Back on the farm after almost 70 years, former Land Army girl Mina Bennett has been catching up on agricultural developments in Herefordshire.
When London-born Mina, now 84, rallied to help the war effort on a farm near Rugby in her regulation boots and breeches, she milked the cows, fed the pigs and ploughed the fields with a team of heavy horses.
On holiday with husband, Robert all these years later at the Lowe Farm, near Pembridge, a Gold Award B&B, Mina has been able to see how farming has changed.
On Clive and Juliet Williams’ 200-acre farm, Mina, who spent two and a half years away from home in Walthamstow in the Land Army, was invited to hop aboard a massive £50,000 John Deere tractor, a far cry from 1940s horsepower.
She greatly enjoyed seeing how things are done all these years later, and found time to talk about her time on the farm back during the dark days of the Second World War.
Though a Londoner, Mina adapted well to country life and her love of animals well prepared her for the rigours of milking a friesian herd and working with heavy horses.
She recalled the time she rode one of the shires to the blacksmith shop three miles distant to be shod, and how she ended up in a ditch before climbing back on the horse’s broad back for the remainder of the ride.
On one occasion, Mina and her fellow Land Girls had to chase a curly horned cow, renowned as a bit of a bully, which stampeded through a nearby American army camp.
Not worried about their own personal safety, they were concerned about the spectacle. “We were so embarrassed!” said Mina, a bubbly grandmother and great-grandmother who now lives in retirement with her husband in Somerset.
At the Lowe Farm, a popular holiday destination where Clive and Juliet also recently received a fact-finding visit from Japanese parties keen to learn more about the B&B business, guests get a chance to see what life is like on the farm. “I loved working on the farm all those years ago,” said Mina, “and it’s lovely to be back on the farm now!
“I’m amazed to see how luxurious things are now – huge tractors with power steering and music in the cab!”
She certainly doesn’t rate the 1998 film, The Land Girls starring Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel. “It wasn’t like that!” said Mina with conviction. She and her husband have now paid two visits to Lowe Farm, and are so taken, they intend to return with their family.