Timeline 1940

"Too Hard for Land Girls?": Talking about growing onions, Mr Mark Young, Junior, Sandy market gardener, said, "I don't think the land girls would stand the crawling" (Bedfordshire Times, 12 January 1940 p5).

"Hardy Land Girls": "Who was it that said that land girls would be unable to cope with the unpleasant jobs to be found on any farm? Had the critic seen two girls picking brussell sprouts on a farm at Thurleigh throughout the recent severe weather he would have revised his opinion. These girls are still busy among the sprouts and are making light of work which is not considered to be easy even for experienced hands." (Bedfordshire Times, 9 Feb 1940 p5).

Liz Day tests a new rotavator for market gardens

End of poor weather conditions now means farmers are behind in their work. Bedfordshire War Agricultural Committee says farmers must make a determined attempt to catch up with arrears of work, and day and night ploughing will be necessary.

The Minister of Agriculture, asked about how the country can maintain and secure an adequate supply of labour for farming, especially in view of the call up of farm workers 20 years old, stated that the Women's Land Army is one of the answers to the problem.

Calling up of farm workers aged 20 years upwards who have not received six months postponement through being in "reserved occupations".

First edition cover of The Land Girl magazine, April 1940

"Appeal for Land Girls at Bedford": Appeals for recruits to the Women's Land Army...were made to a public meeting in the Corn exchange, Bedford on Thursday afternoonLady Lucas Tooth, chief speaker, said that "the war of 1940 was a women's war in a sense which could not have been imagined in 1914. Today women were not only replacing men - they were running essential services at home (in this country)".

Empire Day certificate

Miss N. Bowers, for the Women's Land Army, said that recruits were needed for farm work and members of the W.V.S. (Women's Voluntary Service) could help best by using their personal influence on suitable young women." (Bedfordshire Times, 3 May 1940 p7).
Farmers' success at achieving ploughing targets.

June

WLA recruitment parade turns on to Embankment from St. Paul's Square.
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times Archive)

Only about 40 land girls at present working in Bedfordshire.
Rally of the Women's Land Army in Bedford on Saturday 1 June 1940, where intending recruits could obtain full particulars of enrolment and conditions. Recruiting parades held from 11am to 12.30 and 2.30 to 4.30pm, consisting of land girls on a farm wagon and a tractor (Bedfordshire Times, 31 May 1940 p7).
Land girls reception, after the rally, at the Swan Hotel, Bedford. Ten land girls presented with six months' good service badges.

Dorothy Hurren at Chawston Manor Farm, 1942

Fifty volunteers employed in Bedfordshire, so far (The Land Girl, July 1940 (No.4, Vol. 1) ).

Milton Ernest Hostel girls getting down to the job

Mrs. J. Dallas reports that 60 copies of The Land Girl magazine (TLG) had been sold in Bedfordshire (56 actually employed to that date) (The Land Girl, September (No.6, Vol.1) p10) .

Mrs. J. Dallas reports 65 magazine subscribers to The Land Girl in Bedfordshire (as against 74 enrolled members, some 66 of them working in the county). Miss G.M. Farrar, County Secretary, donated a first copy to every volunteer at that time in training or employment in Bedfordshire (The Land Girl, November 1940 (No.8, Vol. 1) p10).
WLA "A Few Facts About What It Is Doing"
"At the end of October there were seventy-six members of the Women's Land Army in Bedfordshire, though this by no means represents all those who have been enrolled since the war, as there have been many transfers to other counties. Of these seventy-six working in this County, forty are employed in dairy work, one does a motor milk round, five are on poultry farms, two food production in private gardens, two as timber measurers under the Forestry Commission, and there are also a number of tractor drivers and general farm workers. Two land Army members have recently been married. There have been eighteen farmers and market gardeners who have been good enough to give preliminary training, many of whom have kept the trainee in regular employment. The general opinion in this County is that the Land Army is proving its worth." (Bedfordshire Times, 29 Nov 1940 p4) .

Fifty five land girls employed in Bedfordshire (official figures listed in The Women's Land Army (1944) p95). (There was often a difference between numbers enrolled and numbers employed in a county.)
Lady Denman, Honorary Director of the WLA: "Prejudice among farmers against the employment of women does make it hard but the service the land girls have given during the past year has won admiration from employing farmers."

Page last updated: 10th March 2014