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WITH THE WAR IMMINENT

With the war imminent, I looked around for what I could do to help. I had family so it was difficult for me to join the women’s armed services, so I decided to apply for the Land Army, and on September 16th 1939, I found myself as one of the first 1,000 girls on my way to a two week training course at Bardwell, which was quite a long way from my home in Higham Park, near Chingford in Essex.

I went down there on the train with another girl. I was quite fit which was just as well, as two hours after arriving, I found myself in a field in charge of two very big Shire horses, as we worked the crops. I was a bit nervous because the horses were so big, and after a couple of hours the children from the farm came across to me and said ‘Miss, be careful of that horse — he killed my Father last summer!’.

The other girl I travelled with, went home after a couple of days as she was not that fit, and could not cope with the work. After two weeks I went back home and to my job at the council.

I was then ‘called up’, and sent to Avoncroft College near Bromsgrove, for more training. I wanted to work in the horticultural department, but the staff decided that I would train as a tractor driver, which I did on a Fordson. I was sent to live and work on a fruit farm at Drakes Broughton, near Pershore. The farmer showed me his tractor which was a Caterpillar type, which I had never seen before. It tracks like an army tank and you had to steer it with leavers. The man who was to show me how, was drunk when he arrived, so I just had to read the instruction manual myself, and get on with it the next morning.

Being one of the first Land Army girls we were a novelty, and the men on the farm used to play tricks on us. One day they changed all the plug leads over on the tractor so that it would not start, but I soon sorted it out, and after that they left me alone.

I was there for five years, and it was very heavy. hard work, but I got to meet with lots of other people. Gypsies used to help us pick and pack the fruit, and take it to market in Pershore in a lorry, which I also had to drive.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Woodhouse (volunteer) of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Dorothy Kennedy (author) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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