Working with a horse

Most of the work was done using horses and we learnt how to harness this huge cart horse and put it in the cart. He was a really patient animal and managed not to tread on our toes as we struggled to back him into the shafts. It was a nice job carting muck to the fields down the road and putting it in piles to be spread later. It was autumn and glorious weather. However, one day we were busy, when the farmers son came over and said he had a job for me. It was to take the horse to the smithy in Toddington to be shod.

Before Id realised quite what was happening they had put a sack on the horses back and a rope round his neck and slung me up on to his back. Setting off I had to go down the hill and I kept slipping up on to the horses head and as I couldnt grip with my legs as they were out almost at right angles I just had to cling on to his mane. Then going up on the other side I kept slipping down to his tail. Eventually we reach the blacksmith's and there I had to sit while people outside there really had a good laugh at my expense - there was no way I could get down from that animals back.

Going back it was the same thing in reverse. I think the horse realised that if he spun out the journey he would have no further work to do that day. I was so late getting back that the farmer and one of his workers had come out to look for me. They thought it highly amusing. Any rate I, like the horse, had managed to pass a pleasant afternoon doing no work at all.

Dancing in our spare time

As for leisure time in the 1940s, I have fond memories of ballroom dancing. Before I joined the Land Army I regularly went dancing at the George Hotel, Luton (long gone to make way for the Arndale shopping centre) where they held a dance most Saturdays and I can remember New Years Eve dances there.

We also went to dances in the Assembly Rooms in Luton. Every winter the indoor pool in Waller Street would be covered and that made one of the best floors to dance on that I ever experienced. At the time it was strictly Victor Sylvester-type (strict tempo) dancing. I dont know whether rock and roll and jive had started in America but it certainly hadnt reached our neck of the woods. I suppose it really changed when the American Forces came over.

Every so often there were dances in the hostel when members of the Air Force stationed near Leighton Buzzard would be invited. They used to be great fun and a welcome break from routine. One drawback would be food. In order to provide refreshments at the dance, the ingredients would be taken from our ordinary rations for about a month beforehand. This, of course, meant even plainer food and no treats. Still, come the night of the dance, and the fight to bag a bath and a place by the wash basin, plus the chance to wear civvies (non-uniform clothes) we all agreed it was all well worth it. It was quite a novelty to dance to gramophone music as other dance venues always had a live band.

Talking about live bands, a friend and I went to London for the weekend on several occasions. We would leave after work on a Saturday and book into the YWCA hostel which was situated somewhere at the back of Selfridges (department store). There we would be allocated a bed in a dormitory, the beds just being curtained off from one another. After changing into glad rags (best dresses) we would make our way by tube (underground railway) to the Hammersmith Palais where we would dance to the likes of Joe Loss and all the other famous dance bands of that era. After the dance it was a case of finding our way in the blackout to the tube and back to the hostel sometimes with a male escort, sometimes not. I remember on one occasion we got on a train on the wrong platform and ended up having to go round nearly the whole of the Inner Circle to reach Marble Arch. We had to race at top speed to the hostel and just got there as they were locking the doors.

Second-class service

In the centre of Leighton Buzzard there was a canteen for the armed forces but for the first few weeks we were not allowed in there as we were classed as civilians. When the soldiers and airmen found out there was a huge row and they threatened to boycott the place so the rules were changed. After that we would walk up there once or twice a week for a cup of tea and a bun and a sing- song round the piano. It was at this time I first started to write to my husband-to-be. Vera, his sister, would be writing him a letter and if we were running late Id write part of the letter while she got ready to go out and eventually I started to write to him myself.

Page last updated: 18th February 2009