Joan Hoggins (née Webb)
An account by former Land Girl Joan Hoggins (née Webb) written when she retired from farming in the 1980s.
When war broke out in September 1939 I was working as a hairdresser in a big department store in Piccadilly, Manchester.
Germany’s serious bombing campaign began in 1940 and I became a part-time Air Raid Precautions Warden, with the job of ensuring that no lights were showing in the suburban area of Manchester, Higher Blackley, where I lived. I did have a trial as part-time telephonist, but this involved working in an underground office, I didn’t like it. One of my pleasures was walking with mother in the Peak District and The Pennines. I’ve always loved the countryside.
In the summer of 1941 the Government decided, for the first time, to introduce Conscription for girls, 20-21 year olds would be first. “That’s me”. To avoid conscription we could volunteer for one of the Services or the Women’s Land Army, before our “calling-up” date. I dreaded being drafted into the nearby Ammunition factory. So four weeks before I was due to be called up, I volunteered for the Women’s Land Army. My mother and brother both strongly disapproved – they felt I should have gone in for being a full-time ARP Warden.
After a couple of weeks and numerous interviews I was sent a train travel warrant from Manchester to Abergavenny, together with a large parcel of WLA uniform, consisting of:
A badge, an armlet, a brown hat, 2 fawn shirts, a green pullover, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of britches, a pair of brown shoes and a heavy overcoat.
On 22 July 1941, I took the train to Abergavenny and was met by Mr Heeps of Great Killough farm, Llantilio Crossenny. We seemed to travel miles on the winding country roads to reach the form (actually about 8 miles).
It was a large farmhouse. I was shown into a very sparse bedroom which I would share with an 8 year old daughter called Dora. After a visit from a local WLA official I was given a room of my own. There was no indoor plumbing. I had to wash under a pump in a lean-to outside the back door.
My first job was to sit under a cow to draw milk into a bucket. I soon learned to tuck my feet under me and not under the cow’s feet.
I was not happy at Great Killough. I was treated like a slave, but did not tell brother Harold. He would have said “I told you so”. Despite this and the fact that Mr Heeps, his wife and four children seemed to be at odds with one another. I enjoyed the physical work, milking, feeding the animals, haymaking and corn harvesting. I started work at 6.45 am and in corn harvest time could still be at work by moonlight. I fed with the family, very frugally, only once do I remember having a pudding!
As I was a trainee, the farmer was subsidised by the Government for the first 6 weeks. My wages of 16 shillings a week was just “thrown on the table”.
My worst spell at Great Killough was when I caught ringworm off the cattle. I had 26 lesions across my breast and arms. I was not allowed to go to the doctor in Abergavenny. Instead, Mr Heeps gave me a quantity of Stockholm Tar on a piece of wood to smear on the sores. The pain was horrendous, but it cured the ringworm.
I was so unhappy that on my week’s leave, I swallowed my pride and went to Deganwy in North Wales to see my brother. He was in the Army stationed there. I asked him to write to the WLA commissioner in Abergavenny asking for a transfer.
The result, after 8 months at Great Killough I could move to Lower Cwm, Llantilio Crossenny about three miles away. I had to leave my bicycle. When I returned to collect it, the tyres had been punctured with pins.
Lower Cwm was a much smaller farm. Walter Jones and his wife Ida made me most welcome. They had twin daughters, Rosamund and Eleanor, 5 years old. On arrival I had a lovely tea and was offered a bath. “It was heaven”. I became one of the family.
Mr Jones paid me £7 a month and expected me to work all hours, 7 days a week. We milked at 6.30 am and then came in for a cooked breakfast. After, my first job was to load up the milk churns, tie them on 2 wheeled rubber tyred trolley and take them 150 yards to the end of the lane for the milk lorry to pick up.
In the winter the cows stayed in overnight, so I had to clean them out in the morning and lay fresh straw for them to lie on. Washing the milking equipment was another task. Whilst I was doing this, Walter Jones would be up in the Kale field cutting enough to feed the cows for the day. I then, with one of the horses and a home-made sledge, would collect it to spread on a nearby grass field. Loading stems of kale on to a flat sledge was an art – it took sometime to perfect it. On a Saturday he cut two days supply, to be spread on two different fields. If loading the sledge was difficult, unloading off a moving sledge, driving the horst at the same time took some mastering, especially in wet weather.
Come Spring, Walter ploughed the fields on which he would plant corn or kale. I would then drive the horses harrowing and breaking down the soil ready for planting. The Government had decreed that all farms should grow a proportion of their acreage for cereal. ‘Corn’ was a Monmouthshire term for wheat, oats or barley.
