Stuart Antrobus

Bedfordshire Women's Land Army Home

Stuart Antrobus is a social history researcher and former adult education tutor.

His interest in the Women's Land Army arose out his research into life on the Home Front during the Second World War.

From 2001 to 2004 he was employed on the Heritage Lottery-funded oral history project in Bedfordshire, "Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives". Other research work has included both documentary and oral history research for Bedfordshire County Council on their industrial heritage sites at Stevington Windmill and Bromham Mill, Bedford.

As well as extensive research in the major national and local archives on the Women's Land Army in the 1940s, Stuart has conducted a personal oral history project, talking to scores of former land girls. Through these and a number of reminiscence sessions in Bedford with both private farm and "War Ag" - employed former Land Girls in Bedfordshire, he has gained a unique insight into their lives and conditions. Through donations of photographs and other documents, he has built up a broad-ranging archive which he has used to illustrate and inform this Internet publication.

Over 200 women who were Bedfordshire land girls have completed questionnaires. Through research in the Imperial War Museum archives plus "The Land Girl" magazine, local newspapers and personal photo albums, he has "recovered" the maiden names of over 3,000 land girls who served in the county between 1 June 1939 and 30 November 1950. Eighteen detailed, tape-recorded interviews by Stuart with former Bedfordshire Land Girls have been deposited in the Sound Archive of the Imperial War Museum.

His research is on-going and if you can help to fill in gaps and provide further information on Bedfordshire Women's Land Army, please respond by using the interactive email facility below.

His definitive history of the Women's Land Army in Bedfordshire is published as "We wouldn't have missed it for the world".

E-mail: stuartantrobus@btinternet.com

or write to Stuart Antrobus, c/o Bedford Central Library, Harpur Street, Bedford, MK40 1PG

or leave a brief telephone message and your number, for Stuart Antrobus, via
Bedford Central Reference Library: Tel. 01234 718168

Page last updated: 17th October 2013