Land Girls remembered in village poppy tribute

A spectacular poppy display in a rural village has been expanded for its second year, with wooden silhouettes erected to raise awareness of the Women's Land Army (WLA) and its local significance.

The Remembrance display at St Andrew's Church, in Heddington, near Calne, Wiltshire, includes more than 12,000 poppies, many affixed to a net descending from the church tower, along with painted poppies stuck in the ground.

The new silhouettes, including depictions of a horse, two soldiers and two Land Girls, are intended to remain up until after Remembrance Day, weather permitting.

Local resident Liz Woodlands said the local contributions of the WLA deserved to be remembered.

During both world wars, the WLA recruited women to work in agriculture, replacing men who had been conscripted into the military. They were commonly known as Land Girls.

"We're a rural village, a working farm village even now, and I thought, 'How can we show that in our display?' and I found out about the Land Girls," Woodlands added.

"We had seven who either lived or worked in the village and we were fortunate enough to trace the grandchildren of one of them, Edith Bolingbrook, who was evacuated from Hastings to Heddington during the war."

She added the display had been a community effort, with schoolchildren helping to paint individual poppies.

Edith's granddaughter, Kim Duffell, said: "It was nice to hear that the land army girls are being spoken about and remembered.

"I found out about the event on Facebook and was wondering what was going on."

"[Edith] never talked about herself really, she was quite a proud lady, but it's interesting to learn more and it keeps the history alive about what women did in the war."

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