Happy land

THE subjects might be well into their Eighties now, but the Women’s Land Army who helped keep Britain fed during World War Two remain one of the fascinating parts of history within living memory.

Kate Bramley, who somehow combines playwright-director with North Yorkshire’s Bad Apple company and fiddle/vocals in Jez Lowe’s The Bad Pennies, has created Back to the Land Girls: The Land Girls of Yorkshire. It’s a two-hander, based on recollections of those early days of girl power, which is touring to venues across County Durham and North Yorkshire.

“Most of the ladies we did interviews with, were in their late Eighties and all, bar two, were in great health. They all independently attribute this to outdoor life experience. A lot stayed in Yorkshire and some married farmers and others married prisoners of war. They are very confident women who, despite losing their husbands some ten to 15 years ago, still speak fondly of this time when they were very young,” says Bramley, who calls the women the last of the “courageous polite” generation.

She found that most women who came to work in Yorkshire were aged between 15 and 18.

“They weren’t supposed to join until they were 16 but I know of two who lied to get in early. It was partly for the adventure because the other choices were munitions, secretarial for the Waaf or going into service. A lady who lives just down the road from me in Green Hammerton saw all her sisters go into service and said ‘I’m not having that’,”

says Bramley who found that her subjects had mixed experiences.

There were lots of comedy tales involving farmer’s wives but the main conversation point was the freedom that the women found.

“They learned to drive tractors and trucks and organised things that normal women didn’t get involved in. It seems to have become a popular subject which is great because the ladies I spoke to have fought for 20 years or more to get recognition for the work they did. It’s a shame that there weren’t more around of them to see it. All the Land Army women wanted was a bit of a nod of thank you,” explains Bramley.

“The more gruesome side, and they all talked about it, was mice and rats. Particularly at harvesting time and the machines would go through for hay baling and they said that thousands of mice and rats came running out. It was a moving sea of small biting aninmals which made a fair impression on even the hardiest.

“I did meet a woman who married a Pole who had been conscripted into the German army. They overcame a whole lot of obstacles.

“We worked on the play as a pilot last year and again for the summer, but in between we’ve had the BBC series (Land Girls) which I believe has been recommissioned again for this year,” she adds.

Some of the comedy aspects have been lifted straight into the roles played by Samantha Edwards (who plays Buff) and Abigail Uttley (Biddy).

Colin Scott-Moncrieff adds film footage of a singing Italian prisoner called Giovanni.

The play moves between a field scene and the hostel where the two are billeted and uses the music of award-winning folk performer Jez Lowe.

He says: “The songs in the show were a lot of fun to write, probably because of the ‘fun’ nature of the play itself. They had to fit into specific parts of the story, and they had to be in a different style to my usual folk style, more a tin-pan alley, jazzy style. I seem to have got it right, because some of the audiences thought they were real World War Two period songs. One old gentleman said he remembered singing one of them in an air-raid shelter as a child.

“Some of the songs have already made a life for themselves outside of this play.

The closing number, The Fair Green Fields, was recently sung in York Minster at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Land Girls movement, after a lady heard it in the play. And two of the others may possibly end up on my next album.”

Next project for Bramley and Lowe is a repeat of the Winter Almanac tour while Bad Apple will be looking at the story of wartime evacuees to Yorkshire next summer.

TOUR DATES: Tomorrow: Long Marston Village Hall, York Y026 7LN, 01904- 738527/01423-339168, 7.30pm, £8 Sat, Ingleby Greenhow Village Hall, North Yorks TS9 6LX, 01642-723492, 7.30pm, £8/£5 under-16s May 20, Bishop Auckland Town Hall, DL14 7NP, 01388-602610, 7.30pm, £8/£6 concessions May 22, Edmundbyers Village Hall, DH8 9NN8, 01207- 255674, 7.30pm May 23, Rennington Village Hall, NE66 3SH, 01665- 577185, 7.30pm June 2, East Harlsey Village Hall, 3 The Beeches, East Harlsey, Northallerton DL6 2DJ, 01642- 355383/07773-491175, £15 June 3, Lamplight Arts Centre, Stanley DH9 0NA, 01207-218899, 8pm, £10/£8 concs June 5, Helmsley Arts Centre, YO62 5DW, 01439-772112, 7.30pm, £9.50/£8.50 June 6, Moorsholm Memorial Hall, TS12 3JS, 07766- 741272 7.30pm, £11 June 9, Victoria Hall, Kirkgate, Settle BD24 9DZ, 01729-825718, 7.30pm June 10, Fearby Village Hall, Masham HG4 4LB 01423-339168 7.30pm, £8.50/£7.50 June 11, Hampsthwaite Memorial Hall, HG3 2HX, 01423- 339168, 7.30pm, £8.50/£7.50 concs June 12, Green Hammerton Village Hall, YO26 8HF, 01423- 339168, 7.30pm, £8.50/£7.50.