Working in farming: Land Army
Edna May Shenton Nee Woolford 85 years
When I first joined the Land Army in 1941with my friend Whitty, we were sent down to Atherstone to a hostel where we joined other girls from the north we had all come from Yorkshire. At the hostel we were supplied with our uniforms and each day we either went out on our bikes or in the lorry to different farms around Atherstone. Some of us girls had never rode a bike before so you can imagine the shouting and laughing that went on, anyway after a few falls we manage to the art of cycling.
That’s me second from the left Edna Shenton nee Woolford
Some farmers didn’t appreciate us and could be quite hostile towards us but after a while they started to see how hard we worked. I was sent to a farm near Nuneaton for a fortnight and cycled daily from the hostel. Mr & Mrs Hayward (who managed Elms farm) asked me if I would like to go and live-in at the farm, I didn’t know what to do but after consulting my parents they said they would be happy to know I didn’t have the daily jaunt of travelling each day to Elms farm.
I had also met my husband to be who was in the RAF and of course living-in at Elms farm meant my days were much longer. My day started at 5.30 am and milking begin at 6 am and ended with the washing and cleaning of the milking machine after 6 pm milking in the evening so by the time this had been done it was bed time, and this daily ritual was carried out 7 days a week, so I had very little time off.
Sunday afternoon I used to have bath in front of the fire as Elms farm didn’t have the luxury of a bathroom, as you can imagine. Mr & Mrs Hayward, and Mr & Mrs Tandy the owners of the farm all had a nap on a Sunday afternoon so I took the opportunity to have a relaxing bath in a tin bath in front of the fire.
Mrs Hayward was a lovely person and I think she really enjoyed me being around to have girly chats and laughs, she was such a wonderful cook and worked so hard.
Mr & Mrs Hayward were very kind to their animals which made farm life pleasurable. They had two big cart horses Short and Blossom, seven cats, two sheep dogs called Nell and Shep. The two dogs were so go at rounding the animals up and each night the dogs would take a curst of bread into the mixing pen, which was lovely and warm for them.
That’s me in the middle of the first row with my friend Whitty (Beatrice Whittingham) on my right.
The work was hard sometimes but you got used to it and of course summer was lovely out in the fields, haymaking and harvesting. The winters were much colder than what we have today but again you got used to it after a while. Haymaking and harvesting in the summer we had extra help from the Land Army girls from the hostel, so there was plenty of laughing and fun going on.
Nell and Shep the two sheep dogs on one of my rare days off!
I stayed at Elms farm until the end of the war and I then married by husband who had been shot down on a flying mission over Germany and became a prisoner of war for 12 months.
We set-up home about 8 miles from the Elms farms so we regularly visited and when my son was born Mr & Mrs Hayward became my sons god parents.
Sadly Mr Tandy died just after the war had ended. Mr & Mrs Hayward died shortly after selling the farm and brought two cottages overlooking it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my story and may be it will bring back memories to others who have experienced similar situations.
Page last modified: 23 July 2008