They Fought in the Fields

by Nicola Tyrer

"They came from the cities: mill girls, machinists, shop assistants, typists, barmaids, milliners and manicurists - and when it came to country life they were as green as the grass they found there." "Their heroic mission: to feed a nation whose menfolk were away fighting for freedom on land, sea and air. Initially their efforts were met with scorn by a community famed for its conservatism; they were teased and humiliated, locked in with dangerous bulls, subjected to endless sexual innuendo. But before long the farmers were having to eat their words and acknowledge that the Women's Land Army was a rip-roaring success." "By the spring of 1940, two million new acres had been broken to the plough. Not content with feeding hens and milking cows, women became ace mechanics; a thousand land girls volunteered as rat catchers; others drove giant excavators in vital land reclamation schemes, felled trees for pit props, ran mobile threshing gangs, and mastered the ancient art of thatching." "Unf