大象传媒

I joined up the Land Army at 19 years of age. This was as soon as WW2 was declared; I always wanted to work on the land and I was interested in growing things.

I was sent straight away to a dairy farm, because I could drive, and drivers were required to deliver milk to schools and houses locally in Nailsworth. I started work at 6am and lodged with a local chapel parson in Box, nearby, where I had to walk to the farm in the dark. This would be in the autumn of 1939. The milk was already in the cooler by then, so it was my job to put the milk into the bottles. We had a proper bottling plant which did this. We loaded bottles into crates and loaded these into the delivery van and set off around the villages around Nailsworth schools and houses.

I worked with another girl, and after the first round we came back to the house for a cooked breakfast of eggs and toast. Then we went on our 2nd round of deliveries. After this we washed the bottles using brushes then we put them in a steriliser (a large steam cabinet). Then we sent home at 2pm and had lunch. Then we had to do another round, this was a third service for people, as this was special Jersey milk and people paid more for it. We finished about 5pm having washed the bottles we collected.

In January 1940 I was called up to go to Cannington College, to learn all aspects of farming and growing and harvesting crops.

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