大象传媒

I never really intended to join the Land Army but my two sisters decided they would go, each two years younger than me, so I thought that I couldn鈥檛 be the only one at home. My oldest sister had taken on a man鈥檚 job driving a horse and van, so I felt I had to go. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was hard work. We worked from 5 o鈥� clock in the morning, summer and winter, milking the cows. In the winter we were milking the cows in the cow-shed which was much better. It was nice and cosy. The cows had grown their lovely fur and you put your head in their flanks, your head鈥檚 down and you鈥檙e underneath them, milking by hand into the bucket. The warmth of their body just makes you doze and then you suddenly jump awake. The cows don鈥檛 like the jerk and you get kicked out. I was actually kicked out twice, complete with the milk bucket, only to be told by the cowman in a gruff voice, 鈥淗rrmph! If you were awake in the morning when you get here, that wouldn鈥檛 have happened.鈥� He didn鈥檛 like land-girls but he was glad to have us there to do the work. We finished the milking at about 7.30, then we鈥檇 go back to our digs for our breakfast and then we鈥檇 be back again there at 9. In the summer 鈥� we had double summer time then -we鈥檇 be working right through until 10 or 10.30 at night, harvesting, haymaking and doing all those jobs. But I loved it.

One of the things that was very, very frightening was being out in a field on my own and driving the tractor with a great big iron rake at the back going out raking up after the haymaking, when my lovely, dear horse, Harry, started jumping up and down. I thought 鈥榃hat鈥檚 on earth the matter?鈥� I looked up and it was a V2 bomber almost right overhead. I jumped off this little metal seat on top of the big rake, and got down underneath Harry. I held his rein and brought it straight down so we were eyeball to eyeball, and I lay completely under him. If he had moved, I would have been dragged up with that rake. He just stayed perfectly still and I was looking into him until this V2 went right over, further across the field, and went down. And that was it. I just got up and went back up on the seat and off we went again. But that did unnerve me for quite a time, because if I was out on the tractor on my own, as I had to do - we did all these things 鈥� and I was in the fields completely alone, I鈥檇 look up from time to time just to make sure that there was nothing around me, because I couldn鈥檛 hear much with the tractor going. You could be out there completely on your own, and you wouldn鈥檛 see anyone from perhaps 9.30 to 12.30 or later, before you went back to your digs for your lunch and then back again. But it was a healthy life and I wouldn鈥檛 have changed it.

Our farmer was very good but our cowman really having land-girls around and wouldn鈥檛 never help me crank that tractor in the morning, although the little old man who used to drive the horses would. So I had to learn to do it myself and I don鈥檛 know if it did my shoulders any good! Obviously I couldn鈥檛 do it now but I was much younger then and you felt you were doing your bit. I had a bicycle and used to ride along this lane from our digs to the farm - gosh, I couldn鈥檛 do it these days! -and that was it, we were there.

One day I had great fun abut I had to suffer for it! When we had milked the cows, we cleared out the cow-shed and took it in barrows behind this big place where we could tip it all. Then every so often we had to shovel it all up on to the trailer and take it out to a far part of the field to a big heap, and then eventually they would use this to put into the ground to manure it. I had been doing this so many times with the tractor that it had made these big grooves. One time we were collecting cow dung and then we had to take it out on to the fields. The trailer was completely full and as I was going through with all this, where we鈥檇 we been to-ing and fro-ing, the ground had got so muddy and churned up that I had to put my foot down a bit harder to get through. As I did so, the other land-girl and a boy who used to come in the summer and help, were standing there on their forks, and I threw them both into the dung. They were so wild that they got their forks shovelled the dung all over me so I was smothered in dung! Fortunately, I always wore a beret - a green beret 鈥� so it didn鈥檛 go in my hair but my khaki jacket was covered. The cowman came and growled, 鈥淲hat are you doing with that tractor?鈥� So I had to clean that all out! It鈥檚 amazing but I can still see their faces! They were not at all pleased!

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