大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Georgina Jarvis of Norfolk Adult Education on behalf of Mavis Saunt and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Mavis Saunt, nee Cockayne. Born Walsall, Nr Birmingham

I started work at Crabtrees, which was an Electrical Firm making switches and electrical gear. I, like most other people heard the news that war had been declared over the radio.

Birmingham and Coventry were both hit very hard during the war and from Walsall during the raids you could see the sky lit up.

I was brought up by my Grandmother, Mrs Morris and she used to take people in if they had been bombed out of house and home.
One of these persons was a young girl named Rosie who had been at a wedding in Birmingham. There had been a direct hit at this wedding and she had lost brothers and sisters totalling 9 in all. Rosie had been in a terrible state but she stayed on with Grandmother who saw her through that awful time. At the age of 19 and still working at Crabtrees I had an accident with a piece of unguarded machinery and as I could no longer continue with that particular job they transferred me into the warehouse which was not a particularly interesting job, so I applied for the Land Army.

My first position in the Land Army was at Great Yarmouth near the beach station where I worked on a milk round. That position didn鈥檛 last long 鈥� 2 days in fact. The farm house was ramshackled: there were cats galore running over the table - it was a most unhygienic sight to a city girl. I went back home.

My next assignment was just outside of Leicester where I stayed and was duly rigged out in the Land Army uniform, beige breeches, serge overcoat and green jumper with a rather natty hat. Nicknames were sewn on to our jumpers; mine was 鈥淧ippa鈥�.

About 60 of us were housed in a Nissan hut, which had a boiler at either end. These were either coke or coal fuelled. Every morning we were out on our bikes to cycle to the nearest job and if the job was too far away then we were transported by lorry. A lot of the labour was undertaken in the Brooksby area (between Leicester and Melton Mowbray). Work was done during hail, rain or shine and we had very few days off. We did potato picking, hoeing, weeding, setting cabbages, planting and also loaded the threshing machine with pitchforks full of wheat. We drove the tractors and ploughed the fields, everything in fact that the farm labourer did. We worked alongside German Prisoners of War who were always courteous and helpful. There was always somebody in charge of the operation and their job consisted of counting us in and out of work. The food which we lived on was very plain - lots of stews with little meat and plenty of vegetables to fill us up. For light entertainment we went to milk bars where we drank milkshake and talked. We also went dancing in the village hall at Syston (N.E of Leicester) where the local band played to us.

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