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

February 4, 2014 By LG-Admin 1 Comment

Recreation at Marshaw

On other occasions and much fun were the invitations to visit nearby farms for a meal and social gathering. During my stay at Marshaw, I also joined the Women’s Institute, which I continued with until 1990 when I retired to the USA. We also skated in winter with the local children on the reservoir at Abbeystead, and we went to dances. These were sometimes in the hall at Abbeystead or we would get on our bicycles and ride through the night to Dunsop Bridge.

Dances

Dances at Root Farm were always most enjoyable and were held in their wool loft. Often when we went to these Tommy Needham, our shepherd who lived at Dunsop Bridge. He would pick us up half way in his little car, we would then dump our bikes in the heather and go on to the dance. We felt an air of expectation about these beforehand, for as we approached the barn you could hear the band playing. Far from professional, the band consisting most times of an upright piano, a set of drums and a double bass, kept up a good beat. The dances were mixed, the standard waltzes and quicksteps to tunes of the day, old fashioned waltzes and Valettas, Paul Jones with a regular change of partners, energetic Scottish and country dances. With refreshments and conversation a good time was had by all.

Mrs Mary Parkinson, the farmer’s wife at Root Farm let us stay overnight and then early the next morning Tommy would take us back to our bikes and we would cycle back in time for milking and after that breakfast. Cycling was our only means of getting about and returning through early morning and before break of dawn we often sang a popular song of the time -“Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don’t fence me in. Let me ride through the wide open country that I love. Don’t fence me in”, and that seemed most appropriate in the circumstances.

A picture showing the road through the Trough of Bowland to Dunsop Bridge. Jeanne Flann rode her bicycle on this road to and from dances and church.
The road east through the Trough to Dunsop Bridge. It was this road that we rode on our bicycles to and from dances and church.
A picture of Abbeystead Reservoir where Jeanne Flann used to ice skate under winter moonlight with local children.
Abbeystead Reservoir where I used to skate in winter moonlight with the local children.
The road through Trough of Bowland. The map shows Marshaw, Dunsop Bridge and Root Farm, all featured in Chapter 6 of Land Girls.
The road through the wild terrain of the Trough of Bowland, Marshaw is to the upper middle left (west), Dunsop Bridge is to the lower right (south east) and Root Farm is below it at “Root”.

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

Comments

  1. David Drinkall says

    April 23, 2020 at 1:52 PM

    I am David Drinkall, born and raised at Marshaw and would love to hear more stories about Marshaw.

    Reply

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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.

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

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