The English Garden – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 103

the fields of Britain that the most critical battle of the

present war may be fought or won,” Lady Denman

is reported to have said. According to Cherish

Watkins, Women’s Land Army historian and owner

of the eponymous website womenslandarmy.co.uk,

“She was a phenomenal woman and she was really

keen to show that women could carry out farm work

at a time when there was prejudice that women

couldn’t do men’s work.”

On signing up, Land Girls were issued with a

uniform that included corduroy breeches, dungarees,

knee-length socks and regulation jerseys. They

received a pin, too, “and had to pledge themselves

for the duration of the war”, notes Cherish. In The

Women’s Land Army, published in 1944, Vita

Sackville-West describes squash courts at Balcombe

Place stacked high with folded uniforms waiting to

be distributed to new conscripts.

Being a Land Girl wasn’t without its challenges,

particularly for those who knew nothing of farming

life. “It was physically demanding work, and the

recruitment posters oered a rose-tinted view of

what life would be like,” Cherish explains. “You

have to have balance and perspective: the Women’s

Land Army gave a lot of women independence

because they earned money and it was their first

chance to move away from home. But they could

also feel isolated, living away from home with

farmers and their families.”

In Essex, Beth Chatto took on Land

Girls to help on the family fruit farm,

but her biographer and garden historian

Catherine Horwood notes that Beth

found her assistants rather trying. “She

wrote about how incompetent they

were. London girls were sent to work

in Essex, but when they arrived from

the East End they couldn’t tell one end

of a cow from the other and were quite

horrified by it all,” she notes. “Although

she was jealous of their uniforms...”

Vita Sackville-West had similar

thoughts. “I think the credit which

some of these girls deserve can

scarcely be exaggerated. I really do.

Heaven knows that I have sometimes wished I

might never see a Land-girl again...But how easily

one’s exasperation melts away!” Cherish Watkins

elaborates: “For many women this was their first

Top left & right Uniform

for Land Girls included

corduroy breeches,

regulation jerseys and

knee-length socks.

Above For many women,

joining the Women’s

Land Army oered them

a first taste of freedom.

Right Wartime

propaganda posters

paint a romantic image,

but the work of a Land

Girl was incredibly hard.

IMAGES

ALAMY