They Did Their Bit

1982 , Gressenhall (Norfolk)

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Television documentary drawing attention to the history and activities of the Women's Land Army during the First and Second World Wars.

Former land army women saw wood, lift and top beet, and use a root cutter at Union Farm. There is an interview with reunion organiser, Freda Frietham. Bunny Snelling trims a sapling. Archive footage illustrates the 1917 recruiting rally and march to Hyde Park at the time of the women's land army's formation. This leads into farm scenes of women carting milkchurns and horse ploughing. The history of the movement is traced from 1917 to 1939, including early recruiting commercials. Dick Joice interviews Lady Beatrice Oates, Ruth Wilson, Pauline Waston and Queenie Sizemore. Several men are questioned on what it was like to work with land girls. Archive footage shows harvesting, poultry keeping, training at agricultural college, tractor driving and grooming. There ia a sequence of women leaving factories in 1939 to work on the land. Women at the reunion operate a threshing machine and dip sheep, as well as telling Dick Joice some of their anecdotes. Finally, the former land girls gather in a marquee and sing songs.

Featured Buildings

Museum of Rural Life, Gressenhall

Featured Events

Reunion of 300 former members of the Women's Land Army

Keywords

Agriculture; Farming; Land Girls; Women's Land Army; World War I; World War II

Manifestations

They Did Their Bit

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