Description
This pair of leather shoes is a pair of Women's Land Army (W.L.A.) standard issue shoes. They belonged to Gwendoline Hayes, who enrolled in the W.L.A. on 13th November 1941 and left in March 1946. Before joining the W.L.A. she worked in the Reading branch of London Drapery Stores. After enrolling, she undertook market gardening training at Seale Hayne College near Newton Abbott, Devon. She subsequently worked at Winter Hill House in Cookham Dean, near Maidenhead, where she stayed until 1944, leaving after the owner of the house died. From there, she went to work at Sales the Nursery in Wokingham, where she continued to work after the end of the war and her release from the W.L.A. After the war she met and married Walter James Hayes, who was born in 1916 and had studied at Reading Collegiate School. Together they farmed Great Lea Farm at Englefield, Berkshire. Gwen certainly wore her W.L.A. shoes, as evidenced by the fact that they appear quite well worn and have been re-shod. However, she agreed with other reports that these standard issue W.L.A. shoes were not very comfortable. They were never worn for day-to-day work unless it the weather was hot and dry. Indeed, ordinarily she and her fellow workers wore wellington boots. The shoes were also worn for dress occcassions. The shoes form part of a larger donation to MERL from Gwen Hayes, which also includes a pair of W.L.A. breeches, a W.L.A. woollen jumper, a pair of W.L.A. socks, a W.L.A. overcoat, a pair of W.L.A. dungarees and two agricultural cups. The items were handed over to MERL on Gwen Hayes' behalf by her niece, Ruth Allen. Gwen's husband, Walter, had two sisters, one of whom married into the Pring family whose wagon is at MERL (object number 56/304), along with a trophy which was donated by Ruth Allen's sister Joan Beautement and a set of four sacks (2002/26/1-4). Walter's other sister married into the Lee family, whose farm records were donated to MERL by Ruth Allen (archive reference: FR DX1747). The pair of leather shoes have a fabric and cork inside lining each. The upper is stitched to the sole with small nails attaching both upper part of the shoes and the soles together.
Archival history
Letter, Ruth Allen to MERL, date unknown – 'Oliver, // It was nice to meet you yesterday and for you to accept my aunt's Land Army Uniform. As promised a copy of a talk she gave to Grazely school children. As discussed she would be delighted to give you more details, she does like to talk about the war years. I know you are very busy but a letter to her acknowledging acceptance of the uniform & cups would be much appreciated. Thank you. // P.S. If you do manage to make time for a visit perhaps you could call me first as she does sometimes go out with the home on shopping trips. I wouldn't want you to have wasted journey. [...] // donor - Gwendoline Hayes // ... //', Letter, MERL to Ruth Allen, 20 December 2011 – 'Dear Ruth, // I am writing to thank you for bringing in Gwendoline Hayes' kind donation of items to the collections of the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL). As I said to Mrs Hayes in my letter to her (copy enclosed for your information) they comprise a fascinating set of materials that will greatly enhance the Museum's holdings relating to the Women's Land Army (WLA). // As I also note in my letter to Mrs Hayes, I recall that you said she had committed her memories of the WLA to paper. It would be enormously beneficial if we could obtain a copy of these reminiscences for the Museum's records. // I hope to be in touch with Mrs Hayes in the New Year and, provided she is happy for me to do so, I would very much like to pay her a visit to talk about the artefacts in greater detail. // I wish you a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2012. // Many thanks again, // Dr Oliver Douglas // Assistant Curator', Letter, MERL to Gwendoline Hayes, 20 December 2011 – 'Dear Mrs Hayes, // I am writing to thank you for your kind donation of items to the collections of the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL). Ruth Allen brought the objects in towards the end of last month. They comprise a fascinating set of materials that will greatly enhance the Museum's holdings relating to the Women's Land Army (WLA). // Although MERL already holds a great many items related to this area of wartime and post-war activity, every extra piece of the 'historical jigsaw' adds to our growing corpus of knowledge and understanding about the period, as well as to the record that will be retained and conserved for future generations. // As I understand it from Ruth, you have committed your memories of the WLA to paper and it would be enormously beneficial if we could obtain a copy of your reminiscences for the Museum's records. The personal narratives and contextual histories that surround these objects give them a potency and value that cannot be measured. I hope to be in touch in the New Year and, if you were happy for me to do so, I would very much like to pay you a visit to talk about the artefacts in greater detail. // In the meantime, I wish you a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2012. // Many thanks again and best wishes, // Dr