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As much as 70 per cent of Essex is agricultural, and given its proximity to the capital it is not surprising that so many members of the Women’s Land Army found themselves on Essex farms and in Essex fields during the two world wars, doing their bit to make sure that Britain did not starve.This book not only includes interviews with some of the last surviving land ‘girls’ but also contains a wealth of material unearthed in diaries, letters and in the stories handed down from one generation to the next about women in Essex who were, literally, wearing the trousers. They were not all local girls, and many arrived from the cities never having seen a cow or a tractor before. But the British spirit persevered, and the wit and camaraderie that served us so well during those tumultuous years shines through in every story.
As much as 70 percent of Essex is agricultural, and given its proximity to the capital it's not surprising that so many members of the Women's Land Army found themselves on Essex farms and fields during World Wars I and II. Thanks to the work of the Women's Land Army, Britain did not starve. This book includes not only interviews with some of the last surviving land "girls," but a wealth of material unearthed in diaries, letters, and in the stories handed down from one generation to the next about women in Essex who were, literally, wearing the trousers. They were not all Essex girls, and many arrived from the cities never having seen a cow or a tractor. The wit, camaraderie, and British spirit that served us so well during those tumultuous years shines through in every story, and will leave a lasting impression.
"The impact of the land girls cannot be ignored. It was not just that women were working and farms had more women than men, women who were not part of the family or, for some of them, had even lived in the countryside before – but women were wearing trousers and filling in for men, some of whom would never return from war. For the women, their time as land girls changed their lives and how they viewed their own role in society and the family. Using original interviews and photographs from some of these land girls, historian Ann Kramer delves deeper than any previous study to understand the role of the land girls both during and after the Second World War."
'Not all Essex girls are party girls. They can be sages, martyrs, leaders. In her neat and provocative little book, Sarah Perry celebrates their courage and vivacity.' Hilary Mantel A defence and celebration of the Essex Girl by the best-selling author of The Essex Serpent Essex Girls are disreputable, disrespectful and disobedient. They speak out of turn, too loudly and too often, in an accent irritating to the ruling classes. Their bodies are hyper-sexualised and irredeemably vulgar. They are given to intricate and voluble squabbling. They do not apologise for any of this. And why should they? In this exhilarating feminist defence of the Essex girl, Sarah Perry re-examines her relationship with her much maligned home county. She summons its most unquiet spirits, from Protestant martyr Rose Allin to the indomitable Abolitionist Anne Knight, sitting them alongside Audre Lorde, Kim Kardashian and Harriet Martineau, and showing us that the Essex girl is not bound by geography. She is a type, representing a very particular kind of female agency, and a very particular kind of disdain: she contains a multitude of women, and it is time to celebrate them.
Ginny Beauchamp joins the Women’s Land Army in 1940. Posted to Essex, she gets in trouble for meeting pilots from a nearby airfield, including Piotr, a Polish airman to whom she feels some attraction, being part-Polish herself. Sent to work on a farm with a final warning, she finds herself in the middle of an emotional storm because another Land Girl, Anna, has fallen in love with the farmer’s son. In August after the Luftwaffe attack the airfield at North Weald Ginny discovers that Piotr has been seriously wounded, and she rushes to the hospital. When she returns to the farm late at night, she discovers the dead body of Anna in the yard beneath the barn’s winching point. Ginny believes that Anna’s death is suspicious, and she cannot accept that Anna fell or committed suicide, which is the view of the local police and coroner. Ginny is on her own in trying to reveal the truth of Anna’s death. For her challenge to the authorities over the death, Ginny is dismissed from service. Now on her own, she risks her own life to try to reveal the truth.
"The Women's Land Army" was the forgotten victory of the Second World War. While troops fought on the front line, a battalion of young women joined up to take their place as agricultural workers. Despite many of them coming from urban backgrounds, these fearless, cheerful girls learnt how to look after farm land, operate and repair machinery, rear and manage farm animals, harvest crops and provide the work force that was badly needed in the years of the war. Back-breaking work such as thinning crops, continuous hoeing and digging made way for disgusting tasks such as rat-killing. Yet despite it all, the land girls were exuberant, fun-loving and hard-working, and became known for their articulate, feisty, humorous and modest attitude. It therefore comes as no surprise that despite hostility and teasing at the beginning, these robust farm workers won the hearts of the nation, and at the disbandment of the Land Army in the 1950s, the farming community were forced to eat their words. With delightful photographs documenting the camaraderie of the Land Army and real-life memories from those who joined, this nostalgic look at one of the real success stories of the Second World War will make modern women stand proud of what their grandmothers achieved in an era before our own.
The Second World War was the cause of more civilian casualties, many of them young people, than of military. In Britain, young people were on the front line, facing the threat of enemy invasion and the fragmentation of daily life. Their education was disrupted as their schools were taken over by government, the military and ARP; as pupils were evacuated and staff conscripted; curriculum was diluted and part-time schooling instituted; and concerns over food and accommodation increased. Along with the physical dangers of bombing and the increased disease caused by deprivation and social dislocation, youngsters endured psychological and emotional pressure from anxieties over home and family. Young people worked in industry and agriculture; served in the Home Guard and ARP; carried out voluntary activities in health and welfare; and prepared for military service as cadets and in uniformed organisations. School buildings aided the war effort as military HQs, training centres, research centres for weapons development and, central to ARP, especially in the cities, were often at the forefront of the bombing. This book attempts an overview of the circumstances under which youngsters grew up between 1939 and 1945 on the Home Front, with particular emphasis on the 14-18 age group.
Using a very wide range of detailed sources, the book surveys the many different experiences of women during the Second World War.
Maldon – A History is the story of Maldon, which is the second oldest town in Essex, from pre-historic times until the present day. It has information on Bronze and Iron Age Maldon, Roman Maldon , Anglo-Saxon Maldon including the Battle of Maldon, Medieval Maldon including the granting of the first charter of the borough in 1171 by King Henry 2, its monastic institutions, Maldon’s port and its involvement in wars, Maldon at the time of the reformation, its involvement in the civil war, its Parliamentary representation, the town in the 18th and early centuries including the building of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, the dissolution and subsequent reinstatement of the town’s charter, the Napoleonic Wars, the building of the two railways to the town in the 19th century and their closure in the 20th century, the rise of municipal institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries, Maldon’s police force and abolition and subsuming into the Essex County Police force, industrial developments including its iron foundries and salt works, Maldon during the two world wars and the abolition of the borough in 1974. Also included is the parish of Heybridge which subsequently became a part of the borough as well as the hamlet of Beeleigh. It was researched using previously published works and contemporary documents.
Between 1917 and 1919 women enlisted in the Women's Land Army, a national organisation with the task of increasing domestic food production. Behind the scenes organisers laboured to not only recruit an army of women workers, but to also dispel public fears that Britain's Land Girls would be defeminized and devalued by their wartime experiences.