February 14, 19 18 
Land & Water 
9 
Women's Village Councils : By F. G. Hamilton 
Till we have built Jerusalem 
In England's green and pleasant land. 
AT a meeting held at the Old Wattle House, on the 
Fair Green, Findon, a little South Downs 
village, the first of the Women's Village Councils 
was formed on October 2nd, 1917, with the 
purpose of assisting the Rural District CouncU 
by a voluntary inquiry into village needs, present and future, 
in connection with the Local Government Board's State-aided 
Housing Scheme. The demand made for fifty State-aided 
cottages was based on an analysis by the vicar, who has 
long experience of the various causes of the housing shortage 
and of the evils arising from it. 
It is now evident that this small local effort has become, 
almost unconsciously, the pioneer of a great movement for 
the development of the rur(i woman, and, through her agency 
and personality, of the country side. In rapid succession 
other Women's Village Councils were formed in West Sussex, 
each with its peculiar local features, but with a common 
aim ; in Norfolk, West Runton is leading the way. Inquiries 
are pouring in from all parts of England as to the formation, 
methods and scope of these voluntary Councils. 
The idea of reconstruction is grasped slowly in the country 
where a healthy clash of opinion is rare, and the mission of 
the W.V.C.'s is to act as searchlights on bad conditions, and 
then to use their influence and power for their removal and 
the substitution of better things. 
As originally formed, the first W.V.C. had for its single aim 
the building of fifty State-aided cottages after the war through 
the agency of the Rural District Council, in a village where 
the accommodation fell short of requirements present and 
future. It was seen, however, that to achieve this end, and 
to have a real share in development on progressive lines, that 
more woman-power would be necessary on Parish, R-ural 
District and County Councils. Maternity and chUd welfare 
came naturally into the thoughts of a body composed mainly 
of mothers, and Mr. Herbert Fisher's Act, the rationing of 
education as it has been wittily called, dealing with children 
of all ages, made it imperative to give education a place. The 
Findon Women's Village Council declared their aims to be : 
To obtain first-hand information of great value to the nation 
on conditions of housing, maternity and child welfare, and 
education under the new Act. 
To enable the genuine working woman to educate herself to 
take her place on Parish, Rural District, and County Councils, 
The W.V.C. consists at present of nity members (to be 
added to) who have elected a President, a respected village 
mother, who has suffered great family losses in the war, two 
Joint Hon. Secretaries and an Hon. Treasurer. Fortunately, 
finance plays a small part in local work, though the expenses 
of the Federation * are growing. 
The following resolution was passed unanimously at Findon, 
and it is hoped will be sent forward by all other W.V.C.'s 
on their formation : 
We have pleasure in reporting to the Local Government 
Board that the Findon Women's Village Council (for the 
purpose of collecting evidence for the State-aided housing 
scheme) has been formed by general notice, and we beg that 
we may be recognLsed as representing working women in 
Findon, and we ask that we may be consulted in all reforms 
and schemes connected with our village. 
Copies of the resolution were sent to the Parish, Rural 
District and County Councils. With the exception of the 
latter Council, the only replies received have been bare printed 
or typed acknowledgments, officialism remaining strongly 
entrenched behind red-tape entanglements. A simple consti- 
tution, on broad lines, was drawn up and voted upon by the 
members of the W.V.C, the ordinary business procedure being 
observed at aU Council meetings. 
A Federation of Councils has been formed to give unity and 
weight to the movement, and in addition, an advisory council 
of experts, on wjiich men and women have equally been invited. 
A cottage survey form has been drawn up by Mr. Henry 
Chapman, suitable for amateur use, yet sufficiently technical 
for professional, and to be a convincing record of conditions. 
