Land Girl - The Happiest Years of My Early Life

A Memoir of Service in the Women's Land Army 1939-46

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Welcome to LandGirls.Me

As I approach my 90th year, my fondest memories of my early life are those of my time as a Land Girl. Turned into paper memoir in 2008, the interest in Land Girl memoirs as a genre made me think about sharing my story on the web. Here it is. Please enjoy it.

Finished for Now – Land Girls.Me a Memoir

April 12, 2014 By LG-Admin Leave a Comment

For my first try at using Twitter and Facebook, I am going to try sending this post announcing that my memoir of my time in the Women’s Land Army as a Land Girl working in Lancashire, England is complete. Not only have I managed to get all my book up on the web at LandGirls.Me, but we did a site redesign too. A new WordPress theme better complements our design and material. So we really do have something to be proud of, and it was all completed before my upcoming 90th birthday. What more could anyone want than that.

Please provide feedback on the website. I am new to all this and want to do a good as job as possible in letting those interested know about one Land Girls very representative experience.

Welcome to Land Girls

February 14, 2014 By LG-Admin Leave a Comment

Born in Liverpool, England in 1924, I did not have a happy home for my early childhood. Things seemed to get worse with the advent of the second world war when I was fifteen. But along with the misery the war brought, it brought my salvation in a ticket out of my Liverpool home and into the Women’s Land Army as Land Girl. Instituted to train women for working on the land, and to replace all the men missing from England’s farms who were off fighting in the war, it enabled me to train for farm work, and to leave Liverpool for the countryside.

And so it was, a physically ill young girl, who was unhappy in her circumstances got the advantage of training, and physically demanding work in a rural environment. My experience was the making of me. As reflected in the subtitle of my memoir, these were the happiest years of my early life.

In Land Girls, I tell my story of how I became a Land Girl and my life on the farms that I worked on, in particular, Marshall in the Trough of Bowland. But I also tell of how this wonderful experience that I had set me up for the rest of my life. It helped me get a good job back in Liverpool when I finished my service. It was in Liverpool too that I met my husband John Flann, getting married in 1955. After marriage and starting a family – we were blessed with two fine sons, Christopher and Nicholas – I used much of housekeeping experience learned at Marshaw to look after my family. I would often tell them stories of time as a Land Girl, but it was an experience that was simply part of me, it no longer defined me.

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Appendix – The Bowland Fells

February 7, 2014 By LG-Admin Leave a Comment

Appendix

The Bowland Fells

The Bowland Fells are in north east Lancashire butting the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales to the east. Marshaw was at the westerly extremity. They are areas of isolated, desolate, diverse and unspoiled high heather peat bog and moor laid on gritstone, often cloud covered and rising to nearly 1600’, with sharp cut steeply falling cloughs in the fell sides, deep valleys, small rivers and winding becks in their bottoms, a habitat for rare birds. Continue Reading

Recognition at Last For Land Girls

February 6, 2014 By LG-Admin 2 Comments

Chapter 8

Recognition at Last for Land Girls

As you can see from my story here, many Land Girls from cities served faithfully in agricultural environments to the betterment of themselves, the country as a whole, and the individual agricultural employer. Like me, many quit at the end of the war to return to their previous lives. No help was provided to these Land Girls returning to the cities, a state of affairs that infuriated Lady Denham our head found so much that she resigned in 1945.Continue Reading

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Epilogue – Life After Being a Land Girl in the WLA

February 5, 2014 By LG-Admin Leave a Comment

Chapter 7

Epilogue

Leaving my wheelbarrow behind me with much regret – and it was heavy wooden barrows similar to that shown at the end of chapter 6 that I had used countless times to muck out shippons, stalls, stables and sties, I returned to Ramilies Road, Liverpool with a heavy heart, but full of determination to make the best of it. I had to get my parents back on their feet, and see to the needs of young brother John. Then I had to look to myself, I needed to work on my life after being a Land Girl.Continue Reading

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Last and Best Assignment as a Land Girl: Marshaw – The Trough of Bowland

February 4, 2014 By LG-Admin 1 Comment

Chapter 6

Marshaw – The Trough of Bowland

And so I went to Marshaw, passing through Abbeystead on the way, but this time it was different.Continue Reading

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Second Assignment as a Land Girl: Holt Hall Farm, Liverpool – Tragedy and Deliverance

February 3, 2014 By LG-Admin 2 Comments

Chapter 5

Holt Hall Farm Liverpool, Tragedy and Deliverance

This episode I recall with little pleasure.

