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

Horses – Shires

The horses were great Shires, powerful but gentle draft horses, brown with white faces and shanks and heavily feathered legs. From the beginnings of my land girl career I had always enjoyed working with them for I could talk to them and I think they listened to what I had to say, working the better for it. It was a pleasure to go into their stalls first thing, which were warm in the winter from their body heat, and let them out into the yard to drink from the trough where they would then stand patiently. I could then muck out the stall, put fresh hay and nuts in their bins and clean straw on the floor. The horses then went back for their “breakfast.”

A Shire mare, the stallions were larger and of a heavier build

A Shire mare, the stallions were larger and of a heavier build

After providing for the horses, it was breakfast for me too then back to them for first grooming and putting on their working collars, harness and gear. When work was done for the day the procedure was reversed. In winter they would go happily into their stalls and be content. In summer they would go out into the meadows, roll on their backs and gamble about. It was a strange sight to see of such dignified animals. On summer mornings when I went to collect them to start work for the day they were invariably on the far side of the field, so I would take a bucket with some grain in it; that caught their attention but even so then catching their bridle to lead them back was sometimes difficult. The longer it took the later I was with starting work. They of course did not mind. All the horses were good tempered except for “Bella”, a white one. She would squeeze you in her stall against the sides, and when leading her by the bridle she would bite. I got to know how to handle her, but was glad when after many complaints she was sold and we got in her place a more tractable horse with which I soon made friends.

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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