The Women’s Land Army

Land Girls during the Second World War

Many of the young men who had worked on farms prior to the war had left their jobs in order to join the services. It was vital that farms should produce as much food as possible and so the Government established the Land Army.

Women were encouraged to join the Women’s Land Army and become Land Girls. They were given a uniform and taught everything from harvesting crops and looking after animals, to ploughing and driving tractors.

Hostels were established for accommodation at Barnes Lodge (Kings Langley), Pendley Manor and Little Gaddesden, which had 34 girls from Yorkshire billeted there in 1942.

During Christmas 1941, Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth and patron of the Women’s Land Army) sent a message to the 20,000 serving Land Girls. She said that they had earned the right to think of themselves as an Army and praised their skill and devotion, which had, “released great battalions of men who now fight for the land they formerly tilled.”

By the Dacorum Heritage Trust

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