大象传媒

47 - Doris Eccleston came from Kings Heath in Birmingham, to spend her War as a Land Army girl in various places around Stratford:

"I left school at 14. Because by then the war was on you know.

There was quite a lot of bombing actually in Birmingham, it was very heavily bombed, but not where I lived. You know we didn鈥檛 鈥�, everybody goes on about Coventry, but nobody ever gives Birmingham any praise for what they went through, you know; a house five doors away did have a bomb dropped in their garden. The road had a firewatching team. So that the team could identify members, each one had a brick by their front door painted white which showed up well. Until we went to a neighbour鈥檚 Anderson Shelter, we spent the nights under a local cinema in the shelter for the cinema. I dread to think now what would have happened if the cinema had received a direct hit. My father worked for the electricity board and could not leave the sub-stations if there was a raid on. I remember when he came home after the George Mason Warehouse was burnt, he could hardly see. It must have been dreadful with all the food, fats and sugar going up.
After I left school I was a machinist in a handbag factory that had been converted to making air targets and minesweeping gloves. It was near St. Thomas鈥檚 Church in Holloway Head in Birmingham which was bombed by a land mine. The only part left was the clock tower which is now part of the peace garden. I also remember going to work when the Empire Theatre in Hurst Street was bombed. The road was cut off with fire hoses all across the roads. I also remember when John Bright Street was bombed. Also staying in our pantry when the fourteen hour raid was on.
I think it would be 鈥�41, that鈥檚 roughly.

A friend and I wanted to do our 鈥渂it鈥� and decided to join the forces. That day it was announced on the radio that the women鈥檚 forces had stopped recruiting, so we decided to try the Land Army. We were accepted. We did not realize at the time we would not have been old enough for the forces anyway, as you had to be eighteen and we were only seventeen. We were sent to a hostel - Oldberrow House outside Henley in Arden. There was another hostel in Henley where experienced girls were. Anyway my first job was threshing and I hadn鈥檛 got a clue! It was like going to the fair. The threshing drum was driven by a big steam engine. The drivers were two older men, I think their names were the two 鈥淭oms鈥�. Nice men who had their girls thrust upon them who had never seen a threshing drum before. Three girls from the other hostel worked with us and they had the experience. It was a very dusty and dirty job. Anyway we survived.
My next hostel was at Shipston on Stour. We were sent to different farms to do different jobs, mainly threshing. Around the lanes were stacked piles of shell cases, at least that鈥檚 what I think they were. They were just at the side of the roads not in the fields. I think they belonged to the American Six Armoured Division who were stationed near Moreton-in-Marsh. Also at Moreton was an operational British Air Force station which flew Wellingtons. The centre of Moreton was full of lines of American Sherman tanks waiting for Normandy, although the Six Armoured Division did not go over on D Day.
From Shipston, we were sent to a lovely old house, 鈥淚dlicote House鈥�. This had belonged to a Mrs. Horton, an American lady. The work was pretty much the same dusty, dirty threshing. When we meet now we always wonder why we haven鈥檛 had T.B. or something from the dust. We wore apart from dungarees etc. three scarves, one tied like a turban and one around our necks then one on our heads and tied under our chins. These were not really scarves, but 6d. first aid arm slings from Boots. Occasionally we tied strings round our trouser legs near the bottom if we were not wearing gum boots to stop the mice and rats running up our legs! Can you imagine city girls going through this but we soon got used to it. Sometimes we worked with animals which was a bright start to a day. I worked with cows which I loved and cart horses. To this day my favourite animal is a cow. After a few years we were sent to old W.A.A.F. camp in Whitehill near Stratford on Avon. This didn鈥檛 go down very well, going into Nissan huts from 鈥淚dlicote鈥� which had very lovely bathrooms and having to go outside to wash etc. There was always a dash to be first in the baths so sometimes the bath plugs were taken but this was remedied by an old penny in a flannel!
Our entertainment was dancing. We were invited to Moreton Air Station and the American 147th Engineer Station at Moreton Morrell. They would send trucks for us to 鈥淥ldberrow鈥� when we were there. We also went to Moreton in Marsh Aerodrome which is now the Fire Training Station and later on Long Marston to the Royal Engineers. We were allowed out later at the dances as we were all together but apart from that we had to be in at ten o鈥檆lock.
At harvest times we worked very late especially when it was double summer time. I worked with one of the first combines in the area. It was weighing up corn and we worked up till ten o鈥檆lock. It was like an old tram going up and down the fields. One place I worked at was at St. Dennis near Shipston. The farm had a target on it for the R.A.F. to bomb. A small building at the top of the hill and another at the bottom to measure the drops. On one Sunday the farmer had to ring the R.A.F. as the bombing was a bit wild and we were harvesting near.