Oliver Douglas', Letter, MERL to Ruth Allen, 15 November 2012 – 'Dear Ruth, // I am writing to thank you once again for helping to facilitate my visit to see Gwen. // I hope you will agree that the discussion we all had was both fascinating and enlightening. I enclose a copy of the brief notes I have written up as a result of this informal reminiscence session. These are for your and Gwen's perusal and approval. I hope I have remembered the details and that I have deciphered my own illegible handwriting correctly. Please feel free to point out any errors. // We should be looking to formally accession these items soon as colleagues and I have just begun to work through a backlog of recently acquired material. In the meantime I wish you all the best. I will write to Gwen separately to thank her for her generosity and for allowing me to take up so much of her time. // Many thanks again, // Dr Oliver Douglas // Assistant Curator', Letter, MERL to Gwendoline Hayes, 15 November 2012 – 'Dear Gwen, // Thank you very much for taking the time to recount your experiences in the W.L.A. in such detail. I enclose some notes I have made based on our meeting. I have also sent these to Ruth. If you spot any glaring errors do let me know! // Many, many thanks, // Ollie Douglas', Photocopy of handwritten reminiscences by user Gwendoline Hayes - 'Down Memory Lane // When war broke out in 1939 I was working in Reading, & about a year after all single women born in 1920 had to register for war work & were called up in due course, in the early days you had a choice at your interview of joining A.T.S. Air Force, Land Army or factory work, my choice was the Land Army. Having made this decision I went home & told my Mother & Father what I had done they both said you never will cope with the work on the land, so it was up to me to show them I would. After been accepted & passing the medical exam, measurements were taken for the uniform which consisted of corduroy breeches, overcoat shirts (2) dark green pullover, long wo[o]llen socks, with heavy leather shoes & felt hat, also rubber Boots & overalls for working in. The whole thing took a few weeks before your final instructions & uniforms arrived, my enrolled date was the 13th Nov. 1941, having had a 3 months extension in my job being head of the department as the Manager was undergoing a major operation. As far as I can remember on the 20th Nov. 1941 I left Reading Station with 3 other Land Army girls and we were travelling down to Devon Newton Abbot to do a month training at Seal[e] Hayne College, what stands out in my mind the crowded train we travelled in was full of troops & no seats only in the corridor, when tired we sat on our cases. On this journey no one knew where we were because all station names were covered over for security reasons, we arrived at Newton Abbot in the blackout & all told to get off the train, there was a truck waiting to take us to the College where we were met by the Principal, who gave us instructions to find our allocated rooms, I was very lucky because I didn't have to share. All of us were by this time tired & starving, a meal in the dining room would be served when everyone had unpacked. Lights went out at 10-00PM so you had to be in bed by then, my first morning rising at 6-45am, & oh the breakfast they gave us liver which wasn't cooked very well, but by the end of the month we were so hungry working outside everyone ate it. // On the list after breakfast at 8-00am those who were doing training for market gardening had to report to the head gardener, one of my first jobs was picking brussel sprouts to be sent to market, on frosty morning how your poor hands suffered with the cold, the same applied to digging leeks & washing them in cold water. We were taught how to dig, spread manure & dig trenches for bean growing, plus many more jobs. (red soil) The first weekend off several of us decided to walk into Newton Abbot not realising how far it was, with such new & hard shoes I can remember the agony I suffered with blisters. We found out on that visit the only canteen the Land Army were allowed in was the Church Army. At the end of the month we all returned home in time for Christmas & to find a job, on January 5th 1942 I was sent to Cookham-De[an] Winter Hill House where the gardens were turned into marketing to produce vegetables & fruit, my job was to work under an elderly gardener & also I had to be billeted at the gardener's cottage, the wife being very kind to me & a good cook. Wages roughly were about 30/- shillings with your billet paid by the owner who you were working for, (that amount re[a]sonable in those days) although the work very hard especially during the summer I did enjoy it & my life happy dig[g]ing for victory. I stayed in this job till 1944 when the owner died & after a few months I had to leave when my next move was to Sales the Nursery people at Wokingham & there I worked up till my release in March 1946, living back home at Winnersh & cycling to work each day. Thank you children for sharing my journey in the war years', Interview notes, taken by Dr Oliver Douglas, MERL, in an interview with Gwen Hayes, 6 November 2012 - 'The following is a summary of some notes taken by Ollie Douglas during an informal meeting with Gwen Hayes on 6 November 2012 at her place of residence [...]