Wartime in the Cotswolds

Come and visit our nostalgic 1940’s weekend at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway. 2022’s event will have an emphasis on the Home Front. Transport yourself back to September 1940 and imagine you are waiting for a train at a small station on the Great Western Railway. Children are being evacuated, soldiers are going back to barracks and aircrew are heading off to airfields in the South and West. “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile.”

Life in a typical Cotswold village would have seen the Women’s Land Army working on the farms. Men joining the Local Defence Volunteers, becoming Air Raid Wardens or joining the Auxiliary Fire Service. The Women’s Institute, very much part of village life, saw the women knitting and making jam. The Gloucestershire Federation of the Women’s Institutes was requested by the Government to grow 25 ton of onions and 15 ton of outdoor tomatoes in this County. The Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Women’s Voluntary Services and the Red Cross all did their bit for the war effort.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend the weekend in British 1940’s period dress, either military or civilian.