Jun 153 min read

Suffolk Women's Land Army Tea Party at Saxham Hall raises £3,000 for a lasting memorial!

Sunday 9th June 2024 was a jam-packed afternoon with exhibition, displays, Suffolk Punches, tractors, living history and of course cake!

The highlight for the day was undoubtedly the presentation of the wonderful 'Certificate of Thanks' to Veterans and families that we had commissioned and signed by Lady Clare, Countess of Euston - Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk! These were presented by Deputy Lieutenant Air Vice Marshall David Murray CVO OBE.

We were so honoured to be in the presence of three wonderful Veteran land girls who are 95-99 years young respectively and we had both the BBC and ITV broadcasting highlights from the event and we also had radio interviews lined up before and after the event with BBC Suffolk and Suffolk Sounds.

The Hall looked superb! We took over the main entrance Hall, which proved to be a beautiful space for our mannequins, tables and display boards all telling wonderful service stories of Suffolk, which then lead onto the main reception and entertaining area which was the screening and speeches room.

Holly Brega’s documentary ‘The Land Girls and Horses of Suffolk’ was screened three times throughout the day and there were many questions asking what is the next film project. All we can say now is, watch this space…

The exhibition looked fantastic and the lawn outside was covered with marquees bustling with tea drinkers and miles of bunting, kindly set up by the Barrow Benefice.

We had a superb tractor and trailer set up for photographs and Coxwell Stud jumped in amazingly after a last-minute cancellation and brought their wonderful Suffolk Punch mare called Coxwell Rose and her 6 week old foal Coxwell Golden Honeybee, who delighted the crowds of visitors. The wonderful Nigel Oakley also joined us for the afternoon.

The lovely 1941 Farmall tractor which was brought over here as part of the Lend Lease Agreement from America.

We also had fantastic raffle prizes lined up from local businesses including the Theatre Royal in Bury, The Open College of Equine Studies, SheGrowsVeg and the Food Museum, plus many more!

A huge thanks goes out to all our fantastic sponsors who have made generous donations that have helped us make the day a truly remarkable event. A massive thank you goes out today to the Soil Cinderellas - the living historians who helped make our day run so smoothly, and what an enjoyable day it was too!

Thank you to Julia Eversden our WVS welfare worker who kept us all fed and watered whilst we were flat out and saleswoman extraordinaire! Pauline Aa, Fiona Benson and Lisa Marie Edwards who were splendid curators in the exhibitions; talking to visitors and answering their questions, Michelle Alana for being Raffle and 'Merch Meister' and Carrie Page for delighting visitors with her knitted land girls, and the army of felt rats that had everybody talking.

A big shout out too to the boys Joe and Michael who are always so ready to help out and lend a hand on the land! In the WLA tent not only did we have an amazing raffle, but we had signed copies of Holly Brega's children's book 'Chesnut and Daphne'. Illustrator John Thurman was also on site providing wonderful music for the occasion! Thank you, John!

On behalf of Trustees Nicky, Vicky, Sue and Holly we just want to say thank you to everyone who came along and supported our event. With special thanks to the Barrow Benefice and Saxham Team Lynda, Steve, Sue, Suzie and Alison.