The Land Army

The Women's Land Army was originally established by the British government during the First World War. Women were needed to work on farms as labourers because most men had been conscripted into the army. By 1917 over 260,000 women had registered for work. After the war they were disbanded.

At the start of World War Two the government realised that women would be needed to help again. They began a campaign to get as many young women to join the Land Army as possible. The first appeal for women to enlist in Clacton was placed in the Essex Times and Gazette on 27 th May 1939. Local women aged eighteen and over were invited to write to the War Agricultural Committee, which had been set up by the government to oversee the organisation of the Land Army.

The War Agricultural Committee ordered that all unused land across England should be ploughed up so that vegetables could be grown. This was partly because Hitler had ordered the German planes to bomb boats that were sailing to England loaded with food. Winston Churchill, the Prime minister at the time, and his government were concerned that people would not have enough to eat.

By September 1939 the War Agricultural Committee had formed thirteen area committees and one of those was the Essex branch. They were ordered to find 40,000 acres of spare land to be ploughed up. In Clacton several sites were chosen by the local council including Albany, Connaught and Lancaster Gardens, which were all ploughed up and potatoes grown there instead.

Many local girls applied to join the Land Army. They had to report to the labour exchange in Clacton (now known as the job centre). One local lady named Dorothy remembers going there with her friend. They were both sent to Colchester for their medical examinations. They were examined by a doctor to make sure they were fit enough for work, and then told to go home and wait for their uniforms to arrive. Neither of them were asked if they knew anything about gardening.

Another local lady Betty, also tried to enlist for work in the Land Army with her friend, but she was only sixteen in 1939 and so was not accepted, as you had to be eighteen to join. She waited and when she was eighteen her call up papers arrived so she re-applied to join the Land Army.

Even though all over the country thousands of acres of spare land was being ploughed up there still was not enough. At the beginning of 1940 the government ordered that one and half million acres was to be ploughed by March 31 st ready for the growing season. They told farmers across the country that they would be paid £2 for each acre they used for the war effort. They also ordered that the Land Girls should take it in turns with the farmers to drive their tractors. This meant that they were running for sixteen hours a day seven days a week, when weather permitted. The land girls had to drive them at night using special regulation lights that faced downward on the ground.

New slogans began to appear in the local Clacton paper such as “Ploughing on farms in as vital as arms” and “Lighten our ships of food and fodder – Forward to Victory” or “Make no mistake- ploughing is the key to victory- and the key is in your hands”. At times information appeared in the Clacton Gazette explaining why it was important to grow crops. “You cannot grow guns and planes but you can grow more food and fodder crops, so releasing ships to carry guns and planes” (East Essex Gazette. 1940. April 8 th . p8)

Still there were not enough women to work the land. The Essex Federation of the Women's Institute were asked to form an Emergency Land Corps. They were also then employed on the land along with some conscientious objectors and a few soldiers who were waiting to go off to fight the war. Local boys up to the age of eighteen were also asked to work on farms and smallholdings when they were not at school. Many Clacton schoolboys helped.

The government still needed more land for growing crops and kept up the pressure on local councils to provide more ground. In November 1940 Clacton council held a meeting to decide which other areas they could spare. It was decided to plough up part of the recreation ground, but not the cricket pitch as a lot of money had been spent making it nice. So the council allowed other areas to be ploughed instead. These were Old Road playing fields and football ground, the land next to the railway line by Burrs Road and more of the Gardens. Connaught Gardens North was used to grow carrots, Lancaster Gardens, potatoes, and other areas had onions growing on them. By February 1942 the council reported that these portions of land had grown 62 tons of food during 1941 and many local Land Army girls were responsible for looking after these crops.

In Clacton the WVS employed a Mrs Houghton as a representative for the Land Army girls. She was known locally as the ‘Godmother' and in July 1942 she and the local girls were all invited to a mass rally of the Land Army at Writtle College in Chelmsford. There they were all introduced to the Duchess of Gloucester.

It was important that everyone made the best use of the food available, so Marks and Spencers on Pier Avenue began offering demonstrations of ‘wartime cookery' at the store in 1942. One of the easiest foods to prepare was the potato and many dishes were created using them. The poem ‘Song of Potato Pete' written at the time shows just how versatile they were during those years.

‘Song of Potato Pete'
Potatoes old, potatoes new,
Potatoes (in salad) cold,
Potatoes baked or mashed or fried,
Potatoes whole, potatoes pied,
Enjoy them all, including chips,
Remembering spuds don't come in ships.
(Clacton and Times. 1942. Oct 17 th )

Food Facts no 119. The Ministry of Food. London West 1.

Another poem written in 1942 tells the story of a Land Girl working on a summer's day.

Land Girl Poem
I watched her hoeing in the wheat,
An English girl so fair,
The sea of green enwrapped her feet,
And golden gleamed her hair.
The larks were singing in the sky,
She did not seem to heed,
But bending down unceasingly,
She hoed and hoed the weed.
But when I heard the distant drone,
As winged men rode the air,
I saw that as she stood alone,
Her lips moved in a prayer.
And down her neck a teardrop wound,
I turned my face away,
That field of wheat seemed holy ground,
I could no longer stay.

W Hooper of Weeley

(Gazette and Times. June 6 th . p 4)

The Land Army were responsible for all kinds of jobs on the land during the war. As well as general farm work, such as ploughing, sowing, harvesting and threshing some like Betty had to catch and kill vermin such as rats and dig drains. Others were set to work chopping trees down and working in sawmills. These ladies were called ‘The Timber Corps'. The work was hard, the hours long and the pay low. After deductions for food and lodging most women in the Land Army took home less than £1.12d per week.

Pest Destruction, 1944

When the war ended in 1945 the Women's Land Army continued for another five years, finally being disbanded in 1950. In Clacton several ladies got together in the late 1960's to arrange reunions and from 1970 they were held every year. Betty remembers that several coaches used to arrive in the town for the reunions. Ivy Benson and others used to entertain them. They were great fun and it was lovely to see her old friends each year.

Betty still goes to the Cenotaph each year and marches in the parade with a few other Land Army and Timber Corps ladies.