Great Welnetham Rally, Sunday 27th April 08.
Report by Ian Hewlett
The theme of this years rally was to pay tribute to the dedication and hard work of the women who served in the Land Army during WWII, and allow the people of Suffolk to say thank you to the members of Britain’s forgotten army who did so much for this country, and yet received so little in return.
We all arrived at the rally in our red TR’s and parked up together. The weather was a bit changeable and the hoods were going up and down like yo-yos.
There were at least 50 classic and kit cars at the rally ranging from vintage to a replica of Knight Rider car “KITT”. The rally had a number of army vechicals created scences from the Land Army era.
All the normally fete stalls were placed around an arena and there was a collection of tractors, a Jazz swing band, beer tent, barbecue and a fairground organ. There was a number of parades in the arena including us, were we spoke to the crowd about our cars.
Earlier in the day, the world of the 1940s was brought back to life in the heart of Bury St Edmunds in honour of the girls of the Women's Land Army. A civic reception were a specially designed commemorative badge was formally presented to more than 30 Land Army girls. A good turn out of local resiedents cheering them on as the ladies were given a tour of the town in vintage cars and military vechicles. Some young ladies dressed in Land Army uniforms, bringing a real 1940s feel to the day.
Women's Land Army fact file:
The Land Army was set up in 1915 by the Board of Agriculture - by the end of 1917 more than 260,000 women were working as farm laborers.
By the end of the Second World War there were 80,000 members of the WLA.
The WLA was disbanded in 1950.