Eventually I went to milking, then later to another farm for milking. The Land Army did not finish at the end of the war but went on to 1950. They could not take the girls off the farms until the men came back. We were then at a big house at Salford Priors (Park Hall). Then a hostel run by the WarAg which is the Warwickshire War Agricultural Executive in Stratford, and when they wanted to close it to keep the girls who were working for them the farmers took it over and ran it themselves. A lot of girls stayed on after the Land Army had finished, working for individual farmers. I was one and I stayed until the farmer went out of milking and sold the cows. This was the saddest time of my life as they were all pets.
When I joined at seventeen little did I think I would be thirty eight before I left. I could not talk about them going for twelve months without getting upset.
I would have stayed there for ever if he hadn鈥檛 have gone out of milking.

At weekends I saw my parents, going on the bus. Occasionally you see, but later on I worked some weekends. To begin with when we were at the hostel we used to have the weekends off, unless it was harvest time of course.

What I was going to say was about Col. Rees Mogg. The farm I worked at we had one of his cows, you know they must have bought her at some time before and I always remember she was such a funny madam, she was an oldish cow, and every time a cow calved in the field, she would go and fetch the calf and take the calf away, and it was ever so hard to get the calf off her, you know to get the calf and that was it. But Col. Rees Mogg just reminded me of it, her name was Thyne, T H Y N E, she pinched all the calves, maternal instrinct. Well they used to take them off them, so early you know, but she was lovely.

I'm still in touch with friends I made,a few of them, there was four of us met the first day at Moor Street Station going, and one鈥檚 died, another one is in Abbingdon, another one is in Leicester, another one is in Birmingham, there鈥檚 me. Anyway there were six of us and we all kept in touch for quite some time, but I am in touch with the others. Leicester, that was the very first day in 1943.

鈥� Funnily enough I was never frightened of mice or rats, a lot of girls of course were terrified of cows which you could understand, but I got on alright with cows. Cos the one place I had to go to work, because at the time I was working somewhere else and this particular place they hadn鈥檛 got anybody to send who wasn鈥檛 frightened of cows.

When you look at it, we all worked hard, I mean threshing was. I will tell you an example, I was waiting at the bus stop the other day and a car pulled up, the driver got out, she was a young girl, she was picking up these sacks of corn, put them on her shoulder; and I thought oh, those must be heavy! But you fool that鈥檚 what you used to do and climb ladders with them as well. You know, of course you don鈥檛 think about things like that.

Occasionally you had elevators when you were threshing for the straw you know, but of course you couldn鈥檛 go at the beginning it had to be at the end, because all the ricks had to be unpicked.

What we used to do, we used to change jobs. And the one job on the drum, was cutting the bands round the sheaves, but the drum used to spin, and it would spin the corn sometimes back in your face! And another thing we had to thresh was beans, feed them to the cattle, and they used to spit. One of the worst things I ever had to thresh was clover, it was absolutely filthy. I think they I only did it once, I don鈥檛 think it was a general thing perhaps a farmer specialized in it.
But when you look back there鈥檚 a lot of things you remember, you know.

We didn't come into Stratford very often, because we were a little way out you know because we didn鈥檛 have any transport unless we were 鈥�, someone brought us in like when we used to go to the dances and were always picked up.
I remember, one very bad winter, I was at Idlicote. Well you know you come down and over the other side, and I was working over the hill. And I used to walk up and then walk back in my own footsteps in the snow. It was so bad you know, and at that time I think we had 鈥� Idlicote was cut off because of the snow. Anyway all the girls went out who weren鈥檛 working because they couldn鈥檛 get there and things like that and cleared the snow up, you know with everything they could get, kitchen utensils, anything. I must admit that they had an ulterior motive, we were going to a dance that night, and they had to make it ready for the trip, so the truck would be able to come in!
But yes it was 鈥�, I remember that winter very much.

