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My closest friends were either going into the ATS or joining the fire service, and at 16 or 17 I thought I’m going to do my bit, so silly me joined the land army. I had never touched a cow. A friend of mine had gone in and said this farm at Goxhill near Hornsea wanted another girl and would I think about it? My mother and the rest of the family told me I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for, which I didn’t. Unfortunately I didn’t get a uniform because entrance to the land army was closed at that time, so my mother kitted me out in boots and trousers which were no good for walking on ploughed fields!

The hardest work was the threshing. They employed a threshing machine and so many men to thresh the corn, and we were put on these cornstacks and were just pitching one sheaf near a machine. It was really dirty, there were rats coming out. They used to put fencing round the cornstack and put the dogs there to catch the rats. I thought what if they go up my trouser leg. One of the men had this hairy string and tied my trousers up in case a rat went up. I couldn’t envisage anything worse!

On the first morning I was given a bucket and this huge animal that looked like an elephant to me, and told to milk it! Well I didn’t know what to do! I got through that morning and thought, do I have to do this every morning? You have to, and you have to do it twice a day. There was milk all over me, and then it dries and it smells. But I settled down pretty well and I began to love these animals. We had names for all of them and we sang to them, really I think the farmer didn’t have any daughters and he was amazed that these two young girls were singing to his cows.

I was pitched in at harvest time which I couldn’t have got at a worse time, it was very very hard work and I really did want to come home. And every night from our bedroom window I could see the train from Hornsea to Hull chugging by and wished I was on it. But I gradually got used to it. We had a very kind farmer’s wife, she looked after us. She hadn’t any daughters, she had 2 sons, and she was very good to us. We got very well fed, probably too well actually.

I got used to milking and it didn’t bother me at all. What did bother me was getting up so early — I’m not an early riser, but it had to be done. We got up, had a cup of tea, down to the milking sheds at half past 6, milked about 30 odd cows, then back for a terrific breakfast. Went back, let the cows out, cleaned the sheds. If it was winter time the cows would be brought back into the milking shed, if it was summer they were let out into a field. I got used to feeding the calves, what I didn’t get used to was when the cows had to go to market!

We went into Hornsea 3 nights a week to the pictures because they changed them 3 nights a week. And we went to the Floral Hall dancing once a week, and fortunately we had the Free French army billeted there so we were never ever short of escorts! But we had to be in by 10 o’clock and when the farmer’s wife said 10 o’clock she meant 10 o’clock. When we got in there was a jug of milk and whatever all laid out for our supper. She made sure that her girls were in. We were very lucky because we had a good home, some girls didn’t have, I think it was because she had 2 boys who were both farmers, and I think she was glad of the feminine company, although we were only teenagers, and we brought a bit of life into the home. We didn’t have any radio, they only put the radio on to hear the news.

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