The Estate - Bevendean History Project
Life in the Land Army during World War 2
Memories of Eileen Jones
I started work at the Standard Tablet Company, in Hove when I was 14. The work was pretty grim and after three years I volunteered to join the Land Army. The idea of working in the fresh air really appealed to me, and it meant that I could leave home. It wasn't long before I got my orders, and was given a chit to get to Lewes by train. I can remember, walking up the hill from Lewes Station when my case burst open and my clothes came out. A soldier helped me put them back and he had some rope in his pocket and tied it all up for me.
I went to the Land Army office and waited with other girls to find out where we were to go. We were issued with uniform; brown breeches, aertex shirts, green jerseys, an overcoat and a felt hat. We had a mackintosh like a black oilskin and a fisherman's style hat, which nobody liked very much but you had to wear them or get wet through. Also, I got a permit to buy a Thermos flask to take a hot drink to work. We wore our own scarves and I met a lady, who managed to obtain a yard or two of material, and cut it down to make three cornered scarves. We were pleased to pay her for a scarf because you could only buy one if you had a coupon.
Although we were not given any training, we were suitably equipped with a uniform however replacing it was difficult. Once a month we could go to the office in Lewes to replace things which were worn out. I'd never queued anywhere for so long, or told so many fibs in my life, I even made the holes a bit bigger just to get something new. After going to the Land Army office, we went to a tea room across the road and although it wasn't wonderful, everyone used to be in there and it was really nice to meet other Land Army girls. At first, I was sent to a billet at Hampden Park, mine was not a nice place and I was unhappy living there. We had to walk from our billets to the main road out of Eastbourne from where we were picked up and taken to where they needed us to work. When I started it was harvest time and after walking to the fields from the road, we had to collect the individual sheaves of wheat and stack them together to make stooks ready to be picked up by the wagons. We walked for miles and miles, it was a long day and very, very hard work but it was lovely to be out in the open.
There was however one thing that we all grumbled about because we thought it was unfair. We had to walk miles up to the fields from the main road to begin our work but the prisoners who were sent to work on the fields from Lewes Prison, were taken up in vans. Of course, it didn't dawn on us at the time it was done because otherwise the prisoners might abscond! After this I was sent to Jevington to work on a machine which made thatching mats to cover the ricks. It was a wonderful job by the side of the road so no walking across miles of fields. You fed straw into a machine, just like a massive sewing machine, and the mats it made were similar to the mats that people use on the beach, like a bamboo mat with two seams. Soon after this, many girls were sent back to Brighton because we were told there were not enough billets.
Once again, I was living at home and each day, we went to the market garden centre in Circus Street where there was a big wholesale market. We were picked up in a lorry and taken to different spots where we were needed to work. I wasn't very happy there; however, the ganger was a good lady who worked as hard as everybody else. For one job we were taken to a farm at South Heighton for potato picking, which meant bending all day long. That was made tolerable because the girls I was with were a good crowd and we tried to make it fun; to make light of difficult and hard things.
Later we were ordered by the War Agricultural Committee to report to the depot at Patcham and from then on, we were sent to different parts of Brighton, wherever land had been confiscated for growing food. It was all basic manual labour and whatever job came along you just did it, maybe pulling sugar beet, or cutting kale, we even went stone picking in the wheat fields during winter, a job done by children in Victorian days.
The worst job I ever did was at a farm opposite the Downs Hotel in Woodingdean, where now there are bungalows. The wartime Agricultural Committee had the power to take over any farm if it was not producing enough or had been neglected. You'd never believe the height of manure in the cowsheds it was higher than I am tall. I don't know how on earth the cows ever got in there! We had to pull out all the manure and clean the walls. As we pulled out shovels full, of filthy sloshy green black slime we tied scarves around our mouths so we didn't breathe it in because the stench was unbelievable. We also smoked to try to take the smell away.
When we'd cleared the manure, which was later spread on the fields, we had to scrape the walls so that we could whitewash them. You had to take it lightly and make it fun and laugh because it was really dreadful and we said that nowhere in the rest of our lives would we ever come any lower than manure scraping from walls. We all helped each other and I was lucky because being the youngest one the other girls mothered me, and yes, it was quite good actually, I was happy with them, very happy. One bitterly cold day when the snow was thick on the ground we were working on threshing and we were only allowed half an hour for lunch. We buried ourselves in the loose straw that had come from the threshing machine to eat our sandwiches. For fun we thought we'd paddle in the snow because it's supposed to do your circulation good. We took off our shoes and boots and paddled in the snow and dried our feet with old pieces of sacking but believe me it didn't work! At the time it seemed good fun and that's the kind of things that kept you going. The work was really hard, especially in the summer when you'd be working in the fields from half past seven in the morning to about ten o'clock at night. As well as working all day about twice a month we had to do fire watching. This was in the barns where the tractors were stored and we slept there on makeshift beds. It was hard to keep yourself awake. We were supposed to record sirens and raids in a book and I remember one morning the newsagent opposite the barns told us there'd been a siren in the night. We had all been asleep but he helped us out because he said, 'I know you girls are tired, but I'll tell you there was a raid in the night at... put it in the book!'