In one of the villages such a survey has been carried out in 
fifty-three " open " cottages, no " tied " cottages belonging 
to landowners or tenant farmers have been visited, it being 
understood that these are of modern construction, and in fair 
repair. The analysis of the fifty-three good and bad cottages 
gives these facts : That the internal arrangements do not 
* Further information of the W.V.C. Federation can be obtained from 
the Hon. Sees., Mrs. Hamilton and Miss Mackenzie, Kyleinore, Findon, 
Sussex. 
correspond, except in the newest cottages, with the external 
appearance of the structure and roof. In forty-three the 
water supply is unfiltered rain water, there being neither 
company's water, nor main drainage in the village. In twenty- 
two damp comes up from the ground, sixteen have damp walls, 
five have no back doors, ^twenty-nine have no sinks for 
waste, every drop of water has to be thrown out on the 
garden, washing days, bath nights, every day, and all day. 
Only ten of the fifty-three possess three bedrooms, in thirty- 
seven the sanitation is so primitive that it hardly deserves the 
name ; there is no gas ; kitchen ranges have been fitted in 
most cottages, but there are bedrooms with no fireplaces. 
The pre-war wages of the tenants are generally given as 
25s. — though there are higher and lower scales. Rents vary 
from 2s. to 5s. bd., when rates at 6s. in the £ are added. 
Already the action of the W.V.C.'s is evoking hope for the 
future in the trenches, and stimulating the wives and mothers 
to greater effort. Where bad " tied " cottages are known 
to exist the W.V.C. wiU bring them under the observation 
of the local medical Officers of Health and Sanitary Inspectors. 
In theory, these officers are independent, but official and 
social considerations make it extremely difficult for them to 
press a point where a recommendation is disregarded or 
disallowed. Some system of inspection by independent 
surveyors is absolutely necessary if conditions suitable to 
maternity and child welfare are even to be approached and 
the nation's children are to become the nation's care. It 
must be considered how narrow and self-centred the outlook 
on general affairs becomes in rural districts, coloured by local 
interests, and held in check by fear ; but where child life is 
concerned, the results are found to be so sure and deadly that 
the W.V.C. count on national support in their demands and 
effort for betterment. 
That fifty-three tenants in a village should have offered 
their cottages for survey is a striking proof of the newly- 
formed determination to fight these evils, and of the desire 
for homes with some of the ordinary conveniences and comforts 
of civilisation, the absence of which involve daily drudgery 
and are often an offence to decency. 
On this point too much praise cannot be. given to village 
mothers for their struggle to uphold a good moral standard 
in their children under many difficulties. These women have 
often been in comfortable service before marriage, and feel 
the contrast of surroundings acutely. Unfortunately, their 
very efforts to preserve appearances have beSn detrimental 
to real improvement — the unseen is the unguessed at. The 
district nurse gets behind the scenes, but in many neigh- 
bourhoods she does not yet exist. 
When State-aided building begins there must be a strong 
resolve to put the interests of children first ; they must be 
saved from fly-polluted food in cottages " close to stables," 
from long tramps to school in mud, rain, snow, or summer sun 
from their homes, placed in some remote spot for the con- 
venience of a labourer's work. Young mothers must be within 
reach of doctor and nurse. Provision wiU have to be made 
by landowners for subsidiary industries necessary to their 
estates — for example, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, builders, 
.masons and those tradesmen who supply the workers' wants. 
The " open " cottages are at present overcrowded with these 
men and their families, and those employed in local industries. 
The case of week-end cottages will have to be considered ; 
they are negligible as regards reasons of shortage, but have a 
bearing on village life. The habit, by no means an un- 
mitigated evil, may prove the salvation of many a charming 
old dweUing, not ill-adapted for week-end use in summer, 
though unsuited as a home for a young family. 
These considerations are familiar to the country women, 
to whom the separation allowances have, for the first time, 
given a measure of independence, and this freedom, further 
extended by her potential value as a voter, helps to explain 
the startling rapidity with which a new movement is gaining 
ground. The Women's Village Councils formed of women 
who live in cottages, claim to play a considerable part in the 
reformation of rural England. 
There was a notice in our issue of January 31 si of the New 
English Art Club, which contained reproductions of certain 
pictures now on exhibition. Owing to a regretttfble mistake 
two pictures were wrongly described. " The Storm," by Professor 
William Rothenstein, should have appeared under the lower 
illustration, the upper illustration being " Whernside," by 
C. J. Holmes. We much regret this mistake, which we under- 
stand has given rise to some confusion in the minds of our readers. 
