On This Day, 30 January 1918

Birmingham Daily Gazette

Wednesday 30 January 1918

BIRMINGHAM EXCHANGE.

GIRLS FROM THE LAND.

UNIQUE GATHERING OF WORKERS IN BIRMINGHAM.

The girls who answered the call for workers on the land met in Birmingham yesterday, and enjoyed a day crowded with entertainment, besides serving the useful purpose of attracting attention to their work by a procession through the town in the afternoon.

The rally was organised by the Women’s War Agricultural Committee, brought together the girl farm workers of Warwickshire and Greater Birmingham to the number of about 320. The Hon. Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton (Assistant Director of the Production Department, Women’s Branch), the Hon. Mary Parkington, Lady Rowena Pattison, and Lady Hikeston (Warwickshire Women’s War Agricultural Committee) were among the ladies who spent most of the day with the farm workers.

STRAIGHT FROM THE FARM

The girls came, in many cases, direct from their milking and other farm work as the mud on their boots plainly testified. They thoroughly enjoyed the picture show specially provided for them at the New-street Picture House, and no film evoked more applause than “The Woman’s Land Army at Work,” which Mr. Ernest Plumpton, the manager, had hired for their special benefit.

The picture show was followed by a luncheon at the Priory Rooms, and afterwards the girls marched through the streets in procession, escorted by a detachment of the Birmingham Women’s Volunteer Reserve, to the Council House, where they were received by the Lord Mayor (Alderman A. D. Brooks) and the Lady Mayoress.

The girls carried pitchforks, milking stools, whips, bridles, or some other implement indicating the work they are doing, and a farmer’s cart of the old-fashioned type carried a number of workers who had obviously been used to work on the land long before the great war. Another special feature of this procession was the motor tractor plough driven by a bonny Warwickshire lass.

AT THE COUNCIL HOUSE

The Lord Mayor presided, and told the women that when the history of the war came to be written that part they had played in the national struggle would receive a prominent place. The help which they had given, he said, could never be over-estimated. There were some 180 girls employed in the Birmingham area on agricultural work.

The Lady Mayoress then presented the efficiency certificates won by Birmingham and Warwickshire women at the Midland test held recently at Harborne, and the Hon. Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton followed with an address.