The social life was alright while you were in your best uniform. But I can remember getting on a bus coming back from Patcham, having done manure spreading and people moved away from me. Another time I remember going to the, Astoria cinema, and I hadn't changed the trousers that I'd been using at work in the fields that day. People actually got up and changed their seats but I didn't realise until I got outside that the warmth in the cinema brought out all the smell of the dung -1 never did that again! I left the Land Army in February 1946. We had to return most of the uniform, although we were allowed to keep the shoes and the overcoat. It was hard because after three years in the Land Army I'd worn out or grown out of all my civilian clothes. We were not given coupons or money to buy replacement clothes because Churchill reckoned that we didn't warrant it because we were civilians. But the thing that really hurt me was that I couldn't buy the bike which I had used on the farm.
A Land Army girl loading a tractor trailer in an unidentified field near the coast in Brighton, c1940. From the Brighton & Hove Museum image gallery.
One afternoon a few years ago I heard a radio programme about Land Girls which talked about the role we played during the war when the countryside had been drained of its traditional male workforce. The Land Army girls, milked, ploughed, sowed seeds, threshed and toiled on the land from morning until night to keep food production going. Imported food was in short supply for in his efforts to starve Britain into submission many ships had fallen to Hitler's U-boats. After Dunkirk when all our soldiers had been brought home, there was only three weeks supply of food left in this country? It shook me to hear that but it made me feel very proud in my mind and heart that I'd volunteered to work on the land to help keep our country free.
At the time we never got any official recognition but on 28th January 2008, sixty-two years after the end of the Second World War, Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Environment, announced the Government's decision to award a badge of recognition to female war veterans who worked on the Home Front to provide food and timber for the nation during the Second World War.
The specially designed badge recognised the tremendous efforts of the Women's Land Army and Women's Timber Corps and acknowledged the debt that the country owed them. The badge bears the Royal Crown and shows a gold wheat sheaf on a white background surrounded by a circlet of pine branches and pine cones to indicate the work of both the Land Army and the Timber Corps.
In Memory of Eileen Christina Jones 14th March 1926 to 8th April 2024.
I started work at the Standard Tablet Company, in Hove when I was 14. The work was pretty grim and after three years I volunteered to join the Land Army. The idea of working in the fresh air really appealed to me, and it meant that I could leave home. It wasn't long before I got my orders, and was given a chit to get to Lewes by train. I can remember, walking up the hill from Lewes Station when my case burst open and my clothes came out. A soldier helped me put them back and he had some rope in his pocket and tied it all up for me.
Eileen Jones in her Land Army Uniform about 1944
From Coldean Church Archives
From Coldean Church Archives
I went to the Land Army office and waited with other girls to find out where we were to go. We were issued with uniform; brown breeches, aertex shirts, green jerseys, an overcoat and a felt hat. We had a mackintosh like a black oilskin and a fisherman's style hat, which nobody liked very much but you had to wear them or get wet through. Also, I got a permit to buy a Thermos flask to take a hot drink to work. We wore our own scarves and I met a lady, who managed to obtain a yard or two of material, and cut it down to make three cornered scarves. We were pleased to pay her for a scarf because you could only buy one if you had a coupon.
Although we were not given any training, we were suitably equipped with a uniform however replacing it was difficult. Once a month we could go to the office in Lewes to replace things which were worn out. I'd never queued anywhere for so long, or told so many fibs in my life, I even made the holes a bit bigger just to get something new. After going to the Land Army office, we went to a tea room across the road and although it wasn't wonderful, everyone used to be in there and it was really nice to meet other Land Army girls. At first, I was sent to a billet at Hampden Park, mine was not a nice place and I was unhappy living there. We had to walk from our billets to the main road out of Eastbourne from where we were picked up and taken to where they needed us to work. When I started it was harvest time and after walking to the fields from the road, we had to collect the individual sheaves of wheat and stack them together to make stooks ready to be picked up by the wagons. We walked for miles and miles, it was a long day and very, very hard work but it was lovely to be out in the open.
There was however one thing that we all grumbled about because we thought it was unfair. We had to walk miles up to the fields from the main road to begin our work but the prisoners who were sent to work on the fields from Lewes Prison, were taken up in vans. Of course, it didn't dawn on us at the time it was done because otherwise the prisoners might abscond! After this I was sent to Jevington to work on a machine which made thatching mats to cover the ricks. It was a wonderful job by the side of the road so no walking across miles of fields. You fed straw into a machine, just like a massive sewing machine, and the mats it made were similar to the mats that people use on the beach, like a bamboo mat with two seams. Soon after this, many girls were sent back to Brighton because we were told there were not enough billets.
