Chapter two - Land Army Days

Dorothy aged 17

It was there on the station I met Flossie Hill. She was to be my friend and companion all the years we were in the Land Army. It took us the best part of a day to finally reach Penzance, where we were met by an official and told a party of us were to go by lorry to 'Kenegie Hostel.' This hostel turned out to be a lovely hotel taken over for the duration of the war. By this time I was feeling so homesick for my Dad and our Margaret. I was seventeen, hardly made a decision for myself in my life. Sheffield seemed a million miles away; I wasn't the only one who cried herself to sleep that night. Soon, we were too busy to feel homesick. We would go to different farms, as we were needed. On one farm, the farmer set a group of us hoeing a huge field of cabbages, when he came back at the end of the day, he was speechless to find we had hoed all the young cabbages and left the weeds! I'd write home and say how I was taking to my new life. I remember the first present I sent my Dad was a cucumber of all things! Well, I could hardly send him a dozen new laid eggs.

Land army girls drinking cider

Our first few weeks in the land army were very hard; at times we thought our backs were breaking. The farmers thought at first we city girls would never take the place of their farm labourers. But with our hard work they really did appreciate all we did. I loved harvest time, no combined harvesters then to complete the job in one operation. The sheaves would have to be stooped so they could dry out, then gathered and fed into the threshing machine. This was a huge throbbing monster we had to stand on top and feed the sheaves into. The farmer's wife would bring food out to us, and we would stop long enough to eat our Cornish pasties and saffron cakes. We would be ravenous and not all farms fed us generously. Most of the time we had to rely on the packed lunch from the hostel, and this was never enough for us. We had our rations like every one else; I suppose we had more eggs, cheese, fruit and vegetables.

Dorothy, top row, second from left

We would work from dawn to dusk if the weather was good all we did when we got back to the hostel was have a bath and collapse into bed.

Potato picking was a backbreaking job, you would have to fill and carry 56lb sacks to be weighed then carried to the horse and cart. The farmer would store potatoes in an out building and cover in straw. In wintertime we would be called upon to sort out these "potato pies" as they were called. It was a stinking job if some of them had gone rotten, and then we would be troubled with rats.

Some land girls lived on farms and not in a hostel, and would be required to milk by hand the cows twice a day seven days a week. Cowsheds are notoriously cold, especially in winter. I kept away from cows as much as I could. I never saw myself as a rosy-cheeked milkmaid. Nearly all the farms we went to were very poor; it is only since the post war years that farmers have had a much better standard of living.

Dorothy, first from left

Fun in the snow

Not all the jobs were enjoyable, but with the fresh air, the beautiful countryside and the friendships we made and of course it was wartime. We never needed make up; we had beautiful suntans, no longer did we need the leg makeup we used to put on our legs back home. I don't think many of us moisturised our faces before going to bed or out in the sun. All of us who still keep in touch have pretty good complexions. Beauty consultants please note when advertising 30 a jar anti-wrinkle cream.