大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥� War by a volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf ofRuth Packer,and has been added to the site withher permission.Ruth Packer fully understands the site.s terms and conditionsAgriculture

Ruth's memory of the war is;

Land Army

They sent you papers, you had to go down to this office in the town and sign to say you know how old you were, and your willing to go. We thought that because we were working in the woollen mills, they wouldn鈥檛 call us up you see. However they did, and we had four choices. Munitions, well none of us were going into munitions, from one factory to the next, I mean it was probably to go to somewhere like Manchester. The Land Army, the NAAFI or the ATS I think. Anyway, we decided no we weren鈥檛 going to go into any of those, this other girl and myself, sort of best friend that were working with. We decided Land Army, so then we just had to wait until they sort of sent for us. We went back to work then in the mills, thinking oh well you know we鈥檙e doing a war job you know, weaving the cloth for the uniforms and that, and they鈥檒l not send for us. But however they did, and our papers came to go together, and we were going to go to Penzance in Cornwall. But at that time I鈥檇 had all my teeth out, and I hadn鈥檛 been able to get the the false set. So I went back to the office and said 鈥渨ell look I don鈥檛 particularly want to go all that way鈥� and they said 鈥� oh all right then, we鈥檒l um hang onto your papers, and keep them for a month. But your friend, she鈥檒l have to go, so she went down to Penzance in Cornwall. And then I said to them when I go, I want to still go to this place, you know where my friend had gone.

When I eventually came, it was to come here to Llanishen in Chepstow, a place I鈥檇 never heard of you see, and never heard of Chepstow either. I was the only one from Huddersfield. They sent you your uniform, so you had to dress up in your uniform. And I got on the train in Huddersfield, and the next stop was Morley. So you looked on the station platform to see if there was anybody in uniform, you know in the Land Girls, and these three girls got on there. Louie Barker Dorothy Barker, and Dorothy Hayter, and the Louie Barker and the Dorothy Barker were not sisters or any relations. But they lived in same place, Morley I don鈥檛 think they even knew each other before they met going on the train. Then we picked up another girl, Mavis Brown in Leeds. And then the train went on and stopped at Rotherham, and we picked up May Jones, and I can鈥檛 remember the rest now.

But being November it was winter, and dark and dismal and it was dark by the time we got to Chepstow. This open backed lorry with a canvas on the top, was stood outside the station waiting to pick us up. So we all piled in the back of this lorry, there was ten of us altogether. We thought we鈥檇 gone a long way from the station to the cinema, just you know, it isn鈥檛 far is it? But then we thought we鈥檇 gone a long way, and they were all shouting hurray! hurray! there鈥檚 a cinema anyway. Of course it was black out as well you see, there was no lights anywhere. But the lorry kept going, and kept on going for miles and miles, and we got further out into the country and there wasn鈥檛 a light anywhere. So we wondered where we were going, but anyway we all enjoyed it in the end. We found then when we got there, there was sixteen Newcastle girls there, they鈥檇 been there a fortnight.

The hostel at Llanishen was a purpose built hostel, just built of brick one brick thick, and there was metal windows. Got no central heating or anything. It was built sort of a long area and then more like a square area, and then another long narrow area. The furthest block was the dormitory, and that was divided up, well it was divided up with furniture really. Like the bunk beds would be against the wall and then you鈥檇 have a little walk-in way, and then would be a wardrobe, a wardrobe, and in the middle a dressing table. So that was a wardrobe each, and share the dressing table one or two drawers each with a mirror on it. Now backing onto that, was the same a dressing table and two wardrobes, and then little walk-way and then two more bunk beds. And I believe then, yes there was a brick partition. So how many of you were in that dormitory? Twenty-six. Yes and at the far end of that dormitory there was four little rooms. Our lorry driver she had one room, that was her room, another room was what they termed the sick bay, oh maybe there was only two then, perhaps it was only two rooms at the end. And in the middle bit, that was the ablution area where the bathrooms and the toilets were and a section of big square sinks where you did your washing, everything had to be hand washed. Then on again was the kitchen there was a big hatch where they served the food, and then on from that again on the other end was the Matron鈥檚 sitting room and bedroom. And she was a lovely, Miss Phillips her name was.

And there wasn鈥檛 any sort of entertainment there, the only entertainment you could do was go across into the pub and when twenty odd Land Girls got in the pub, there was a noise! Of course all the boys congregated there as well, and you can imagine they came from far afield, from Itton up to Llanishen, or Catbrook. That was the first time I鈥檇 ever been in a pub, when I went to Llanishen, all I used to do at home was go to Chapel, and activities connected with the Sunday School and the Chapel.

They had a cook, and she was a local local person, Edna she lived next door to Mrs Ferney. We always had cooked evening meal, we always had a cooked breakfast as well. There was a big hatch, serving the food through from the kitchen. And underneath the hatch was a big table. They put out on that table the bread and the stuff to butter. You had to make your own sandwiches you see, for mid-day. And every day they鈥檇 try to put out something different, you know like tinned meat one day or tinned fish or paste, or something like that every day. But there was always jam and cheese put out. So we had breakfast in the hostel, then we had our sandwiches out, and then we came home and we had a cooked tea.