Once again, I was living at home and each day, we went to the market garden centre in Circus Street where there was a big wholesale market. We were picked up in a lorry and taken to different spots where we were needed to work. I wasn't very happy there; however, the ganger was a good lady who worked as hard as everybody else. For one job we were taken to a farm at South Heighton for potato picking, which meant bending all day long. That was made tolerable because the girls I was with were a good crowd and we tried to make it fun; to make light of difficult and hard things.
Later we were ordered by the War Agricultural Committee to report to the depot at Patcham and from then on, we were sent to different parts of Brighton, wherever land had been confiscated for growing food. It was all basic manual labour and whatever job came along you just did it, maybe pulling sugar beet, or cutting kale, we even went stone picking in the wheat fields during winter, a job done by children in Victorian days.
The worst job I ever did was at a farm opposite the Downs Hotel in Woodingdean, where now there are bungalows. The wartime Agricultural Committee had the power to take over any farm if it was not producing enough or had been neglected. You'd never believe the height of manure in the cowsheds it was higher than I am tall. I don't know how on earth the cows ever got in there! We had to pull out all the manure and clean the walls. As we pulled out shovels full, of filthy sloshy green black slime we tied scarves around our mouths so we didn't breathe it in because the stench was unbelievable. We also smoked to try to take the smell away.
When we'd cleared the manure, which was later spread on the fields, we had to scrape the walls so that we could whitewash them. You had to take it lightly and make it fun and laugh because it was really dreadful and we said that nowhere in the rest of our lives would we ever come any lower than manure scraping from walls. We all helped each other and I was lucky because being the youngest one the other girls mothered me, and yes, it was quite good actually, I was happy with them, very happy. One bitterly cold day when the snow was thick on the ground we were working on threshing and we were only allowed half an hour for lunch. We buried ourselves in the loose straw that had come from the threshing machine to eat our sandwiches. For fun we thought we'd paddle in the snow because it's supposed to do your circulation good. We took off our shoes and boots and paddled in the snow and dried our feet with old pieces of sacking but believe me it didn't work! At the time it seemed good fun and that's the kind of things that kept you going. The work was really hard, especially in the summer when you'd be working in the fields from half past seven in the morning to about ten o'clock at night. As well as working all day about twice a month we had to do fire watching. This was in the barns where the tractors were stored and we slept there on makeshift beds. It was hard to keep yourself awake. We were supposed to record sirens and raids in a book and I remember one morning the newsagent opposite the barns told us there'd been a siren in the night. We had all been asleep but he helped us out because he said, 'I know you girls are tired, but I'll tell you there was a raid in the night at... put it in the book!'
The social life was alright while you were in your best uniform. But I can remember getting on a bus coming back from Patcham, having done manure spreading and people moved away from me. Another time I remember going to the, Astoria cinema, and I hadn't changed the trousers that I'd been using at work in the fields that day. People actually got up and changed their seats but I didn't realise until I got outside that the warmth in the cinema brought out all the smell of the dung -1 never did that again! I left the Land Army in February 1946. We had to return most of the uniform, although we were allowed to keep the shoes and the overcoat. It was hard because after three years in the Land Army I'd worn out or grown out of all my civilian clothes. We were not given coupons or money to buy replacement clothes because Churchill reckoned that we didn't warrant it because we were civilians. But the thing that really hurt me was that I couldn't buy the bike which I had used on the farm.
A Land Army girl loading a tractor trailer in an unidentified field near the coast in Brighton, c1940. From the Brighton & Hove Museum image gallery.
One afternoon a few years ago I heard a radio programme about Land Girls which talked about the role we played during the war when the countryside had been drained of its traditional male workforce. The Land Army girls, milked, ploughed, sowed seeds, threshed and toiled on the land from morning until night to keep food production going. Imported food was in short supply for in his efforts to starve Britain into submission many ships had fallen to Hitler's U-boats. After Dunkirk when all our soldiers had been brought home, there was only three weeks supply of food left in this country? It shook me to hear that but it made me feel very proud in my mind and heart that I'd volunteered to work on the land to help keep our country free.
At the time we never got any official recognition but on 28th January 2008, sixty-two years after the end of the Second World War, Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Environment, announced the Government's decision to award a badge of recognition to female war veterans who worked on the Home Front to provide food and timber for the nation during the Second World War.
The specially designed badge recognised the tremendous efforts of the Women's Land Army and Women's Timber Corps and acknowledged the debt that the country owed them. The badge bears the Royal Crown and shows a gold wheat sheaf on a white background surrounded by a circlet of pine branches and pine cones to indicate the work of both the Land Army and the Timber Corps.
Womens Land Army Badge
Edited extracts from an oral history interview by Eileen Christina
Jones recorded at her home on 25th February 2009 for the © Oral
History Collection, Royal Pavilion and Museums (Brighton & Hove).In Memory of Eileen Christina Jones 14th March 1926 to 8th April 2024.
