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

February 4, 2014 By LG-Admin 1 Comment

Work at Marshaw

I found the work at Marshaw similar to that at Greenbank Farm, but on a much larger scale. Livestock at Marshaw consisted of 1,500 breeding sheep that increased to over 3000 sheep after lambing, a smaller herd of about 20 milking cows, some store cattle and the customary hens and pigs. The holding was also similar but much larger with rough fells, and on the lower ground meadows and arable fields. These arable fields had previously been very stony meadows that Mr. John ploughed up with reluctance, and only at the insistence of the agricultural committee, as all land had to be brought into use even if marginal.

Proper Footwear – Clogs

Having had the experience of the work at Greenbank Farm none of this fazed me. And drawing on that I knew I would never be comfortable without proper footwear. Wellington boots worn constantly are no good, nor were the heavy issue shoes really suited to the wet, muck and other things I spent much time walking through. So as soon as I could get into Lancaster, I went to the clog maker. He was an old man living in a small house in a back street, with the walls of his front room workshop covered with patterns of all his life long customers, and mine were to join them. Clogs are ideal for places such as dairies where the floors are hard, cold and damp. They have wooden soles and leather uppers. Around the sole is an iron ferrule that keeps it off the ground and thus lasts longer. Though not fashionable by any degree they are warm to wear and keep your feet healthy, and in winter with some straw inside my feet were never cold.

A representative pair of Wooden clogs, like the ones that I wore to work.

A representative pair of Wooden clogs, like the ones that I wore to work.

My Initial Duties

When I arrived in October 1942 the main work with the sheep was over; they were now loose on the fells. So the first work I did was the everyday tasks. As before it was a 7 day 24 hour job. Among the countless jobs was the daily attention to the horses, cattle, cows, hens and the pigs. Milking with its collection by the milk lorry also needed my attention. Work on the arable land changed with the seasons and, while we had a tractor, most of the work we did with a horse.

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

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
  • 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

  • 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

Popular Tags

21st birthday abbey bog books church civilian employers clipping time conscription daily routine dances disbanding distractions Facebook forest Friesian cows gentrified haymaking hunting hunting parties lambing Lancashire Land Girl Land Girls Land Girls Memoir Liverpool Lonk Memoir moor movies Parade peat Pigs Queen recognition recreation repairing stone walls royalty sheep sheepdogs trips to market Trough of Bowland Twitter Veronica WLA Women's Land Army

Find It Here

Copyright © 2023 ·Landgirls · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in