A Land Girl in Galloway PDF Print E-mail
Written by Maggi Kaye   
Monday, 15 December 2008 12:09

A few reminiscences of a Land Girl in Galloway 1947 -1950


Ruby was born in Knightswood in Glasgow and evacuated at the age of 9 with her brother, to Crochmore farm near Shawhead during the war. She loved the experience which is why she decided to join the Land Army when she was 17. Before that though, she left school at the age of 14 and went to work in John Glen’s warehouse in Glasgow, which was a wholesale warehouse for clothes.


When she signed up for the Land Army there was a medical, but no training, so she had to learn on the job. She came down from Glasgow on the bus, and was met by her boss, Peter Fingland who took her to his farm, Milnmark which lies in the valley of the Lochinvar burn.

The day she arrived was mill day, when the travelling threshing mill was there the thresh the corn. This was a bit scary! She was well fed and lived with the family and had had to turn her hand to a variety of tasks. As well as Ruby, there were a couple of German PoWs who lived in a bothy, working on the farm. Her jobs included, feeding and looking after the sheep, milking the Ayrshire cows, and helping with the crops – oats and turnips. After the corn had been cut and was lying in sheaves, she had to stook the sheaves (stand them upright in groups to dry), and a mill time her job was to catch the chaff in bags as it came out of the mill. At shearing time she had to roll the fleeces and brand the sheep that had been shorn; one time she accidently branded one the men’s bottoms as well!

One day the family went out and she was asked to go and turn the oats in the granary. It was very hot and dusty work. She got fed up with this pretty quickly, so only the grain on the top of the heap got turned, but no one seemed to notice. One thing that upset her, was that the bull calves from the dairy herd were sent off for veal, which was common, because Ayrshire bull calves, unless they are going to be used as bulls, are not much use as they do not fatten well for beef.

The Land Army gave her a bike, so on her time off, which was between milkings at weekends, she and her friend who was a Land Girl at Bogue, used to cycle down to Dalry for sweets, when the had them, and ‘Pasha’ cigarettes.

The farm was part of the Lochinvar estate and she took a fancy to the estate ploughman whom she later married. Ruby continues to live in the area now.
Last Updated on Friday, 14 October 2011 15:50