Virginia Woolf, WI Treasurer

I recently read an excellent book called “Square Haunting” by Francesca Wade. If you’re interested in London between the wars and women who flaunted society rules to live the life that they wanted, this is the book for you. The book focusses on five different women, all of whom lived in Mecklenburgh Square at some point. The most famous of those residents was Virginia Woolf, and it covers both her time in the square and in the village of Rodmell, where she was to take her own life in 1941.

The book reveals that when she was living in Rodmell, Virginia was a frequent visitor to her local village hall. This was because, quite surprisingly, she became a member of the Women’s Institute. It would be easy to imagine that she would see herself as being above such things, and perhaps occasionally she did get frustrated.

“We’re acting village plays; written by the gardener’s wife, and the chauffeur’s wife; and acted by other villagers.”

Wade makes reference to Virginia’s diary entry about the above activity:

“My contribution to the war is the sacrifice of pleasure: I’m bored: bored and appalled by the readymade commonplaces of these plays: which they can’t act unless we help.”

However, despite her boredom, she continued to be involved in the running of the WI and became Treasurer. We all like to feel useful, never mind from what lofty heights we see ourselves descending. I found the following newspaper clip from the Sussex Agricultural Express in the British Newspaper Archive:

Rodmell Village Hall still exists and has its own website.

http://www.rodmellvillagehall.net/

Unfortunately it looks as though it has been rebuilt since Virginia’s day, so we can’t imagine her wearily entering the front door, ready for another wartime night of amateur theatricals.

There's more 1940s village life in my escapist novella, Temporary Accommodation

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