大象传媒

I was 13yrs old when the war started and was still at school at Southchurch Hall School for Girls. I remember the air-raid sirens going while I was at school, but I can't remember whether we went to a shelter. They may have been a practice to get people used to the sound so they would know what to do. On leaving school at 14yrs I started at Jack's shirt factory in Southchurch as a trimmer, cutting off the cottons after the machinists had finished. The forelady was very strict and sat high up so that she could supervise the girls as they worked. No talking was allowed. I eventually retrained as a machinist, and they used to say that you had to have had the needle through your finger 3 times before you were a proper machinist. I lost a thumb nail and a finger nail by getting the needle stuck in my fingers when I was making belt loops for pyjama jackets. We had to match up the pieces of needle to see if they were all there, to make sure that nothing was left inside your finger. We used to make shirts and pyjamas and my job was to make belt loops which meant small pieces of fabric and a very fiddly job. It was very easy to get the needle stuck in your finger.
After a while I was promoted to collars, but I was restless and I found a job at Swallow Raincoats at the Kursaal where the cinema had been turned into a factory for the manufacture of raincoats and battledress for the army. We all had a part of a garment to work on and they were passed from one girl to another like a conveyer belt.
At 17yrs I was still restless so I applied to join the army. I went to the recruiting office at Victoria Circus to try to be a driver. I was interviewed by a sergeant, but was told that I had to wait another 6months before I could join up. I didn't want to wait this long so my friend and I decided to join the land army because they accepted you at 17. We ended up in a private billet at West Mersea. When we arrived at the house an old lady let us in and took us through to the scullery and the dining room. Sitting by the fireside was an old man in a sailor's cap and he spent all day splicing ropes. Our room was upstairs, there was a brass double bed which seemed to fill the room. The windows were overgrown with ivy and there were spiders everywhere. Because the toilet was down the garden, we had a chamber pot under the bed for night time use and this had to be carried through thr house to the bottom of the garden to be emptied. While using the toilet, which had no lock on the door, we had to sit and whistle to stop anyone else from coming in. We found that our sheets were rarely changed so we started bringing our own sheets from home. We were supplied with cycles to get us to where we were working.we hedged and ditched, and the supervisor seemed to take a bit of a shine to me because when he brought in pigs trotters for his lunch, he gave one to me as well. I was then made supervisor and had to train and supervise the other girls at hedging and ditching properly, otherwise the water would not drain away properly and the land would be waterlogged. We used to cut down branches and use tarpaulins to make a shelter for our lunch, especially if it was raining. On the main road leading to West Mersea one day, we heard a doodlebug. We lookedup and saw it follow the main road and coming straight towards us. Luckily it fell into a field at the end of the road where it made a great crater. We saw several of these things go over, big and black with flames coming out of the back. We saw the waves of bombers go overhead and watched the dogfights. Some we saw get hit, and we imagined that we were watching spitfires and messerschmitts. I eventually got transferred back to Southend and worked locally, in Canewdon, Pagelsham, Wallasea Island, Barling and Great Wakering. I cycled to Rochford via Sutton Road to pick up the lorry which transported us. We planted new potatoes in spring for harvest in June, harvested old potatoes at the end of the year and gathered corn in August. We stacked the sheaves of corn around the field and they were collected by the horse drawn wagon to be taken to the static combine harvester in the middle of the field. Hedging and ditching was a winter occupation and we often had to break the ice on the water in the ditch before we could start work. We'd build fires and bake potatoes for our lunch. We watched the Second Front go over with the gliders, when we were in the fields hoeing. We knew that something big was about to happen by the numbers of aircraft, but it was afterwards that we learnt that they were going to Arnhem.
I married in 1944 and stayed in the Land Army until the war ended. we wanted some recognition for our war effort, as we had to do all the men's jobs on the land and farms. We were responsible for maintaining the production of fresh food and produce and keeping up the supplies. We never did get proper recognition - we were treated just like farm workers.

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