Women's Land Army Memories of 60 years ago

There is a 'People' section on Audlem Online where you can find interesting stories about Audlem residents. Nora Bate's story, below, has been added today to that section of the website. Others include Bob Spibey's memories of building the Public Hall floor 50 years ago; Roger Hulme's epic cycle ride across the USA from coast to coast; a story about Bidi Jones's cookery book and a wartime photo of the men of Hankelow.

> Visit the People section (The website link that was here no longer works)

Sixty years ago, in 1946, Nora Bate of Churchfields, Audlem was getting ready to leave the Women's Land Army after 4 years of service at farms and hostels around Cheshire. The Land Army had been formed earlier in the War as women volunteered to take the place of men who had been called up to the Armed Services. They worked on farms and projects such as land reclamation and forestry work.

Nora, who was then Nora Wright, was based at Tapley, near Knutsford; at Oakmere Hall near Northwich; Smallwood Hostel at Sandbach and at Cholmondeley Hostel at Malpas. She had joined the Land Army aged only 14 when the starting age was normally 17. As a result, she was employed helping make the hostels run smoothly, normally from dawn to late in the evening.

Her memories of life in the Land Army are recorded in the Imperial War Museum and recently she featured in Kate Adie's book 'Corsets to Camouflage – Women and War' which was published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the War Museum. Nora has recently been involved in a film project by 2 to 4 Productions of Plymouth for a film about war-time experiences due to come out next year.

Last year, of course, Nora took part, in uniform, in Audlem's VE/VJ 60th Anniversary commemoration which was such a success. Indeed, a description of this event was featured in last week's presentation to the judges of the Best of the Best competition. Last year Nora was also invited to a reception with HM The Queen but was unable to attend because of a trip to USA. While in the States, Nora gave a talk on her war-time experiences in MacDonald (the town and not the burger place!), Ohio which was attended by local residents and many US veterans who had served in the Second World War.

Sixty years on, the memories are still fresh and Nora has visited many of the places where she worked and has a fine photographic record of that time and Land Army events that have taken place over the past 60 years.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.