A Hard Life But a Happy One

The Memoirs of Margaret Hurst, a Hertfordshire Land Girl

Margaret Hurst

Margaret Hurst decided to join the Women’s Land Army at 18 as she had always loved the country and came from a family that had traditionally worked on the land. In her published three part memoir, Margaret describes her decision to join the Women’s Land Army, the uniform and what life was like for a member of the Women’s Land Army living and working in Hertforshire.

In Part One of her story, Margaret describes the decision to join the Women’s Land Army, the uniform, her first harvest and life in a Women’s Land Army hostel in Cheshunt.

In Part Two, Margaret recalls the potato harvest and the less than glamorous job of manure spreading. Margaret decided that she wanted to become a tractor driver and in this section describes this transition and life as a tractor driver in St Albans.

In Part Three, Margaret recollects an incident in which she was ploughing a field in Broxbourne and managed to cut a cable, depriving the village of Nazeing of electricity. She reminds us of the dangers of the war and that bombs were found by those who were working on the land. She describes some of the training she received as a tractor driver and what happened after the end of the war when she remained a member of the Women’s Land Army because she had loved it so much.

This page was added on 15/08/2011.

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