March 8th is
International Women’s Day, and this year we’re looking back to the Second World
War. We’re recognising the contribution
that women in Cheshire made to the war effort by joining the Women’s Land Army
(WLA).
Originally established during World War One, the Women’s Land Army was a
civilian organisation set up to replace men working in agriculture who had been
called up to fight in the armed forces.
It was revived in 1939 to increase the amount of food grown within
Britain, rather than relying on imports.
At first women were asked to volunteer, but this was later supplemented
by conscription. In 1944 the WLA had
over 80,000 members, who became known as Land Girls.
Our Local Studies
department holds books and pamphlets that cover the work of the Land Girls and
that of its forestry branch, the Women’s Timber Corps, whose members were known
as Lumber Jills. These include titles
like Malpas and the Home Front 1939-45, Frodsham in the War Years– A Compilation of Memories and Wartime Tatton, 1939-45. From this one we learn that,
“a
team of 15-20 Land Army women worked at Tatton taking the place of woodmen,
gardeners, and farm workers who had been called up. Besides helping at the home farm and in the
gardens, they did a lot of valuable work in the park’s woods, helping keep the
trees in a healthy, well-managed condition.”
“From basic hostel accommodation in
the Bothy in the gardens…the Land Army girls would arrive at 7.30 in the
morning. Some would help to clear the
woods, others worked in the sawmill, the dairy, the kitchen gardens and in the
fields at harvest time.”
We also have Local Studies articles, such as one from Cheshire Life in March 1943 about a rally held at the Cheshire County
Agricultural School near Nantwich (now Reaseheath College) to mark the training
of the thousandth Land Girl there since the outbreak of war. It describes the students’ training in areas
like threshing, milking, lettuce planting, potato sorting and stable work. This, from our Women’s Land Army and Cheshire Timber Corps collection is a copy of a certificate issued on
completion of a similar course (whether it was issued by the Nantwich training
centre is not known).
Cheshire Life had already featured the Land Girls the year
before – the November 1942 edition covers a County Rally held at Chester Town
Hall in October that was attended by 500 members of the WLA and its Director,
Lady Gertrude Denman. Lady Denman announced that Cheshire now
employed 1200 Land Girls, “and she presented over 20 three-year good service
badges.” Photographs of Land Girls from
our Local Studies collection are available on the Cheshire Image Bank. The one below left was taken at
a Women’s Land Army Rally in Stockport, and on the right two Land
Girls are shown ‘digging for victory’ in Chester, in 1942.
Our archives
contain original Women’s Land Army material, for example in the William Wild
& Sons collection.
They were horse dealers and there are several letters about employing
Land Girls, such as this one to Miss Adrienne Fisk of Birkenhead. Mr Wild explains he has found a man to do the
work she applied for, and Miss Fisk’s reply perhaps gives a sense of the
difference between women’s lives then and now: “I quite understand your
preference and after all Land Girls are only substitutes for men.”
Another
letter is from Mrs Vera Davies, who includes her Land Girl number ahead of
starting work at the farm in October 1941 – and there is a Ministry of
Agriculture claim form for a billeting fee to cover her board and lodging.
In
addition to this correspondence, Cheshire Archives has a voice recording from a
Land Girl, giving a first-hand account of her experiences (ref: D7912). Speaking in later life, Norah Bate describes
wanting to be a Land Girl from the day she left school, aged 14, in 1941 - but
as the minimum age was 17, she was accepted as the “next best thing”: an
orderly for the Cheshire Committee of the WLA.
The oral history gives an insight into her duties in WLA Hostels in
Tabley and Cholmondeley, where she cooked and cleaned for 30 Land Girls and
staff, along with details of the Land Girls’ routines and other information
about the war. She describes their free
time and entertainment, such as dances with American servicemen who were based nearby. Norah remembers
reaching the age of 17 and going to the Women’s Land Army Office in Chester to
be issued with her number and uniform:
“I was delighted, but
my biggest disappointment came two days afterwards, with a letter from Head Office saying although I was accepted as a member of the Women's Land Army, my position as a cook was too important and I must stay in that position at Cholmondeley.”
She stayed there until 1946, then moved to be
a cook at Audlem Land Girls Hostel for her final three months in the WLA. At
the end of the war in 1945 there were around 60,000 Land Girls working in
Britain. The Ministry of Agriculture
confirmed shortly afterwards that the WLA would need to continue at least until
the harvest of 1948, and it was eventually disbanded in November 1950. Over 200,000 women had worked as Land Girls
between 1939 and 1950 - this is a copy of a release certificate issued in 1950.
I
n Frodsham in the War Years – A Compilation of Memories mentioned earlier, there is an uncredited account, ‘A Land Girl’s
Story’, of activities such as milking, mucking out and ploughing fields. But
she notes that,
“looking back over many years, it is the fun and laughter which
other Land Girls and myself experienced which stands out. One tends to forget the misery of working in
the pouring rain spreading manure with a fork, washing your dirty farm clothes
by hand armed only with a bar of soap and a scrubbing brush, cleaning out a
ferret’s cage and many more unpleasant jobs one had to do…I would have missed
all these experiences had the war not come, and although I wish the war had
never taken place, it came…I am glad those of us who were able to pay our part,
however small or insignificant that part was, to help in the war effort.”
In
2007 the UK Government announced that the efforts of the surviving members of
the Women’s Land Army and the Women’s Timber Corps would be recognised formally
with the presentation of a specially designed commemorative badge. It was awarded in July 2008 to over 30,000
former Land Girls.
Over 80 years after they were first asked to serve, and
particularly on International Women’s Day, their efforts will not be forgotten.
All of these items and more are available to view at Cheshire Record Office in
Chester. The oral history of Land Girl
Norah Bate can also be heard at the Record Office - a short clip is available below.