Honouring the army girls

And for their mighty efforts, the Land Girls and Lumber Jills of the Women's Land Army and Women's Timber Corps from the First and Second World Wars will forever be remembered in a fitting tribute at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

A sculpture has been specially commissioned in their honour.

And its design has been unveiled to a gathering of former Land Girls in the county with a scale clay model.

When complete, the bronze sculpture will be a one-and-a-quarter life size monument of a Land Girl and Lumber Jill as depicted in war time recruitment posters.

It will become a focal point for remembrance and recognition of the legacy and achievements of the women who kept their country fed while the two conflicts were fought overseas.

The Women's Land Army first formed in 1915 and during the Second World War, more than 80,000 land girls were producing 70 per cent of Britain's food.

The Women's Timber Corps worked in forests and sawmills producing pit props, railway sleepers and barricades.

It disbanded finally in 1946, although the Women's Land Army was required to keep working for a further four years. In total, nearly a quarter of a million Land Girls and Lumber Jills served the country.

The sculpture in their honour will cost between £85,000 and £100,000. Around £65,000 is already raised. It is being organised by the Staffordshire Women's Food and Farming Union – who have set up the Women's Land Army tribute.

The sculpture is currently being worked on by artist Denise Dutton at her studio in Leek.

Her great aunt Sheila Creasy served as a land girl.

It is due to be unveiled at a special ceremony at the arboretum in Alrewas on May 1.

Mary Wright, 83, became a Land Girl in 1947 during the active years of the Women's Land Army after the Second World War until disbandment in 1950. Originally from Walsall, she took up duties on a farm near Hoar Cross near Burton-upon-Trent.

She has remained in farming ever since living and running a farm at Four Crosses near Cannock.

She helped launch the Land Girl tribute project and her granddaughter Izzy, 23, who works on a farm in Tixall, posed as a model for the sculpture of the Land Girl.

Mrs Wright said: "It was really hard work but we did what we were asked to done. I did not like living in a town – I was much more at home on the farm.

"I think the design of the sculpture is brilliant. The monument will serve as a reminder for the next generation and generations to come of what the Land Girls and Lumber Jills did for this country. We were the forgotten army." Her grandaughter said it was an honour to be chosen as a model.

She said: "It was a surprise to be asked to be a model but it was a real privilege. My grandmother has told us many a story about her time in the land army so it's nice to feel that I am doing my bit for her by being involved in this project.

"What the women did during the wars was very important and kept the country on its feet whilst the battles were happening abroad.

"The sculpture looks absolutely amazing and it will be a fine tribute when it is erected at the Arboretum." Clare Arnold, 90, is Stafford born and bred.

Now living in Queensville, she worked at Lotus Shoes in the county town where she used to trial new fashions. She was one of the first to try slim back shoes

before they went on sale.

At 18 she joined the Women's Land Army in 1942, serving until 1945.

She first worked at a farm in Walton-on-the-Hill, and then at a farm near where the Staffordshire County Showground is today.

She said: "Everything I did was done by hand. I used to start at 7am because I had had two milk rounds and we used big churns. I could be working until 11pm doing things like hay stacking and then have to be back up again at 7am.

"It was right back to basics. At then end of the day my hands would be cracked and dry. But we just got on with it. We enjoyed it. We all remember the good times." Nita Millington, aged 89, from Hixon near Stafford, was in the land army between 1943-47. She worked on a farm near Shrewsbury. She said: "I was in school when the war started. I was around 14 years old. "The school was evacuated. As such I started working on sewing machines.

"When I was 18 I decided to try for the land army and was in their for four-and-a-half years. I look back on it with very fond memories. It was hard and could be horrible especially if it was cold. I had to do jobs like hay making, thrashing for collecting corn and piling stacks of hay.

"It was on the farm that I met my husband. He was a wagoner. He came to the farm in 1946 and we got married in April 1947 and he got a job working with the horses."

She added: "I think the idea for a memorial is wonderful. I first read about it in the parish magazine and said I would go and have a look at what it was all about. I think the design is really good. The artist has done really well. "The monument will remember what we did for posterity." Mary Malpass, 85, originally from Coseley but

now lives in Cannock, joined the land army when she was 17. She worked for two years on a firm in Eccleshall.

She said: "I was doing shop work and various different jobs when I had a choice of either going into the land army or joining the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI).

"On the farm I had a range of different jobs like farming potatoes, hay making

"It was lively and there was always a lot of work. Thinking about it, I enjoyed it. It was lovely and I would do it again tomorrow if I could.

"There was about 20 people on our farm and we had prisoners of war from Germany and Italy. They did not bother us at all. They just got on with their work. We'd even sit down and have our lunch together. I think the memorial is a great idea. It's about time something like that was done to remember what women did during the war.

Eunice Finney, press officer for the Women's Land Army Tribute, said: it was important that their efforts were marked.

She said "It is a high-time these fantastic women were recognised as they changed the face of agriculture during the war.

"We were importing 60 per cent of our food before the war and after the war we began exporting 60 per cent of the food produced in this country. Fresh local food is as important these days as it was in the war years.

"Many of these ladies have sadly passed away, but we are determined to honour those that are able to attend the opening ceremony and remember those who are no longer with us."

A call for a sculptor was put out in August 2013 and Miss Dutton was chosen from a shortlist of six.

Miss Dutton said she is delighted to be involved in the scheme: "It's a great honour to have a part in the Women's Land Army tribute. I spoke to the group before making the piece and we all decided we needed something representative of what the women did while the men were away fighting.

"It was such a great project to be involved with and it's right up my street because my great aunt, Sheila Creasy, was a land girl who worked on a mixed farm in Surrey the whole way through the war."

Miss Dutton has sculptures all over the country, with notable commissions including sculptures of the poet Benjamin Brierleyin Manchester and the Maharaja Duleep Singh at Thetford in Norfolk. A fundraising drive to pay for her latest work was launched two-and-a-half years ago by the Staffordshire Women's Food and Farming Union who are anxious to unveil the life-size sculpture as soon as possible.

They have relied on donations from the public. The plinth of limestone for the sculpture has been donated by Longcliffe Quarries Ltd from Bakewell in Derbyshire.Members have also attended events and local country shows to spread the word about the memorial.

Around £20,000 is still needed to fund long-term maintenance and insurance.

The Staffordshire Women's Food & Farming Union is looking for former Land Girls and Lumberjills who want to attend May's ceremony.

They are also after donations to help the project. Get in touch by calling 01889272777 or go to www.womenslandarmytribute.co.uk