大象传媒

Presenter Mollie Green followed the story of three land girls from Coventry & Warwickshire and tried her hand at being a 鈥榣and girl鈥�. But how difficult was life for a land girl? The idea of women working on farms met disapproval at the beginning of the war, so how and why did it change?

Mollie visits the original farm, now a built up part of Coventry, where Alice Clarke, Alice Chattaway and Nellie Collins used to work on. The girls were invited to a Women鈥檚 Land Army rally in Birmingham (which was then part of Warwickshire).

Professor of Cultural History, Maggie Andrews said, 鈥淚n the main; working in agriculture for women, was seen as very unladylike. In the end of the 19th Century there was disapproval of girls on the land for all sorts of reasons. Peeing in a hedge, seeing animals do what animals do when on a farm, they were out in the open air, a little bit closer to nature than a nice Edwardian girl should be.

鈥淧eople often forget that many things that we associate with World War Two, things like conscription, rationing, and the land army were developed during World War One. It is almost like a trial and then when WW2 comes along we are in it and we have these things up and running straight away.鈥�

Location: Leasowes Farm, Coventry, Warwickshire CV3 6EG
Image of Leasowes Farm girls, courtesy of Stoneleigh Abbey Preservation Trust

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