I didn鈥檛 go to Moreton very much, because I was too far away. But the men from the 6th Armoured used to come into Shipston, they used to get bikes and come in, and also there was another camp there, which was 127th Medical Camp, a hospital, you know for the Americans, so there was the two there you know, and they always used to come into Shipston.
It was lively then! Yes it was a nice little town. I wasn鈥檛 there very long, because they decided to close the hostel and that鈥檚 when they moved us all up to Idlicote, a lovely little place. And then of course the big house is further on.
Well Mrs. Horton who was the only one I ever knew who owned it, but in the dining room, all the wallpaper, it was very thick stuff, it was sort of like that, was the American War of Independence! Most unusual, but I never heard anything about her at all.
I never met her, she鈥檇 gone then. No I mean that was 1943 when I joined, so she very likely went off back to The States. I never knew anything about her at all, it鈥檚 a wonder that I know her name really. But I think, I did when I went into the church one day I picked up one of their little brochures, and that鈥檚 where I got her name from.

There was no bombing, nothing like that there, no. Saying that, the next village along, Whatcote, that was bombed one night. I don鈥檛 know whether it was the night Coventry was bombed, but one bomb dropped on the church. All those fields, and it, you know, did some damage, luckily no one was hurt.
I remember at that time let鈥檚 see 鈥�39 wasn鈥檛 it, I was at school. I can鈥檛 remember very much about the blitz starting, but when Coventry was bombed I can remember that we were in the shelter, and I said to my father I want my knitting, and he said alright then you can fetch it your knitting, so I went out to fetch it and of course I got in an awful row, but that night there was like a ring round the moon; I don鈥檛 know what it was, it must have been something that was in the clouds, and that was the night Coventry was bombed. But as I said, where I lived we didn鈥檛 have a lot of bombing, we were lucky.
There weren't many factories in Kings Heath; you get to Small Heath you have got the BSA and one or two more there, they had a horrendous time.

I remember about VE Day - the night before (because we were told the night before, weren鈥檛 we), and some of us were at work and we were fetched in from work, and that night a lot of the girls went down to the local pub, from the hostel but we were in rooms then, and one of my friends (well she wasn鈥檛 a close friend but she was one of the girls anyway), her brother was killed on the H.M.S. Repulse. Of course my other friend, the one who lives in Abingdon we stayed in with her that night because, you know, 鈥榗os she couldn鈥檛 go out so we said we鈥檙e not going to leave you alone, but I remember, he was a Marine; funny how things stick in your mind. I think he was only about 19, yes it was The Repulse, it wasn鈥檛 the Prince of Wales it was the Repulse that was with it wasn鈥檛 it. I can remember it quite well you know, because we were able to go down there.

When I finished on the farm, a friend and I then were in a cottage on the farm where I worked and she was also on the land, a land girl. And before that, we were at this hostel at Clopton Road, and they decided to close it, so of course we were all looking for lodgings, well you know what that was like in Stratford. Anyway, the boiler man he came to me, and he said would you and Mary (although we weren鈥檛 that particular friends of his), and he wanted the two of us, and he said would you like to come and live with my wife and I. And we jumped at it you know you know, but he hadn鈥檛 told his wife! A bit of a shock to her, but we settled down alright you know.
So of course we stayed on the farms, both of us, she was working at 鈥�, up towards Quinton that way, she was at a farm up there, I was working where I was and then of course when he sold the cows, he said you can stay in the cottage, so we did for a little while. And because when we were living in lodgings with the boiler man, he had got children and they were growing up, and we said well we can鈥檛 stop here, we鈥檝e got to get out, and that was when the farmer said well you can have the cottage. So we stayed there for 11 years, you know. Got a job in Stratford which I absolutely hated, I was in the office at the brewery, oh I hated it. But afterwards when I got used to it, it was quite a nice job, the people were very nice you know, but I hadn鈥檛 got a clue really. And when I went for my interview the Secretary said to me well, you might not like it, and I said to him I shan鈥檛 like anything. So anyway I got the job and I stayed there until the brewery itself packed up."

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