Bedfordshire Land Girl Memoir
Bedfordshire Women's Land Army
Stella Goldsmith nee Limon
Page 7
Land girl drivers
On one occasion Vera and I were picked with four other girls to go on a drivers course in Bedford. Unfortunately on the Saturday before, someone went down with chickenpox. I had to have a letter from my doctor stating that I had had the illness previously. I couldnt obtain it until the Monday so missed the first day of the course so was disqualified. Ive often bitterly regretted that. Learning to drive round the streets of Bedford, where road traffic was very scarce due to the lack of petrol would have been easier. I did go on a tractor driving course, learning to drive those Ford tractors. They were brutes to start and you needed the strength of a navvy to swing the starting handle. We practised right at the top of Dunstable Downs. I caused great consternation as I disappeared over the edge and out of sight. The instructor thought Id plummeted straight down the other side. But I was progressing along the side of the hill but over the horizon. Luckily I was never called upon to use this skill.
Unfair treatment & discontent
It was shortly after this that I ended up in disgrace. Along with about ten other girls I caught dysentery - at least thats what they called it, more like gastro- enteritis. Wed been laid up for the best part of the week and I was the last to recover. On the Saturday morning the others had returned to work but I was yet to get the doctors clearance that day. When I got back from the doctors I was told that as I hadnt been to work on that day I couldnt go home. This struck me as very unfair so I disobeyed the warden and went anyway.
On the Monday I was informed that I was insubordinate and was being transferred to the hostel at Cople. I was really furious about the transfer and immediately sent off for a form to apply for a place in the Emergency Teachers Training Scheme. When I left school I wanted to study as a nursery school teacher but in those days, while it was a two year course for an ordinary teacher, a nursery course was three years so much for some peoples idea that when you gained more experience you could get to teach older children. Dad would have to guarantee that hed pay my fees for the full three years no grants. He said that with two other children and the start of the war he wouldnt give that commitment.
I had no intention of leaving the land army before the transfer. When I joined I had intended to transfer to the Wrens when I was old enough but it was winter and I didnt want people to say that I couldnt take the hardship, then in the summer I was having too much fun, what with all the air force personnel helping us with the harvest and so on I never did transfer (to the Wrens).
Cople WLA hostel
In Cople we were housed in the manor house, a lovely old building. I remember the beautiful staircase which we werent allowed to use. We were housed in bunks in bedrooms. I was in a top bunk and can remember being nearly flung out of bed when a V2 (German rocket-driven bomb) landed in a field nearby. It didnt do any damage I dont know whether they (the German air force) were aiming for Cardington or whether it was just a random thing. I really hated those rockets. Youd hear the engine at first and then it would cut out and all you could do was count and sigh with relief if you heard the explosion and you knew you were safe until the next one.
As we were close to Bedford, Vera and I would cycle there in the evening and I can remember coming over a bridge in the blackout, hitting a stone and flying over the handlebars. I badly cut my leg and for the only time when I reached the hostel I was allowed to use the main staircase not quite sure why. The injury must have been worse than I thought (I didnt examine it) but I went to work as usual next morning when I was supposed to have stayed in and rested it.
At Cople we worked for Mark Young who seemed to own most of the land surrounding the village. A lot of time we were pulling sugar beet. Hard work, pulling one in each hand, banging them together to remove the dirt, then slicing the tops off with a machete-type knife. As I said, hard work and a miserable job when the leaves were wet as youd be soaked after a few minutes.
Another job was pulling rhubarb. Mark Young must have had acres of the stuff. Not a bad job if it wasnt for the toads. There seemed to be dozens of them and theyd be half buried near the plants and covered in dust so that you didnt detect them until you touched them. Ugh! Wed be working away and then thered be a scream and we knew someone had encountered a toad.
Stella left the Womens Land Army in 1945, after three years wartime service, and trained as a teacher in Coventry before taking up her first post at Dallow Road Nursery School in Luton. She married Vera Goldsmiths brother, Ron, in 1947 and later moved to Australia, in 1986. She has three sons, six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren and lives in Horsley, New South Wales.
