The Land Girls film and take-away resource project 

Students from Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Hove took part in a project based around The Land Girls: Cinderellas of the Soil exhibition that was held at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery between October 2009 and March 2010.

They were set a brief to create two products for the exhibition: a film interview with former land girls and a take-away resource for exhibition visitors based around the idea of collecting memories about wartime experiences.

The project started with the young people investigating World War II and the contribution made by the Women’s Land Army.  They worked with various members of museum staff to develop their interview skills and create a list of questions that they felt really got to the heart of what it was like to be a land girl:

• Why did they decide to become land girls?
• How they settled into life in the countryside and dealt with the dangers of work on the land?
• Did they like wearing trousers?
• Were there any scandals?
• Did they ever break the rules?

They then met the former land girls and spent a rewarding and busy day conducting and filming their interviews.  Following the filming day they worked with a film–maker to edit their interviews into a 20 minute film that was shown in the exhibition.

The second part of the project was to design the take-away gallery resource.  The young people worked in small groups to develop different ideas which they pitched to the museum exhibition team.  The selected ideas were then worked up into a brief for a graphic designer to transform into the finished resource.

What did the young people think about the project?

'(I enjoyed) meeting and getting to know the Land Girls. Age didn’t matter!'

'I was surprised to discover how friendly these lovely ladies are! I was a bit nervous about today, but I’m not anymore! I’m really glad I have met them.'

'I learned how to listen to others and found out that you can find out a lot when you listen.'

'I actually learned that by looking at photos you can find out more about history than you think.'

'I had never heard of the Land Girls until I had started this project and I found them incredibly interesting because once the men had left the country it was up to the women to keep the country afloat, by growing vegetables or milking cows and getting it to shops and stores.'

Back to top