Women’s Voluntary Service

The women of the district were at the heart of the wartime effort at home. The Women’s Voluntary Service galvanised the work of the Women’s Institutes and other organisations to boost the production of essential supplies, raise money for the war, and train women in essential first aid. They also helped to arrange the billeting of evacuees to homes in the district.

Under the WVS, the district’s women produced bandages and dressings for the big city hospitals, made clothing for the fighting forces and for prisoners of war, and knitted large quantities of essential garments.

In 1942 alone, the local Knitting Depot produced more than 2,000 garments: pullovers, socks, mittens, and balaclavas. As in World War One, they collected sphagnum moss from the moors for use in field dressings. They even made camouflage nets.

The WVS also coordinated the growing and collecting of fruit and vegetables from gardens and hedgerows, to be sold in regular produce stalls, raising money for the war effort.