldridge, Walsall Wood and Stonnall.
Susan has previously written movingly about her childhood experiences at Keeper’s Cottage, Footherley (the abandoned, tumbledown house by the hump bridge), and of her Grandparents and family. This is a very personal blog, and one I follow eagerly. Well written and presented, it’s an emotional, fragile thing and I love that.
In the past few days, Susan has posted a lovely piece about her mother’s experience and service in the Land Army during the Second World War. In a wonderful elaboration of a beautiful piece, there are remarkable audio interviews which really bring the experience home.
Please pop over and check Susan’s work out – this is an incredibly important blog, and deserves much wider exposure. I salute Susan’s work and support her wholeheartedly.
A remarkable post. Wish I could write like that. Click on the screenshot to visit the post.
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Thank you so much Bob. You deserve most of the credit for this as you encouraged me to get on with in the first, place, always read it, and encourage me to continue ( before *all* the people in my story are dead!)
HI Bob
a very big thankyou to Susan, please. I think this hut was the one used to hold Italian prisoners of war at what time earlier in the war. Can Susan please confirm this?
kind regards
David
That’s an interesting question, David. It’s something that I previously noticed said by, I think, Gordon Mycroft. My assertion that the hut was “newly built” when Mom arrived there, is corroborated by something I read in the newly published “Discovering Stonnall” produced by the Lynn and Stonnall Conservation and Historical Society. They interviewed a lady called Margaret Smith, who joined the WLA about a year before my mother. She describes the girls being collected from designated places in the Walsall area to come to work because the hut could not be completed for them during the very hard winter of 46/47. Mother certainly remembers the Ukrainian POWs living in Lincoln House, which still exists in Shenstone Main Street.
Perhaps the hut was renovated, not built, for the WLA. The level of comfortable, albeit basic facilities which Mom remembers aren’t consistent with prisoners’ accommodation.
Erratum: I meant Gordon Mycock, of course!
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