大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was working for Cross and Company at the beginning of the war but in 1942 I decided to join the Land Army. I went to an office in Luton, gave them all my details and was sent to Luton Hoo for my training. I was billeted with other girls in a big house, which had been occupied by the gardeners on the estate. Some girls wanted to do horticultural work and others wanted to work with animals, which was what I wanted to do. We did a month鈥檚 training and then I was sent to Wood End Farm at Marston Moreteyne. I went into Bedford to St John鈥檚 Station and caught the train to Millbrook. The farmer sent his daughter to pick me up. I was billeted not at the farmhouse but at another house further up the road, Little Park Farm.

I鈥檇 been taught how to milk cows, so we had milking to do, pigs to look after, we collected eggs that the hens used to lay all over the place and helped with the lovely big farm horses. They used three horses to work on the farm. I loved those, and an old pony called Polly who we managed. On the farm there were two Land Army girls, Albert the cowman, Mick who did all sorts of jobs, Frank and 2 dear old gentlemen, Caleb and little Mr K; they used to look after us two girls. They鈥檇 been farm workers all their lives and were very good at their jobs.

We also had several sows and a boar. Then the farmer bought some goats but they were a bit of a disaster because they had fleas. There were about 30 cows in the herd and I was provided with an old sit up and beg bicycle to go down the road to fetch them in. Each cow knew just where to go in the milking shed and if another one got in the way, she would bump it out the way. Very intelligent animals, and we knew them all. I didn鈥檛 like rounding the animals up on a Saturday to go to Bedford market, because we made friends of them.

The farmer was also a butcher and had a shop in Marston Moreteyne. Every so often he killed a pig and we鈥檇 have black puddings and he鈥檇 give me sausages to take home. Caleb kept a pig and our farmer killed and butchered it at the farm.

The first girl I worked with left to get married. Next came Edie for a few years before she also left to get married. All the women were single; you had to leave if you got married. Other farms in the area had land girls. Some land girls lived in hostels and went out every day to different farms. Our animals needed looking after every day so I stayed on the same farm.

We started milking at 6 o鈥檆lock and then came home for breakfast. After that there were various jobs dependant upon the seasons. In the spring we spent most of our time in the fields, hoeing and weeding crops. We grew mangle-wurzels for the cattle and corn. Hay making was very hard work. The two old gentlemen didn鈥檛 think girls should do this sort of work, but we got on ever so well with them, and they got used to us.

We didn鈥檛 have combine harvesters then, we had the tractor and then the binder went round the fields. We had to go behind and pick up the sheaves of corn and put them in stooks, then we had to break off to do the afternoon milking. In the summer while it was daylight, we went back to do the harvesting. After so long the corn sheaves were gathered up and made into 鈥榬icks. We helped put the sheaves on the carts and the men used to take them and build up the 鈥榬icks. The 鈥榬icks were in the yard at the back of the cowsheds. In the autumn the thrashing machine came round and we鈥檇 see this old steam engine pulling the drum. It would come chug, chug, chugging along the road. The sacks were fixed on the thrashing drum and filled up with corn and then the chaff went in another sack; we girls were in charge of that. We used the chaff for the animal鈥檚 bedding. It was a very dusty job. To stop rats from running up our trousers, we鈥檇 tie them up with string. The farmer had four dogs so that helped. It was very tiring work.

Summer was the hardest and during the first year I got sunstroke. In the autumn we did potato and fruit picking. The winters were cold with snow and mostly the animals were kept in the yards. We had a big heap of cow muck in the farm-yard that the men used to bring out with a horse and cart and we girls had to spread it. We got used to the smell. A lot of time was spent cleaning out. We looked after Polly, she was harnessed to a cart and we used her for all sorts of jobs. She was ever so slow, but she was elderly and she was still there when I left.

We fed the cows on pellets. The mangle-wurzels had to go through a mangle. You turned the handle and chopped them up. We had sheep and they also had the mangle-wurzels. We used the pony for carting the feed to the sheep in the field. They used to stay out in the fields until lambing time. The lambs and calves were lovely. A man used to come walking round the farms with a stallion for servicing the mare. The men used to deal with that as the girls weren鈥檛 supposed to know about that sort of thing in those days. It was a long while before I saw a calf born.

German POWs from Ampthill used to help with the potato picking. They were alright, they were just ordinary men. One or two could understand a bit of English and they had the guards with them to make sure everything was OK.

Occasionally in the summertime we used to walk over the open fields up to Cranfield to go to the pictures. Mick used to come along to look after us. In the evenings we were too tired to do much and we were a long way from the village. We had a bike each and we went up once or twice to the village hall. I used to come home once every other weekend. I鈥檇 get a lift to Bedford, catch the bus to Luton and then home to Dunstable. I鈥檇 leave on a Saturday and had to be back on Sunday night ready to start work on Monday morning.

We got some extra clothing coupons because we lived in uniform. We had 2 pairs of corduroy britches, 2 pairs of khaki overalls, a pair of boots which nearly ruined my feet, walking out shoes, a hat, a green pullover, a tie and an overcoat for the winter. We wore felt armbands. We had a different one every year; they signified how long you had been in the Land Army. The early ones were green with red, and red was for 4 years service. We wore the armbands all the time on our coat sleeves. I鈥檝e kept my tie. We were supposed to wear them when we walked out. I think we had Aertex type blouses. The hat was felt and they were funny things, I never wore mine, I wore a scarf.

After I鈥檇 worked at Wood End for a while I wanted to be nearer home so I got a job at a farm in Barton, it was a beautiful farmhouse surrounded by a moat. There was a small airfield near the farm which I understood belonged to the Luton Flying Club. The farmer had permission to send the cows out onto the airfield to graze. Again there were two of us girls and it was our responsibility to keep the cows off the middle of the airfield, because planes used to land there occasionally. So there we were in the winter, cold as could be looking after cows. It wasn鈥檛 my idea of farm work. I went back to Marston Moreteyne.

I stayed until Christmas 1946. I then went home and worked at AC Delco.

All the land girls from Bedfordshire assembled in Bedford when Princess Elizabeth came. We marched down the high street and passed Princess Elizabeth who was standing on the Corn Exchange steps. We marched past her and then we were all invited back to the Corn Exchange for tea.

I鈥檝e got a certificate from Princess Elizabeth, it reads;
鈥淲ith the compliments of the County Secretary Women鈥檚 Land Army, Harpur St. Bedford.
By this personal message I wish to express to you Miss Catherine Bezant Women鈥檚 Land Army number 74324, my appreciation of your loyal and devoted service as a member of the Women鈥檚 Land Army from 11th May 1942 to 21st December 1946.
Your unsparing efforts at a time when the victory allied cause depended on the utmost use of the resources of our land has earned for you the country鈥檚 gratitude.
Elizabeth R鈥�

I have another certificate that grants my willing release from the Land Army after 4 years and 7 months and another letter which asks me to return my uniform. We were allowed to keep our shoes and I brought home a pair of our britches. My sister was a lovely seamstress and she cut them up and made a pair of trousers for my eldest son.

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