Land Army
During the first six months of the Second World War, over thirty thousand men previously working in agriculture had joined the forces. The Women's Land Army was formed and by 1944 there were 80,000 women volunteers working on the land. About a third of the volunteers moved to the countryside from Britain's industrial cities. The jobs they took up during this time were jobs that had previously been deemed unfit for women to undertake.
Women in the Land Army wore green jerseys, brown breeches and brown felt hats. They did a wide range of jobs from milking and general farm work to cutting down trees and working in sawmills as well as controlling pests such as rats. Volunteers lived in hostels or on the farms where they worked. The work was very hard, the women worked long hours, especially during the summer.
"And me and Mavis, one farm we went on was just me and her, just two of us went out on the bikes, and he got us cleaning the bull pen out and it hadn’t been cleaned out for God knows how long. One layer, two layers and we’d put scarves round us noses, cos it smelt terrible and Mavis is a nice person she was a rough un’ a rough and tumble sort of girl she’d take anything and if anybody gave her any cheek she’d give it um back and that. But the old farmer came in, he said, ‘Do you good girls’ he said ‘That’s the best thing out, you get no disease while your sniffing that up!’" Rosemary
"It was the cowman who told me what work I had to do, he didn't like land girls, thought they were townies and useless. He used to see to the dairy and left the mucking out of the cowshed to me, I also helped with the milking, occasionally the cow kicked out, it’s foot landed in the bucket I was milking into. The cowman was none too pleased; he’d just scowl and say 'useless townies'. It didn't take me too long to get used to leaning 'into' the huge smelly animals, at least it kept me warm on cold days. He even got me clearing out blocked drains and breaking up stones to fill in the ruts in the lane. The sacks of cattle food were kept in the barn across the lane from the cowshed, they were very heavy. I think the only time I really rebelled was 
one day I had a sack of food on my back, got to the middle of the lane and dropped it saying, that's too heavy for me someone else can do it. I had digs in the village with some farm workers, they didn't have electricity it was candles all the week and an oil lamp on Sundays. Pointless really 'cos when I thought ‘at least I can see to do some mending’ I was told ‘not on a Sunday, Sunday is God's day’. I saved up any time off I had and went home once a month. My father came to visit me once and was invited to stay for tea, when he saw everyone digging their knife in the jar to get some jam he looked quite shocked and asked for a jam spoon, I felt really embarrassed. I cannot remember how long I worked there or who decreed I should be moved, him, me or the land army big-wigs." Yvonne
"Potato picking, pulling mangels up, haymaking, when you got on the threshing machines you took a turn. If you went on top in the dip where you had to throw the sheaves into the thresher you had your turn on that. Then you’d go to bagging at the end where it all come out and then you’d go where the chaff was and you had to take your turns. I was scared stiff when I first went in that cos it’s like that and you’d go in it and the thresher’s there where you’d drop your things in and if you dropped yourself in it would come out all…" Rosemary
"We had just six weeks training to prepare us. I went to a place, near St. Albans in Hertfordshire. I did sort of learn to milk cows, by hand, no milking machines in those days but it didn’t prepare me for the totally different way of life I was about to embark on. The first farm they sent me to was near Ware, a farmer called Mr. Kittow. He was a man of few words, on pay day he would come to wherever I was working, count my money out into my hand and walk off. I just shoved the money in my dungarees pocket and carried on with my work." Yvonne