A NEW lead has emerged in a project which seeks to commemorate the work of wartime “lumberjills” in a North East forest.
The Forestry Commission, Groundwork Northeast and Friends of Chopwell Wood want to highlight the stories of female forest workers posted to Chopwell Wood, in Gateshead, during the war and who helped supply desperately needed timber.
A faded 1941 photograph has been given to the project by the family of a woman from Barnard Castle who served in the 900-acre wood.
Now help is needed in identifying the people in the picture.
Liz Searle, from Friends of Chopwell Wood, said: “It could help us in our search for more information on the wood’s wartime history. It’s becoming quite a detective job and we are following leads from across the country.”
The picture is titled Home Grown Timber Department, the organisation which preceded the Women’s Timber Corps.
The aim of the project is to collect the experiences of members of the Women’s Timber Corps at Chopwell Wood, who carried out tasks such as felling, crosscutting and measuring logs, working with horses, loading timber on to trucks, driving vehicles and operating sawmills.
The corps was set up in 1942 as an offshoot of the Land Army.
Joanne Norman, senior project officer for Groundwork North East, said: “The work of the lumberjills is an important part of the history of Chopwell, but very little is known about it. Their stories will help us write another chapter in the history of the wood and recognise their contribution.”
Pam Warhurst, chairwoman of Forestry Commission England, said: “The great efforts of lumberjills must be one of the last unrecognised stories of the war. We forget how vital timber was to the war effort and yet so little is known about the women who kept the nation’s forestry working.”
During the war, almost 5,000 young women joined the Women’s Timber Corps.
A female forester was expected to wield a 6lb axe, and produce enough timber to supply timber for uses such as pit props, telegraph poles, road blocks, ships masts, railway sleepers, gun mats, mobile tracking to support tanks, ladders, and newsprint.
Anybody with information about the photo or anyone in it should contact Joanne Norman on 0191 5672550 or email joanne.norman@groundwork.org.uk.
