Land Girl reminiscence: Early trials on a Bedfordshire farm for a new 1940s land girl – Part 2

Unknown Land Girl by her bike.
Source: Caro-jon-son (Flickr)

“Another time I was biking home for lunch when the cows were being taken for milking. Behind them were some troops from Grange Camp. Not wanting them to see a Land Army girl frightened of cows I rode through them when a tail flicked out and hit me in the face, knocking me off the bike. There I sat, my bike on top of me, a dirty face and the troops laughing.

One day a gamekeeper asked whether I could kill and pluck a cockerel. I agreed, but it was a disaster. Thinking it was dead, I started to pluck it. I had just taken the feathers off one side when it jumped off my lap and started to run and squawk around the room. Poor thing, it looked so funny, half-naked. It was the first and last chicken I tried to kill.”