Skip to main content

Women's Land Army (Hostel, Halesworth)

Volume 387: debated on Tuesday 23 March 1943

The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he has considered the complaint of 29 lands girls living at an East Suffolk war agricultural hostel at Halesworth, Suffolk, that they have no meals between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., and not enough hot drinks; and what action he proposes to take to remedy this?

The Land Army volunteers living in the Halesworth Hostel, Suffolk, like most other agricultural workers who go out daily from hostels, have an early breakfast before leaving, and the main meal of the day on their return from work. They take a packed luncheon with them, consisting of sandwiches, meat pies, cheese and so forth, and I believe the quantities provided are adequate. The Land Army volunteers at Halesworth were equipped with a thermos flask apiece so that a hot drink could be taken out with the packed luncheon, but most of these flasks have been broken and replacements are difficult to obtain. Where it is not practicable to provide individual hot drinks but the girls are working near a farmhouse, tea and sugar are supplied and arrangements made, if possible, for tea to be made at the farm for the whole party.