Land Girl in 1940
Alice Jackson (nee Grisdale)
Photographs courtesy Alice and Robert Jackson
September 2020
 
One of the pleasures in editing this website is the people you meet. Many have marvellous memories of the area even though they were here for only a short time and some in the most difficult of circumstances. 

Ninety-eight-year-old Alice Jackson (nee Grisdale) wrote to us from Liverpool via her son, Robert. She vividly remembered her time serving as a land girl in World War II and when she came to Box in 1940.

These are Alice's memories of rural Box in the strangest of wartime conditions and the work she was required to do as a land girl.

The wartime photo, right, was taken in Liverpool, just before my brother headed off to Anzio (where he was captured) then placed as a POW in Braunschweig Camp.
I came down to Corsham as a 19-year-old in 1940. It was a huge cultural shock for me at the time and coming from Liverpool (where I still live today), a totally different world in the Wiltshire countryside. I was a land girl assigned to the Box/ Corsham area. Much of my time was spent camouflaging the surrounding fields with grass seed to disguise the new, white stone which was being excavated from the bunker. Our job was to mix soil and seed to fool the German bombers on their way to Bath and Bristol from noticing activity in this area. It was very hard work, long hours and physically tiring.
 
I was billeted in the Lypiatt Road, Corsham. I remember going into Bath when I had a day off and being in Monmouth Road. I had to fling myself onto the floor when a bomb exploded dropped from an enemy aircraft! I met so many interesting people there, including some rather unusual ones to me – the underground navvy workers clearing the tunnels. I also met Lady Methuen who was the leader of the Women’s Land Army in the area of Hawthorn. Whilst there I given the opportunity to go down into the underground tunnels via the London Lifts (tube station escalators) to see what was happening. I have always wanted to go back to the area for another visit down under!
Of course, we were all sworn to secrecy about the nature of our work. By a strange coincidence, we recently found out that my sister's future husband was training at HMS Arthur at the same time. It really is a small world! When the tunnels had been cleared, there was no more need to disguise the raw stone and I was sent to Donhead St Andrew, near Shaftesbury, Wiltshire to work on the land there.
 
Looking back, I am proud to have played a small part in the war effort and I remember those days in Box and Corsham with great fondness despite the wartime hardship. When the war finished, I didn't want to leave but had to return to my family in Liverpool with many memories and a greater knowledge of life.

Right: Alice photographed today
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​Thank you, Alice, for these wonderful memories of your time in Box eighty years ago. We would love to hear from others who came to the area briefly during the war and capture their memories of the past.