Bedfordshire Land Girl Memoir
Bedfordshire Women's Land Army
Stella Goldsmith nee Limon
Page 6
Visiting concert parties entertain
During my time in the hostel we had a couple of visits from an ENSA (Entertainments National Services Association comprised of both professional and amateur performers) group. Nobody famous, needless to say. I think there were either three or four in the group and to us they seemed very ancient and certainly they werent very talented. There was a singer, a comedian and a tap dancer. I suppose we were an ungrateful lot as they did give up their time to come and entertain us but Ive a feeling if it hadnt been compulsory to stay in and listen, numbers would have been very low. We did have a lady who came and played the piano playing songs from musicals of the Twenties. As she had sheet music with her we were able to have some good sing songs and I did learn all the lyrics.
There are so many random memories that must have got all jumbled up in my mind but here are two of the one that stand out.
Market garden
A really nice job we were sent to was just along the road from the hostel. It was a herb farm which supplied herbs to a firm in St. Albans. The weather while we were there was perfect and we had the job of weeding and hoeing. It wasnt hard work, it was quiet and the gorgeous smells of all the plants made us feel as if we were on holiday. The only drawback was the countless bees that swarmed round the plants but they didnt bother us if we didnt bother them.
It was a lovely assignment that herb farm but unfortunately once wed cleared up the back log of weeding the old boys working there could manage on their own again.
VIP visit to hostel
Lady Churchill (wife of the wartime Prime Minister) made an official visit to the hostel at Leighton Buzzard one day. Why she picked the middle of the day I dont know but we had to dash back to the hostel in our half-hour lunch break so that an official picture could be taken.
Signs of D-Day
Another farm that stood out was one just outside Hockliffe, on the road to Woburn. Im not sure what we were actually doing, but what stands out is working in the field when suddenly the whole sky was full of planes passing overhead in their hundreds. I suppose they must have come from all the airfields in the area. That lunch time we sat on a bench outside the farm kitchen window (I dont think in all my time in the Land Army that a farmers wife ever invited us into the house). The radio was on and we listened to the news that D-Day (the Allied forces landing in Northern France) had started.
Stuart Antrobus Historian/Author
Page last updated: 10th March 2014