Land Girls
Employed to work on farms during WW2
The Women’s Land Army
In both the World Wars there was a real danger of Britain running out of food. As well as the German attacks on ships bringing food in, there were fewer men at home to work the land as many of the labourers were fighting in the army.
So the Women’s Land Army was set up and thousands of women and girls volunteered to become farm workers. Most of them had lived in towns and had no knowledge of country life; they were mill workers, shop assistants or typists.
They had to learn new skills, adjust to hard, physical work, and often also to very basic living conditions, but most of them enjoyed the new life and some chose to stay in farming after the war had ended.
The Women’s Land Army was vital to the success of the war effort.
“The land army fights in the fields. It is in the fields of Britain that the most critical battle of the present war may well be fought and won”
Lady Denman, Director WLA
“When you joined up as a Land Girl you had to pick what you wanted to do, you could go on the land, pick potatoes, pick the apples…and I didn’t want to go in a hostel, a lot of the girls went in hostels with 20 or 30 of you all together…. but I always wanted to go what they called ‘private’,so you went to a farm and there was just you, so I really went in for milking. When I first had a go at milking the farmer says to me “You won’t be any good, you can’t get any out” and I couldn’t! I couldn’t get any out at all!”
Ann Smith, Land Girl at Upper Broughton