Oaklands Park, Soudley/Newnham: Women's Land Army hostel (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, October 19, 2017, 23:23 (2601 days ago) @ Mike Pinchin

Hi Stephanie,
I'm interested in all things WW2 related, but I've never tried researching the WLA before. I suspect it will be just as difficult as it definitely is for the Home Guard and ARP units. I'm sure you've tried this site, but in case not please see
http://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/research-and-contact/

I suspect that site's Facebook pages may be particularly helpful, altho clearly the fact that most Land girls will have passed-away by now is a problem.

My initial advice would have been to use the local newspapers, both by writing letters requesting information from readers, and also by searching old issues from the time, as Mike has kindly done. However they would have only given quite scant coverage during wartime due to censorship. Don't forget that not all our local newspapers are online, eg Cinderford library carrys the DF Mercury etc, see
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/media/1904/gloucestershire_newspapers_2016_v1-24402.pdf

This censorship included the wartime issues of Ordnance Survey Maps, which don't show munitions factories for example. Whether such maps would show somethig as relatively small and "temporary" as a WLA Hostel is debatable, certainly I cannot see any hint of it on this map, despite zooming-ito it with my mouse.
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101453664

On a more general level, as I'm sure you've already found, the BBC site has several pages of recollections of life with the WLA, some of which refer in detail to the hostel at Dumbleton Hall in the north of Gloucestershire, now an impressive looking hotel. Apparently there were almost 700 WLA hostels across the UK during WW2 !
Sadly not easy to search thro' the large number of posts on this site.
eg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1171/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/02/a4392902.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbleton#Dumbleton_Hall

Sadly I don't currently have access to my FoD reference and old-photo books, but I recommend looking-up "The Forest of Dean in Wartime" by Humphrey Phelps, pub 1995, it may possibly help you.

The Sungreen site has a few photos of Land Girls, but at Bream, not Oaklands.
https://www.sungreen.co.uk/_Bream/BreamCourtFarm1947.htm

Hoping this helps in some way, Jeff.