. These notes are in addition to reminiscences handwritten by Gwen herself and entitled 'Down Memory Lane' and focus largely on the artefacts that Gwen donated to the Museum and her specific memories in relation to them. // Gwen was born on 2 August 1920, making her 92 at the time of this interview and 21 at the time of her enrolement in the Women's Land Army (W.L.A.). When asked why she joined the W.L.A. (rather than one of the other options available to young women at the time) she said it was simply because she didn't want to go into a factory. She acknowledged that she was already familiar with the kind of work the W.L.A. might involve. Her father was at that time Head Gardener at Hurst Grove, the family home of Reginald Palmer. When Gwen was about 8 years old the Palmers paid for a larger house in Winnersh for her family, which is where she lived towards the end of her W.L.A. service. It was from there that she cycled on a daily basis to get to Sales the Nursery, where she was posted in the latter stage of the war. // At the time she signed up to the W.L.A. in 1941 Gwen was working for London Drapery Stores, Reading, where she was going to be a buyer. She gave this line of work up and did not return to it after the war. Instead, she carried on working for Sales the Nursery where she was employed as a florist making wreaths. She was one of four Reading girls who travelled down to train in Newton Abbott on 20 November 1941 although she was unable to recall the names of the others who trained with her. She remembered one or two other women who were relatively local but who had trained at different times. These were Sally Arlott from Bradfield and Edith Acres from Sunningdale. // After the war Gwen met her future husband Walter James Hayes (born 1916 and who had studied at Reading Collegiate School). Although this match saw her marrying into a farming family she did not believe that this was in any way connected with her having served in the W.L.A. She felt that she and Walter would have met and married even if she had not served in these horticultural contexts during the war years. She and Walter farmed Great Lea Farm, Englefield. In this context she was certainly able to capitalise on some of the skills honed and extended during the war. As well as the usual share of day-to-day farm work and responsibilities she also kept chickens and helped to maintain the kitchen garden. // W.L.A. Shoes: Gwen certainly wore her shoes, as evidenced by the fact that they appear quite well worn and have been re-shod. However, she agreed with other reports that these standard issue W.L.A. shoes were not very comfortable. They were never worn for day-to-day work unless it the weather was hot and dry. Indeed, ordinarily she and her fellow workers wore wellington boots. The shoes were also worn for dress occcassions. // W.L.A. Jumper: In discussion of the small appearance of the jumper Gwen was pleased to note that she was very petite when she wore it, a fact supported by a photograph of her taken during her training at Newton Abbott. In this image she is next to another Land Girl who towers above her and whom she remembers as being very tall. Text on the label stitched into the neck of the jumper reads 'N. CORAH AND SONS LTD 1942 SIZE 2'. There was no obvious explanation for the apparent discrepancy between the date of Gwen's enrolement in the W.L.A. and the year of 1942. She acknowledged that it was possible that the jumper had been a replacement or had been swapped with someone else but that she did not remember either of these happening. It is also possible she said that it had been purchased at a later date. // W.L.A. Socks: The socks feature evidence of darning repairs, which were undertaken by Gwen herself. She and her fellow Land Girls were responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of their own clothing. She thought it likely that she would have put in a request for the requisite materials and would have had to collect them centrally before undertaking the repairs. She noted that the socks were indeed very itchy, especially in the summer months. They were worn year-round, both when out working and at dress occasions. // W.L.A. Corduroy Breeches: Gwen did not have an explanation for the flecks of paint on these breeches. She certainly remembers wearing them whilst at work, despite the undamaged condition they are in. // W.L.A. Leggings/Dungarees: Of two patched repairs to this garment, one at the knee had torn again subsequent to it having already been repaired, suggesting that there was extra wear on this particular knee. Gwen noted that she was right-handed and that this may have led to her kneeling more on this knee than on the other. She would have repaired and patched this garment herself, much as she darned her own standard issue socks. In the warmer months the dungarees were sufficient and she only wore knickers underneath rather than wearing her breeches and dungarees. // W.L.A. Coat: She generally wore this coat/jacket whilst off duty. There was nothing of particular significance to note about it beyond this.'
