Angus Stovold’s farm in Shackleford, Surrey, employed women from the Women’s Land Army (WLA) during the war. “I remember speaking to my grandfather and our ploughman Harry Davis about what it was like on the farm during the war. Harry, along with most of the men and the horses went off to war early on leaving the family in difficulty trying to get all the work done on the farm.
"They sent some soldiers to help out and prisoners of war but, the reality is, without the women, Britain would have starved. We’ve got an old video from 1917 of women ploughing on the farm and they were just as good as the men. With the right training, they were able to do everything that the men did. We owe a great deal to the Women’s Land Army and those that stepped up to help when farms were left short of labour, horses and machinery.”
The aims of the WLA were to recruit women for agriculture, break down the anti-feminine bias and organise ‘gangs’ for farm work. Some women did also enter farming of their own accord or already helped on family farms.
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