Having sorted out things at home, and as matters got no better in future years in dealing with them I always thought of myself as the juggler spinning plates, I went off to Holt Hall Farm. It was on the easterly outskirts of Liverpool at Gateacre, and for its day quite large, carrying a dairy herd of over 50 milking cows supplying milk locally. Holt Farm also had  pasture  and arable land of a considerable acreage. There were  no dogs,  sheep, pigs or hens.Continue Reading

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First Assignment as a Land Girl: Lower Greenbank Farm, Over Wyresdale

February 2, 2014 By LG-Admin 6 Comments

Chapter 4

Lower Greenbank Farm, Over Wyresdale

Once the training was complete, I returned home and hated it more than ever. For I had tasted the delights of independence, lived in surroundings I felt at home in, spent time with a bunch of lively girls from many different walks of life, learned a great deal about a subject I had known nothing about before, worked hard physically, and after all the years of my childhood when I seemed to be ill a lot of the time was very fit. Doctor Smillie was right; for as he foresaw the WLA would be the making of me. I am as grateful to him as I was to uncle John for ensuring I had this opportunity.Continue Reading

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Lancashire College of Agriculture at Hutton

February 1, 2014 By LG-Admin 11 Comments

Chapter 3

Lancashire College of Agriculture at Hutton

Another Problem to Overcome

At the Lancashire College of Agriculture, the basic course for training Land Girls was only two weeks, and did little more than deal with the very basics of farming – this is a horse, this is a spade. It was offered for free in response to wartime needs. I needed more than this to be an effective Land Girl as someone who knew nothing about farming, being a city resident. Fortunately for me, the College also offered a fuller and longer course that covered farm management, animal husbandry, growing crops and all in between for those pursuing a career in agriculture, but this course had a fee. The problem was that I had no money to pay it, nor did my father and mother have any to spare. I saw my plans to contribute to the war effort as a Land Girl dashed for lack of the funds to get the education that I needed.Continue Reading

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Joining Up – The Women’s Land Army

February 1, 2014 By LG-Admin 2 Comments

Chapter 2

Joining up – The Women’s Land Army

Preparation for War

So as I faced the prospect of being sixteen and leaving school, the deficiencies of my home became more apparent and the imperative to get away from it become more pressing. The question was what to do about it. The answer came in the months before the outbreak of war in 1939.Continue Reading

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About Me

Proud member of the Women's Land Army, Jeanne Flann, nee Harlow, here. Happily retired in Utah after a full and satisfying life that got off to a great start working as a Land Girl in the Trough of Bowland, you can read more about me.

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Book Outline

  • Introduction
  • Part One
    • Chapter 1 – Prologue, the Sullivans, the Harlows and My Childhood
    • Chapter 2 – Joining Up – The Women’s Land Army
    • Chapter 3 – Lancashire College of Agriculture at Hutton
  • Part Two
    • Chapter 4 – Lower Greenbank Farm Over Wyresdale
    • Chapter 5 – Holt Farm Gateacre – Tragedy & Deliverance
    • Chapter 6 – Marshaw, The Trough of Bowland Fells
  • Part Three
    • Chapter 7 – Epilogue
    • Chapter 8 – Recognition at Last
  • Appendix

All Sections

  • Finished for Now – Land Girls.Me a Memoir
  • Welcome to Land Girls
  • Appendix – The Bowland Fells
  • Recognition at Last For Land Girls
  • Epilogue – Life After Being a Land Girl in the WLA
  • Last and Best Assignment as a Land Girl: Marshaw – The Trough of Bowland
  • Second Assignment as a Land Girl: Holt Hall Farm, Liverpool – Tragedy and Deliverance
  • First Assignment as a Land Girl: Lower Greenbank Farm, Over Wyresdale

Land Girls Memoirs and Other Memoirs

In the two step process of creating a paper memoir and now converting it into a web based one, it is my hope that my memoir, Land Girl - The Happiest Years of Early Childhood joins other Land Girl memoirs as a member of that genre, and contributes to it.

My husband has his own memoir through the same process as mine, paper memoir first, then website GunnerFlann.com. He too hopes his memoir contributes to the National Service Memoirs genre.

Please let us know if you agree contact me.

Recent Posts From the Blog

  • Finished for Now – Land Girls.Me a Memoir
  • Welcome to Land Girls
  • Appendix – The Bowland Fells

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