As we see people across the country growing their own fruit and vegetables during lockdown, and farmers struggling to be able to harvest the food in their fields, we are reminded of the women who worked tirelessly on the nation’s farmlands and market gardens to produce food during a time of rationing.
Before the Second World War, Britain imported two thirds of the country's food by ship. When the war started in September 1939, shipping was attacked by enemy submarines and warships and cargo ships were requisitioned for war materials rather than food transportation. This resulted in food shortages, rationing of foods and materials, and increased necessity of self-sufficiency in food production.
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| Rita Woodward demonstrating her driving skills on Clophill Farm, 25 March 1941, Bedfordshire Archives, (Bedfordshire Times Archive), Ref: BTNeg1049/2 |
The first Women's Land Army was recruited as a civilian labour force during the First World War. Women were recruited to help farmers, replacing thousands of male farm workers who had joined the armed forces. Traditionally women's work on farms was limited to dairy work, looking after hens and egg production, caring for young animals and occasional seasonal harvesting work. Now women aged 18 and over were invited to do paid general work for local farmers.
Take-up by farmers was slow because of conservative attitudes to the role of working women. It was difficult to persuade women to take on low-status work on the land. During the First World War, 23,000 women across the nation trained up and took on farm work, with 16,000 'land girls' working around the country. In Bedfordshire, 550 Land Girls worked for 90 farmers.
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| Women’s Land Army Recruitment Parade, Bedford, 1 June 1940, Bedfordshire Archives, (Bedfordshire Times Archive), Ref: Z50/13/312 |
The Land Army was reinstated at the start of the Second World War, anticipating the need to recruit women to assist with farming and food production for soldiers abroad and the civilian population at home. Lady Denman, director of the Land Army, set up county committees. The WLA set up accommodation in the neighbourhood of farms for the land girls. Young women were expected to take over from experienced male farm workers who were called up into the armed forces, or left for better-paid war work elsewhere.
The Bedfordshire county WLA headquarters was at St. Paul's Square, later moving to Harpur Street in June 1942 where it remained until November 1949.
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First intake of Milton Ernest hostel land girls, Harpur Street, Bedford. (Bedfordshire Times Archive), Bedfordshire Archives, Ref: BTNeg1290B |
Recruitment locally was slow and only a handful of volunteers signed up, 24 were serving by end of December 1939, 53 by December 1940 and 140 by December 1941. The land girls were on minimum pay for a 50 hour working week in summer and 48 hours in winter. Pay was 28 shillings (£1.40p) per week, with 14 shillings (70p) deducted for board and lodging. This was less than half the national average for unskilled labour in other occupations and 10 shillings (50p) a week less than male agricultural workers.
As a result of conscription in November 1941, Bedfordshire WLA had 506 land girls by December 1942, 792 by mid-1943 and 1006 in December 1943.
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| Land girls dining at the new Milton Ernest hostel, 1942, (Bedfordshire Times Archive), courtesy of Stuart Antrobus, Source: B Nichols, Ref:BTNeg1315/1315B |
From 1942 increasing numbers of women were being employed directly by Bedfordshire "War Ag" (Bedfordshire War Agricultural Executive Committee, or WAEC) and housed in hostels around the county.
They were transported daily to surrounding farms, according to the seasonal needs of the farmers. Large numbers of recruits were from London, Essex and the northern counties of England (especially Yorkshire mill towns}.
There were seventeen residential hostels housing large groups of Land Girls and accommodation ranged from 16 in a farmhouse to 40 in huts and, exceptionally, to 100 in a large country mansion in Cople. Each hostel was encouraged to be self-sufficient in growing its own vegetables.
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| 40 land girls were giving accommodation at the new Milton Ernest hostel, 1942, courtesy of Stuart Antrobus, Source: B Nichols. Ref:BTNeg1315/1315B |
Hostel girls benefited from the company and support of other land girls both when working and during their time off, but life could be lonely and isolated for single land girls working on private farms.
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| Inter-hostel rivalry, Sharnbrook House sports day, July 1945, Bedfordshire Archives, (Bedfordshire Times Archive), Ref: BTNeg2141 |
There were three training centres at Luton Hoo, Toddington Park and Ravensden. Some Land Girls attended 4 weeks of induction training in milking, arable work and animal husbandry before being sent to work.
Many land girls had to train on the job, but there were opportunities later to learn to drive tractors or do specialist training and pass tests to achieve proficiency certificates.
Farmers were set almost impossible challenges during the war. Bedfordshire War Ag. (Beds WAEC) set Bedfordshire farmers a target of 10,000 new acres to be ploughed up during 1940. Amazingly, they achieved 17,000 new acres of arable land.
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| Land Girls working on a haystack speaking to passing schoolboys at Great Barford, 13 May 1941, Bedfordshire Archives, (Bedfordshire Times Archive), Ref: BTNeg1081/1 |
Reclamation of previously uncultivated land was helped by the introduction of caterpillar tractors and other agricultural machinery from America, thanks to the Lend-Lease arrangement. Bedfordshire War Ag. was able to loan machinery to farmers who could not afford to buy their own and increasingly, land girls became expert mechanics on the farm.
At the beginning of the war, two thirds of Britain's food was imported but by the end of the war, two thirds of Britain’s food was produced at home. Bedfordshire's land girls played a vital role in increasing self-sufficiency during the war.
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Land Girls in Bedford High Street, V E Day, 8 May 1945 (Bedfordshire Times Archive) Ref: Z50/142/796 |
Their wartime contribution was finally recognised in 2007/2008 when the Government created a Veterans Badge which could be applied for by any surviving Land Girls (and Lumber Jills of the Women's Timber Corps) and events were arranged in every county to celebrate their wartime efforts.
I will finish with a poem from Hilda Gibson, who was a Land Girl and wrote about what it meant to her to finally receive recognition to her contribution to the war:
We're still standing
Rally round the badge girls,
Welcome it with pride.
Remember those no longer
Walking by our side.
Eighty thousand volunteers
Of independent mind.
No marching, drilling or salutes,
Our roles were well defined.
Hard labour was our remit,
Each working hour to fill.
Livestock, crops and woodland
We nurtured with a will.
We found fresh fields and pastures new
In unfamiliar places.
Young sons of toil called up to arms,
Each man a girl replaces.
Frost bitten toes and fingers,
But wait! We soon will find
As Shelley wrote: "If winter comes,
Can spring be far behind?"
Our joy was summer sunshine
And red gold autumn days
When leaves fell soft as snowflakes
And stirred the smoky haze.
As years roll by we live our lives,
The girls that time forgot.
We hoped one day someone would say:
"You did well, thanks a lot".
Now better late then never,
At last we hear the call,
The Cinderella army
Is going to the ball.
By Hilda Gibson, Land Girl
There are very few Land Girls still, alive. Zeita Hole nee Trott, who lives in Bedford, is one of them. Here are some links to her story from the BBC VE Day commemorations:
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Stuart Antrobus for the information and images provided in his publication ‘We wouldn’t have missed it for the world, The Womens Land Army in Bedfordshire 1939 – 1950’, and Bedfordshire Archives for the use of their archive images. The sound clips are taken from the BBC Peoples War archive for which I would like to acknowledge the work of Ann Hagen and Jenny Ford.
Written by Lydia Saul, Keeper of Social History
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