Medal for Jessie's Land Army service

Happy memories of days spent working on a Staffordshire farm have come flooding back for former Black Country Land Army girl Jessie Ashwood.

She was 19 when she signed up and now, 65 years later, has been awarded a commemorative medal marking her contribution to the war effort. In a uniform of green tie, jumper and brown felt hat, she was sent to work on a large dairy farm near Eccleshall in Staffordshire.

Each day from dawn to dusk she milked cows, mucked out cattle sheds, dug ditches, sowed seeds and harvested crops.

The 86-year-old of Gornal Wood said: "It was just me and the farmer so it was a lot of hard work but it all was all very enjoyable.

"The farmer didn't have a tractor so all the work was done very traditionally with horses and pitchforks.

"I remember going to work on my first day on the farm and we had to wear these really heavy boots which kept making me trip up as I walked around the farm.

"It was such a shock after working in a textiles shop in West Bromwich. I went from wearing high heels and nail varnish to milking cows and using pitchforks."

She stayed with other Land Girls in a hostel two miles away and would cycle to work each day. "There were 20 other girls in the hostel and we were all working at different farms.I liked living there because we all got on very well and used to go out in the nearest town for some social time," she said.

After three and a half years on the farm in Garmelow she married Sidney, now 84, in 1950. At the end of the war Mrs Ashwood had a letter from the Queen expresses appreciation of "loyal and devoted service".

It added: "Your unsparing efforts at a time when the victory of our cause depended on the utmost use of the resources of our land have earned for you the country's gratitude."

The couple, of Maple Drive, have a daughter, Margaret, 55, two granddaughters, Emma, 28, and Angela, 23, as well as 11-month-old great-granddaughter, Destinee.

West Bromwich-born Mrs Ashwood, who received her medal from Dudley North MP Ian Austin, said: "Everybody worked hard during the war, we had to because times were hard. I felt I was do something worthwhile to help the war effort."