Lower Cwm had no electricity. Ida cooked on a coal-fired range in the living room and a primus stove in the back kitchen. The huge wash boiler was in the lean-to at the back of the house. We fed well. On Friday mornings Ida cycled down to the butchers in the village for her week’s ration of meat. I knew we would have lovely fried liver and chips for lunch. Friday was also baking day, making enough cakes, pastry and scones for the whole week.
Farmers were allowed to kill for their own consumption, two pigs a year. These would have been fattened to around 20 score (400 lbs). The job of killing was pretty gruesome. A slaughter man with the aid of two strong men would hold the pig on a bench and then he would slit its throat. When it was dead, the carcase was straddled on the ground, covered with straw which was lit to burn off al the hairs.
It was then hung up by its hind legs in the barn, disembowelled, the offal removed and quite a lot of fat. The ribs and any red meat that wouldn’t cure well was also cut away. The surplus of this meat was passed on to neighbours, who would reciprocate when they killed. The fat was rendered down to make a good supply of lard and the small intestines were washed and cooked to make chitterlings. (Not my favourite food). The head of the pig was cut off and used to make brawn.
After a day or two the slaughter man would cut the feet off and cut the carcase into 2 flitches and 2 hams. These were laid on stone slabs in the pantry and covered in salt. This was absorbed into the meat, thus curing it. After three weeks, any salt remaining was brushed off and the pieces were hung up to dry. These provided many months supply of bacon.
Summer was a busy time. First came the hay harvest in July. Walter would cut the grass with a mower pulled by the two horses. After a couple of days we would turn the swaths over with hand rakes. A week’s dry weather was needed to dry it out properly. It was then horse-raked into rows, which were then cocked up with pikes into heaps, ready for being picked up and carried to the barn. This was done on a horse drawn flat two wheeled cart with posts at the corners. Locally it was called a “Gambol”.
The corn harvest began in August. The standing grain was cut with a binder. This machine bundled a small armful of straw into sheaves, tied round them and threw them out at the side. The sheaves were then put into standing stooks, 5 or 6 at a time, left to dry out thoroughly before being hauled to the barn or made into a rick.
Later in the year, threshing of the corn took place. The threshing machine which was belt driven by a steam engine, or later a tractor, travelled around the district from farm to farm. It was a job for six to eight men, so neighbours helped each other. Starting at about 9.00 am after the milking etc was done. We had a break for ‘elevenses’. Dinner was around 1.00 pm. Farmers’ wives seemed to vie with each other putting the best spread. Cups of tea and cakes were provided around 4.30. I still have the white enamel jack (jug) with which I carried the tea. Ida gave it to me when we started farming.
In 1944 I went to Usk Argricultural College to take part in a “Milking and Dairy Work” test. I come out with highest marks in the country. Walter & Ida were very pleased.
There was very little social life, although as Lower Cwm landgirl and the only one in the village, I was often invited out to neighbouring farms for a meal. Most land girl lived in hostels and were taken out daily to work on farms.
I was shocked the first time I went to Abergavenny with Walter and Ida on Tuesday Market Day to see so many young men in civilian clothes. Farmers’ sons were exempt from conscription.
Local dances were held once a month on Saturday evening at different village halls around the countryside. The one in Llantilio was held in a room adjoining the Hostry Inn. I got to know quite a lot of young people who went to dances, including cousins of Walter, the Gwillian girls and Percy Hoggins from Upper Cwm. Percy was courting Madge Lewis at this time. The married in 1946. I can remember Percy teasing me about one of the neighbours who came threshing. Reg Matthews had a very hairy chest and in the hot weather and his shirt was always wide open. He had left school at 14, worked as a farmer all his life, but died a millionaire. Apparently in later years he’d been successful in dealing in Stocks and Shares.
One summer Percy brought his brother John along. He was on leave from the Army, the only one of the family to be conscripted. He’d left home at 17 to work as a Civil Servant. Thus started a courtship. After VE day whilst he was home on Embarkation leave for transfer to the Far East, we got married on 8 September. The Americans had dropped the Atom bombs to end that war, so he was allowed to return to his Regiment in Germany. I was married from Lower Cwm, the 8 year old twins were my bridesmaids. My brother gave me away.
I left Lower Cwm after 4 happy years and returned to hairdressing in Manchester.
The Queen sent a letter of thanks to each member of the WLA, but there was no official recognition from the Government and no gratuity. Lady Denman, its National Chairman, resigned in disgust.
First Name(s): Joan
Unmarried Surname: Webb
Married Surname: Hoggins
Date of Birth: 5.3.1920
Place of Birth: Manchester
Date joined WLA: 9.8.1941
Date left: 1.10.1945
WLA number: 46823
