´óÏó´«Ã½

JOAN COLLINSON (nee Jamieson)
WOMEN’S LAND ARMY

Joan was brought up in Teams. Her father was the foreman at the local gas works and she had one brother and one sister. She briefly worked as a cashier in a city restaurant in Newcastle.

At 18 I volunteered for the Land Army. My parents were very amused as on market day I went an extra mile out of my way so as not to go past the cattle market. The only contact I had had with animals had been with the family cats and seaside donkeys. I had to fill out a form on which I put that ‘I have a love of the countryside’.

I waited months then I got word to go to the Labour Exchange and was told I was accepted and I had to promise ‘to serve my King and Country to the best of my ability for the duration of the War’. I was given a travel voucher to get me to the Land Army Hostel in Consett. It was ‘teaming from the heavens’ when I got there. Twelve of us had to report and we were given a cup of tea and ‘door-steps’ of bread with margarine. I came under the jurisdiction of The War Agricultural Committee and the man in charge of Land Army Operations came and distributed us to different places.

Another girl and I were sent to Darlington and Lady Starmer, who was the Welfare Officer, collected us and drove us to ‘Craiglea’ hostel, which used to be the YMCA, and now housed 30 of us. We handed our papers and ration books in, signed for our uniform and collected our bedding. I shared a back bedroom with three others ~ we all cried together and laughed together. We had wooden camp beds, straw mattresses, a sheet, a camel coloured striped blanket, a hard pillow and the floor was bare. For our belongings we were allowed one drawer each in a chest of drawers and a lockable wooden box with rope handles, which went under our beds, for ‘privates’. There were also two small wardrobes for uniforms and a shelf for our hats. Our bedrooms were inspected and anything left lying around was confiscated and only returned when a fine of 2d. was paid (we were paid 9s. per week, after board and lodgings had been deducted, for a minimum 50 hour week).

We all sat around the coal fire in the cosy lounge at night and had cocoa and bread and dripping at 9.30 pm. Everywhere else was icy, except for the kitchen, which was out of bounds unless on ‘jankers’. Friends, including boys, were allowed in but had to away by 9.45 pm. There was a happy atmosphere and it was comfortable in a Spartan way. For fun we would unhook one anothers camp beds so they collapsed, or fold the sheets halfway up the bed and tuck in dead moles, mice of baby rabbits provided by the ‘Rat Catchers’. You should have heard the screams!!

The uniform consisted of ~ 1 pair of brown laced heavy shoes, 1 pair of corduroy breeches, 3 pairs of fawn knee-length woollen socks (which were darned with any colour you could get), 1 green v-necked long sleeved woollen pullover, 3 cream short sleeved Aertex shirts, 2 long sleeved cream cotton dress shirts, 2 pairs of dungarees, 1 short drill working jacket, 1 pair of black Wellingtons (which ended up with bicycle patches on them), 1 pair of heavy black ankle boots, 1 black oilskin coat and hat, 1 fawn short top coat with matching brimmed hat with badge. We had to supply our own green ties, brown belts and underwear. In the Agricultural Branch they had a corn sheaf as an emblem and those in the Timber Corps had an oak tree.

I was allocated to Carlbury Farm at Piercebridge. We got a call of ‘wakey, wakey’ at 5.45 and had to be all done for the 7am bus. Sometimes we ’thumbed’ lifts, once even in the back of a hearse. When we worked weekends there was no transport and as I couldn’t ride a bike I had to get up at 5 am to walk the five miles there and back. We were supposed to return by 5 pm in time to be washed and changed into dress uniform by 6.30 pm for our evening meal. It was always some type of stew with cabbage and potatoes and a suet pudding. The only difference between the custard and the gravy was the colour ~ it was all lumpy. For breakfast we got lumpy porridge; half a rasher of bacon or a tiny sausage and friend bread; then bread and ‘marg’. For ‘bate’ to take with us we had one cheese and one beetroot sandwich wrapped in greaseproof paper. We were lucky with our placement as we went into the farm kitchen for cups of tea and the occasional pudding. Some Land Army girls didn’t even get that. We would get ‘cheese dreams’ for High Tea on a Saturday ~ the left over cheese sandwiches fried in dripping.

Initially I went for six weeks training, but I ended up being there for eight years. It was mainly dairy work though when we finished that we helped with all other jobs. We milked 54 cows twice a day. We had four machines, but new ‘calvers’ had to be milked by hand. We helped the herdsman with difficult calvings, reared calves and had a herd of cattle to look after. The only time we were warm in winter was when we were milking in the byres ~ we were out in all weathers, there was mud and icy surfaces and our fingers and toes were permanently blue with cold. Sometimes we had to shovel a way through the snow. The first year the work nearly killed me.

If we could afford it or had a ‘date’ we could go to the cinema, swimming pools, roller-skating or go on the muddy pool which passed as the boating lake in South Park. In winter we went to the dance hall. We had to be in at the hostel by 10 pm so we never saw the end of the film, however we got a late pass until 11 pm on a Saturday. If there were 12 of us, every now and then Matron would let us go to a dance, but we had to come back together and knock on the door at 11.45 pm. Sometimes it was just a ‘sing song’ round the hostel piano. I also remember ‘The Land Girl Follies’, a show that we put on for three nights for the Red Cross at the Little Theatre in Kendrew Street.

We got one weekend off in three, a week off every six months and were allowed one travel permit a year. I lived at the hostel from 1941 to 1945 then the military handed the house back and Eunice and I asked if we could move in at the farm. We were even asked to stay on after the War by the government, and I was there for another four years. There was more freedom when we lived on the farm. We got invited occasionally to the cinema or camp dances in Darlington. Officers were billeted at Carlbury Hall, Walworth Castle and Coniscliffe Hall ~ all had been taken over by the military. Part of the fields at the farm were railed off for Nissan Huts and a cook house for the ranks.

I was presented with a certificate and medal ~ the RSPCA Award for Bravery ~ at Darlington Town Hall by the Mayor in February 1949. There had been a fire at the farm and I was woken by the smell of smoke and sound of crackling. So I got Mr. Gibson up and helped to get the animals out. I got a black eye and ruined pyjamas as a result. We also took park in the ‘Wings for Victory’ Parade in Darlington in 1945 which was to raise funds to buy spitfires. The Land Army raised enough to buy one themselves. We were taught to march for this on Lady Starmer’s lawn. She looked after us well and gave a party for us every New Year.

On VE Day we went into Darlington and everyone went mad ~ kissing one another ~ and there was no curfew that night. I don’t remember as much ‘hullabaloo’ for VJ Day. The Women’s Land Army was disbanded in 1952.

Joan met her husband, who worked for the Milk Marketing Board, when he came to the farm to test the milk. She has lived in Ingleton since then and brought up her family. She started learning to play the piano at 68 and got up to Grade 7. She also went to the

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.