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.

My father was working near London helping to clear land mines. When the situation began to get worse, we decided to move to Luton. I had an older brother and a younger brother and sister. As I approached my eighteenth birthday, my father told me to make up my mind as to what I was going to do, otherwise he said, 鈥測ou鈥檒l be put into war work, and that won鈥檛 be easy.鈥� I thought that as I鈥檓 not the sort of person to take lots of orders, the best thing to do would be to find somewhere that was more relaxed.

I knew nothing about the country. The nearest we had to a cow was the churn in the dairy next door where we bought our milk. My family worked in the rag trade, we were townies!

Anyway, away I went to the town hall to join the land army. Once home, I decided to tell my family over tea. 鈥淏y the way, I鈥檝e joined the land army today!鈥� They laughed. My father thought it was hysterical, 鈥渨ith shoes like that!鈥�

The first place I was billeted was Whipsnade. We slept in a hut that was used by the waitresses that used to work at the zoo. They had stoves in the middle of the room with pipes going up into the roof; very primitive but warm. For going out, we were given breeches, green woolly jumpers, woollen socks, hats and a great coat. For working we wore jumpers, dungarees, shirts and coat.

The war effort had taken over the land that was attached to the zoo; the wild animals had gone and was now used for growing food. Only the parrots were left and they soon learned to swear because the girls came from all walks of life. Many of them would say b**** off when someone came to the door! We enjoyed it although the job was very hard, especially working on the threshing machine. It was hell. I met Barbara on my first day. She was a giggler, although she stopped when mice came through the door and then the giggles turned to tears. That happened on our first day; we didn鈥檛 like it very much.

We then moved to Leighton Buzzard where we did general farm work, brussel and potato picking, hay making, etc. The nicest place that we stayed in was Kensworth, a lovely house, altered to create more bedrooms and bathrooms. We enjoyed it there; it had a library with huge windows and a legend of the headless huntsman who used to ride by at night. Of course we loved all that. There was lots of fun attached to it.

Sometimes we would be let out in the evening but lights out was at ten o鈥檆lock. We would wait outside the hostel at half past ten, get a lift to Bedford Corn Exchange on the on the back of someone鈥檚 motorbike and go jiving with the Yanks. Coming home, a friend would let us in but that stopped when someone told the warden what was going on. When we found out who it was, (what we thought was a dear old lady), we decided that we would dress up as ghosts. We put white sheets over our heads and knocked on her door making ohhhhhhhhhhhh noises. Well, the poor old dear left about a week later, so that worked! But we worked hard and played hard.

We were up at about 6.30 am and then given a packed lunch in a tin box before being dropped off at one of the farms. Some farmers were not very nice; they didn鈥檛 want us girls there. We could appreciate that because they had lost good experienced farm-hands and in place they were given a couple of giggling females. They were at a loss because as willing as we were, we didn鈥檛 know much about farm work and none of us really wanted to either.

I learned to smoke as a land girl. This happened because one day we were given a cow shed to clean out. It was fifthly, with lots of manure and the smell was terrible. One of the chaps in the shed told us that we would have to roll it up to get it out. So we rolled the manure up, just like a carpet! The smell got worse as we did this. He said, 鈥渨hat you need is a fag.鈥� I told him that we didn鈥檛 smoke, he said, 鈥測ou soon will!鈥� He got out a little tin box and rolled cigarettes for us. It was marvellous! We couldn鈥檛 smell anything else after that!

There was one particular farm where we dreaded going. We drew lots to see who would be sent. When our names were called we鈥檇 say, 鈥渙h no, please not me!鈥� One particular time, three of us were sent there, chewing gum and smoking cigarettes that we鈥檇 got from the Americans. We were cocky too, because we knew how to use the pitchfork. As we stood there the farmer came out, a gangling man, who stared at us. 鈥淕irls!鈥� he said, tut- tutting away. We started to giggle. 鈥淕et your hands out of your pockets and you can put those bags out!鈥� His wife though, was lovely. She used to feed us big slabs of bread pudding and give us hot drinks.

One farmer came from Somerset and had brought with him, his own recipe for cider. When we went hay-making he would give us bottles of cider to drink, 鈥渃oming up, sunshine!鈥� He would call. There were many good, funny sides to our work. On leaving one farm, the farmer told me that he would miss me. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e the only woman I know that can handle a pitchfork.鈥� This was quite a compliment!

Another occasion, I was sent to a farm with lots of pigs. Well I love pigs, especially piglets. The farmer had told me that he had a little job for me working with the piglets. When I got here, the farmer told me to hold the piglets by their back legs. He then castrated them!

Spending a penny wasn鈥檛 much fun when working in the fields either. We sometimes had to walk a long way to find somewhere that was out of sight of the men who were also working on the farm! Once we climbed into a field with a bull in it. My friend Barbara and I crept along, hoping it wouldn鈥檛 see us!

Mrs Churchill visited us for the day at Leighton Buzzard hostel. She chatted to us, asking if we liked our jobs; of course we said yes! She was a very charming person. I must have enjoyed the work because after I had been doing the job for three years, I signed up for another year. It was a very free life.

During my time in the land army I learned lot of things; how to notice wild strawberries growing by the side of a lane that no-one else would see, or birds nesting. The Queen when she was Princess Elizabeth, presented me with my four years service green arm band, with WLA written across it. We had gang leaders; I was a gang leader eventually. There were new girls joining up all the time. They thought they would have a good time!

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