IHBC’s ‘Heritage from the doorstep’: Land girls hostel in Cheshire, – one of few surviving – listed to mark women’s war work

One of the last remaining Women’s Land Army (WLA) hostels in Cheshire has been given Grade II listed status for being ‘vitally important’ in recognising women’s wartime efforts feeding Britain, reports Cheshire Live.

Cheshire Live writes:

A Women’s Land Army (WLA) hostel in Smallwood, Cheshire, has been listed a Grade II building due to its rare survival over the years.

The WLA, or land girls, were vital in feeding the country during the Second World War and stayed in hostels like these when working.

Accommodation was set up in a range of existing buildings, including country houses and stables and housed up to 48 women.

This purpose-built hostel provided them with a place to eat, sleep and socialise together to avoid becoming isolated at the often, remote farms…

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport awarded the hostel a Grade II listing on the advice of Historic England, in recognition of its historic importance.

Heritage minister Nigel Huddleston said: “We owe a debt of gratitude to the land girls who served during the Second World War and this is a great way to recognise their important contribution to the war effort.”

…In the listing, Historic England said it the building is historically significant for its ‘strong associations with the vitally important wartime work of the Women’s Land Army’.

The rarity of its survival has also been acknowledged ‘as an unus[u]ally intact example of this rare building type, retaining much of its plan-form, original joinery, distinctive glazed entrance and wartime paint scheme’.

Only around 200 purpose-built hostel are thought to have existed and the majority have been lost over the past 75 years, making this hostel in Smallwood a rare case of survival.

The WLA played a key role during the Second World War by producing around 70 per cent of all the food the country needed….

Read more….

For more background see the Guardian article

Further information – the listing assessment was carried out by  IHBC member, Crispin Edwards, Listing Adviser, North Team, Historic England

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