Land Girl - The Happiest Years of My Early Life

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

  • Home
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contact Me
  • Blog

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

By LG-Admin Leave a 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.

The village of Abbeystead

The village of Abbeystead

Last time I had caught a train from Liverpool Exchange to Galgate it was my first assignment as a land girl at Greenbank Farm. Then I wondered what I was going to but this time I knew. So it was with a happy heart I traveled, and in October 1942 there in the station yard to meet me was Mr John Drinkall. On the drive to Marshaw he told me what was expected of me and the living arrangements. It was all very acceptable. I couldn’t wait to start.

About Marshaw

Marshaw, was an extensive hill farm of, I think, about 3,000 acres on the estate of the Earl of Sefton. When I arrived, “Mr John” as he was known and his wife Barbara had a small daughter Barbara, and later a son John born in 1944. Mr. John had taken over the farm from his father. Mr. John’s father and mother moved out of the farmhouse and now lived in a nearby cottage. Mr John was educated at Lancaster Grammar School, Barbara his wife who was in her early 30’s had spent her first years in India. On her father’s death she came to live in Lancaster where she attended the Girls Grammar School. She then went on to become a teacher in Lancaster, and to marry Mr John in 1939. I got to know Mrs Drinkall very well, she took a motherly or big sisterly interest in me, and I was to learn a great deal from her, the many aspects of being a farmer’s wife. She too was a competent home manager and an excellent cook.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Filed Under: Chapter 6 - Marshaw, The Trough of Bowland Fells, Part Two Tagged With: 21st birthday, Abbeystead, church, clipping time, clogs, daily routine, dances, distractions, Friesian cows, haymaking, horseshoeing, hunting parties, lambing, Liverpool, Lonk, Marshaw, recreation, repairing stone walls, sheep, sheep shearing, sheepdogs, shirehorses, trips to market, Trough of Bowland, Veronica

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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.

Follow Me

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

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

  • Introduction to My Land Girls Memoir
  • Prologue – The Sullivans, the Harlows and My Childhood
  • Joining Up – The Women’s Land Army
  • Lancashire College of Agriculture at Hutton
  • First Assignment as a Land Girl: Lower Greenbank Farm, Over Wyresdale
  • Second Assignment as a Land Girl: Holt Hall Farm, Liverpool – Tragedy and Deliverance
  • Last and Best Assignment as a Land Girl: Marshaw – The Trough of Bowland
  • Epilogue – Life After Being a Land Girl in the WLA

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

  • Introduction to My Land Girls Memoir
  • Prologue – The Sullivans, the Harlows and My Childhood
  • Joining Up – The Women’s Land Army

Popular Tags

Abbystead Aunt Monica chickens Convalesence Convent Deliverance Dolphinholme eggs escape Family History farming Farming training Fernyhalgh first assignement Galgate hand milking harlows Holt Hall Farm Horses Hutton join up Lancashire College of Agriculture Lancaster Land Girl Land Girls Liverpool lower greenbank farm Medical Exam Memoir Pigs Poultry Queen recognition Reverend John Sullivan Second Assignment sheep St Mary's Catholic Church sullivans Tractors Tragedy Trough of Bowland unhappy childhood Uniform Women's Land Army world war one veteran

Find It Here

Land Girl - The Happiest Years of My Early Childhood · Copyright · Privacy Policy · Sitemap