We started work at half past seven, and depending where the girls were working, they would drop you off en route you see. Sometimes you鈥檇 drop one girl off at a place, sometimes there鈥檇 be six seven eight or more, it all depended what job the farmer wanted doing. And you stayed there doing that job until it was finished, and them you鈥檇 have another job to go to next morning. The head office was, I think it was in Newport. And our lorry driver was sort of the one that allocated the work out, she got the the messages for jobs from Newport. But my work for the first three months was working over at Coombe Farm, down the back of Shirenewton. It was two Jones batchelor brothers, Bryn Jones and Danny Jones lived there with their Mother. And they used to grow a lot of potatoes, and that鈥檚 our first job. They were picking potatoes, they were always behind with their work. it was November, we were getting them up whenever weather permitting, I mean it was nasty weather most of the time. There鈥檚 a shed they said you can sit in there and have your meal, you know your your lunch, but we never got a hot drink.

That鈥檚 where I spent my first at least three months, working at Coombe Farm. Now they always dropped us off in rotation, we might have dropped a couple off in Devauden, en route. And then they would say well we鈥檒l pick you up whatever, you know in the evening. Depending how far they had to go and drop off, after they鈥檇 dropped us. They would go and pick those up, and pick us up en route coming back. Well if we we finished at 5 o鈥檆lock, and if it was a long way out that she started picking up at 5 o鈥檆lock, we used to say well we鈥檒l walk to meet you, and several times we walked up to Shirenewton before and then waited for the lorry in Shirenewton. Rather than just stand, and we knew that we鈥檇 get home all that much quicker.

But then what other jobs did we do, haymaking we did a lot of haymaking, and corn harvesting, then toward the winter again it was thrashing. Because they used to stack the the corn in ricks they called them in the fields, cover them up with sheets and then do the thrashing in the winter, dusty horrible job that was. Then in the spring and the summer time the jobs then were hoeing. I mean you go into a field, a big field, and you鈥檝e got all these rows of swede they were mainly, and mangols they used to grow. They鈥檇 sown them in these drills, and they were too thick so you had to go and and hoe them you see, hoe them all out by hand. If it was a big concern then there might be six or eight in a gang you see, and there might have been some girls from Mount Ballan at the same farm. So if a farmer wanted more girls than they had in the one hostel available, then they would ring the other hostel and see if they had any spare girls and send them from there as well to make up the numbers. There weren鈥檛 any of our girls went to farms and slept or anything. They all went daily, some went to a farm and they might have gone on their own, because that farmer just wanted help with his milking and cleaning out the cow sheds and things like that. But mostly they went working in gangs.

The big house at Mount Ballan that was filled up with Land Girls, and there was another Land Army Hostel exactly built like ours at Llandevaud, and there was one in Raglan. They were all built the same, like a long narrow bit, and then a square bit in the middle, and then another long narrow bit. You could always tell, oh that鈥檚 a Land Army Hostel.

There was there was a War Ag Depot at Itton just at the top of the road where Harry lived, Billy Hodges was one of the foremen, from Pant-y-Cosyn

We had two sets of clothes really, working clothes and going out clothes. We did have our Civvie living clothes, we used to go out on weekends in that, but we had two lots of Land Army Clothes. We had dungarees, which were made of like a heavy linen sort of material, they were bib and bracer things. Then we had smocks we called them, loose coat smocks to come over, they were three quarter length. And the going out clothes were corduroy breeches, with knitted woollen socks, and we had a greatcoat, similar but they weren鈥檛 quite so long as the army greatcoats, ours was sort of three quarter length. A green woollen jumper and ecru coloured shirt, and a land army tie. We didn鈥檛 work in the ties, but we worked in the shirts, I think they provided us with three shirts

They had Supervisors and of course the Farmers kept an eye on you. If you were working six eight or ten of you together, there was what they called a Gang Leader. One person responsible for the gang sort of thing. A lot of the farmers, I mean you were there to work, and they were paying you to work, and you had to work whether it was raining or what! In the dormitory there were two of these round stoves, tortoise shell stoves, We just put our wet things on the backs of chairs around these stoves and dried them the best we could.

You didn鈥檛 get any gratuities, you know like the forces people got, lump sum of money sort of gratuity, you didn鈥檛 get anything like that when you left the Land Army. All we got was a hat, a pair of shoes, a shirt, and your overcoat. That鈥檚 all they let you keep out of your uniform. The rest, it all had to go back

Personal Events

Once you鈥檇 got a particular boyfriend, you went for walks with your boyfriend, and then perhaps came back to the pub to have a drink. I met Harry at a dance in Trelleck, he played in a local band there was a local band like from Itton. Molly Haines played the piano, Sid Powell he lives at the Argoed at now at Shirenewton, it was The Sid Powell Band, he played the Piano Accordion, Donald Sunderland from St Arvans his mother and father kept the Post Office in St Arvans, he was in the band I forgotten what instrument he played, and Harry played the drums. And they used to go around playing at local gigs. This one particular night they were playing at this village hall in Trelleck, and that鈥檚 when I first met him.

The Town

Well it was either stay in Llanishen with only the pub to go to, or if there was a dance at the village hall. We used to go to all those if we could get a late pass. Because you had to ask the Matron if you could. You had to be in was it ten o鈥檆lock or half past, I鈥檝e forgotten now, probably it was ten o鈥檆lock. If there was anything on that didn鈥檛 finish until later, I mean the dance didn鈥檛 used to finish 鈥榯ill twelve, so you had to ask if you could have a late pass. You didn鈥檛 always get one, it all depended how many late passes you know we had had, and what it was for. If there was anything on in another village, or in Chepstow, because we used to come into Chepstow to the Public Hall, then we had to ask the permission to go. If the driver of the lorry was willing to go and take us, they would take us in the lorry then you see, there鈥檚 no transport again. She was very nice Miss Phillips you kno, she didn鈥檛 often refuse. But if you did anything wrong or you were late in any time, you had detention you see.

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