They include five women in Rutland who have received medals for their efforts, over 60 years after the war ended

The five are: Gladis Blockley (97), of Brooke Road, Oakham, Edna Tilley (85), from Wymondham, Irene O'Neill, of South Street, Oakham Marjorie Gale, of Kings Road, Oakham and Mary Bland of North Luffernham..

Gladis Blockley joined the Land Army at the age of 33 when she went to work on a dairy farm in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

She had previously worked at Marstons Brewery, but went to live on the farm in 1944.

She said: "We used to get up at 5.30am to milk the cows. We separated the milk and made our own butter which we used and shared around the farming folk. We were very self sufficient."

The Land Army was a group of women who worked the land during the Second World War when there were fewer men around.

Mrs Blockley added: "I stayed on there for 10 years and I loved every minute of it. During the harvest we'd work until 10pm. They were long days but it was the happiest time of my life."

Gladis' role was to milk the cows and raise the calves. She said: "My happiest memories were when we used to take the calves for walks around the farm land.

"I used to take two at a time on the halter.

"They used to follow me around and I used to get told off for spoiling them."

After her years in the Land Army, Gladis moved to Melton to work at Petfoods, which is where she met her husband Geoffrey.

She said: "You just get to the point where you want a change. So I moved away."

Gladis now has a medal and a certificate thanking her for the hard work she put into the Land Army. She said: "It's nice having the badge. It's a long time coming.

"I used to like wearing the Land Army uniform and I regret the fact that I never got a photograph of me in it. I was very proud to be a part of it."


Edna Tilley (85) from Wymondham, joined the Land Army when she was 18 years old, having working in the Royal Army Pay Corps. She said: "I wanted a change so I joined the Land Army. It was very different to the office work I was used to."

Edna's first job was tending fields near Foxton Locks, Leicestershire, on the ground where Gartree Prison now stands.

She said: "The prisoners of war used to be kept there when we were there and they used to help pick the potatoes. I went back a couple of years ago and the fields have all been built on now. I can't believe how big the prison has grown."

She then went on to work at Lubbenham, where she worked the machinery for extra money, and learnt to drive a tractor. She said: "They were big machines. My tractor was called Bridget and my mother near died when she saw it. She thought I only drove a little thing."

During her time in the Land Army, Edna was known as Maidy because her maiden name was Maidment. She now has a doll dressed in Land Army uniform called Maidy as a constant reminder of her time during the War.

She said: "I've recently found my old diaries from the time and it's ever so funny to read back. I had forgotten so much of it. And I never regretted going. I had to give it up after the War because the thrashing gave me ear troubles."

After leaving the Land Army, Edna trained as a General Post Office (GPO) worker which she did until she married her husband Harry in 1948.
She said: "It was great fun and I have fond memories from those years. It's nice to finally be rewarded for it. It's something I'm very proud of."

Irene O'Neill (88) of South Street, Oakham, wanted to join the Women's Auxilliary Air Force (WAAF), when the Second World War broke out in 1939, but her mum did not approve.

Irene said: "My mum didn't want me to join the WAAF, so I joined the Land Army instead. Mum liked the Land Army because I was home every night."

Irene was 20 years old at the time and was sent to Ashwell to work for Lady Lonsdale in the market garden. She said: "I used to bike there every day, but I couldn't do it now. The first job I had was weeding the asparagus beds. I was so stiff after that."

Irene's other duties included setting the potatoes and strawberries and picking them when they were ripe. She said: "We used to take them down to sell in Oakham.

"I didn't like picking the fruit. That was the least favourite part of the job, and winter digging wasn't very nice either."

As well as cultivating fruit and vegetables, Lady Lonsdale used to keep pigs and bees. Irene said: "She used to work right alongside me every day. And she kept in touch and brought me flowers when I had my children.

"I was always allowed to bring things home with me, and I remember the pig didn't want to be slaughtered so they made me take the bucket and pretend to feed it. I felt so guilty."

Irene stayed at Ashwell from 1940 to 1945, despite getting married to her husband Peter in 1944. She said: "We met when he knocked at the door of our home on Brooke Road looking for lodgings. He was Irish and he was staying with us for two months before I said I'd go out with him."

Irene, along with Land Army girls across the country have been rewarded for their efforts during the war this year.

Irene said: "I was very excited when the medal came in the post because I didn't know what it was. "I have the certificate framed and hung on my wall."

Marjorie Gale, of Kings Road in Oakham, joined the Land Army in 1942 and was based in Cold Overton.

Her first job involved going around with a threshing drum for nine months be working out in the field hoeing and picking vegetables. She was also responsible for feeding the pigs and learned how to stack the corn and hay.

Marjorie (84) was part of the Land Army for three years and spent a lot of time moving around the area.

She said: "I enjoyed everything about the work I was doing and the people I worked with. I still look back on it as the good old days."

Marjorie was born in Leicester and lived there until she joined the Land Army at 18. It was while working at a farm in Knossington that she met her future husband, Ron, who was the farmer's son. The couple eventually married in 1946 at Knossington Chapel and went on to have five children – David, Richard, Stephen, Helen and Julie.

Marjorie said: "I travelled all over the place before I met Ron. We all went about together in a lorry and used to whistle at all the chaps as we went past."

Land Army girls were given proficiency badges and a scroll at the time but Marjorie's have gone missing as she moved around, so she was thrilled to hear about the new Government-issued badges.

She added: "I regret having to hand back our uniforms at the end of the war."

Marjorie was working at Burley-on-the-Hill when the war ended but when she returned to Knossington, no one there even knew the war was over.
She said: "I've had my badge for a few weeks now and wear it all the time."

Mary Bland was 17 years old when she began serving with the land army atHambleton Hall at the start of World War Two.

It was often back-breaking work as she dug potatoes with her bare hands, tended crops and drove a tractor across farmland to help provide food for Britons.

Mary, who lives in North Luffenham, is now 84 and she believes the government's decision to finally honour the Women's Land Army was long overdue.

She said: "I am glad they are giving us something," she said. "I don't think people valued what we did because it was very hard work."

Mary grew up in Matlock in Derbyshire and her world was turned upside down when the Second World War began shortly after she had left school.

She was given the choice of working in a munitions factory in Derby or work the land in a rural location somewhere else in the country. "

I didn't want to do the munitions factory because I didn't want to be involved with something which was going to lead to people being killed," said Mary, who used to work as a dinner lady at Edith Weston Primary School.

She ended up in Rutland with a group of girls from all over the UK. Mary lived at Hambleton Hall, which is now the Michelin-star award-winning restaurant. it was a very different place then more than three decades before Rutland Water was created nearby.

The girls worked long hours and had to wear a tie as part of their land army uniform. "Every time I have gone past a field of potatoes since the war I remembered how hard the work was," said Mary, who has three surviving children and seven grandchildren. "

Your back absolutely ached at the end of the day. It was lovely to be outside during the summer but not so nice in the winter."

Mary met her late husband Ben through her work. She was sent to help him with his shepherding work at Manton and the couple fell in love. She still keeps in touch with her best friend from the land army, Janet, who married a Canadian airmen after meeting him at the barracks at North Luffenham.

"We went to dances at the base. I would cycle all the way from Hambleton with Janet sitting on the handlebars," Mary recalled.

There were 84,000 women in the land army at the movement's height in 1943 but only around a quarter of those are still alive.