63.Land girls sighted at Joyce Green Hospital ?

Key words/phrases: The Women’s Land Army, “The Land Girls” (1998) Director: David Leland, Angela Huth: Novelist, Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses, Joyce’s Farm, Gardens Department of Joyce Green Hospital.

No.63

Have you noticed the coverage in the U.K. press recently about the feelings of a number of elderly ex-“land girls” who are feeling that their efforts during World War II should be formally recognised by the British Government ?

As a uniformed organisation that served the nation during several wars “with as much distinction as any other group of women”, it seems that they feel that they should be allowed to march in forthcoming Armistice parades at the Cenotaph in London and elsewhere in the U.K. along with all the other uniformed organisations.

Also, have you ever watched the 1998 film “The Land Girls”, directed by David Leland and based on Angela Huth's novel: “The Land Girls” ? It's set in Dorset during 1941 and follows the life and work of three young women: a vivacious and sexy girl called Pru, a hair-stylist from Manchester; Ag, who is a quiet and unworldly Cambridge graduate and the dreamy and beautiful Stella who is engaged to Philip, a dashing naval officer.

As part of the Women’s Land Army, the three girls are replacing a number of male farm workers who have gone off to fight in the war. They are sent to work for Farmer Lawrence and billeted on his farm where they each get to know Joe, the farmer's young son. In fact it depicts far more the girl’s sexual curiosity and Joe’s willing cooperation and it provides a fascinating insight into their hard and sometimes difficult lives as the seek to define new roles for themselves in a country in which families are being torn apart by war.

Neither the demands of these elderly ex-land girls for recognition of their generous service to the nation or the film have anything directly to do with Dartford or with Joyce Green Hospital and so what’s the connection that I am attempting to make ?

Well in the same way that scores of other women served as VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses at Joyce Green in the past, I have wondered whether any land-girls were attached to Joyce’s Farm or even to the Gardens Department of Joyce Green Hospital ?

Presumably the gardeners - many of whom we can assume were women because of the able-bodied men having left gone off to fight - were hard at work growing as much produce as possible for consumption within the hospital during these very difficult times and that they would have needed all the help that they could get ?

If you think about it it seems logical that with much of the land around the hospital needing to be used for food production and all the orchards too that existed at the time, together the existence of suitable accommodation for any land-girls that recruited - perhaps within the female staff accommodation blocks - that land-girls WERE once seen working on the Joyce Green and other hospital sites ?

But in any case, does this really matter ? Well only insofar perhaps as this MAY be part of Joyce Green Hospital's history. Do you have any thoughts or ideas about this or is this simply another part of Joyce Green’s history that may be lost forever ?