Oakham, Rutland: WW1 Agricultural Workers

"British Women's Legion - Splendid Work At Oakham By Our New Food Providers (1914-1918)" - British Pathé on YouTube

Women have always worked in the countryside, but during the Great War they took on new roles and were present in greater numbers than usual. Shipping supplies were badly affected and revealed how reliant Britain was on imported foods, making home production a national issue.

This British Pathé film captures wartime female agricultural workers doing a variety of tasks in front of an audience. It appears to be a competition. Furthermore, they battle on in full length skirts and with coverings over their long hair.

The Crisis of the Soil

The story of female agricultural workers during the First World War is a narrative of grit, transformation, and the quiet dismantling of Victorian social barriers. While the "Land Girls" are often associated with the Second World War, their origin and their most radical impact actually occurred between 1914 and 1918. In the rolling hills of Rutland, and specifically centered around the town of Oakham, this national movement took on a deeply personal and local significance.

By 1917, Britain was facing a catastrophic food shortage. The German U-boat campaign was successfully sinking merchant ships carrying vital supplies, and the nation’s domestic labor force had been decimated. Hundreds of thousands of farm laborers had traded their plows for rifles, leaving the harvest to rot in the fields.

In response, the government established the Women's Land Army (WLA) in 1917. Before this official mobilization, however, "village registrars" and volunteer corps had already begun to organize. Agriculture was seen as "men’s work"—heavy, dirty, and technically demanding. The idea that women from towns and cities could manage a team of heavy horses or handle a plow was met with deep skepticism by the traditional farming communities of Rutland.

Oakham: The Hub of the Rutland Effort

Oakham served as the administrative and logistical heart for the women’s agricultural movement in the region. As the county town, it was the site of the Women’s War Agricultural Committees. These committees were responsible for a monumental task: convincing conservative local farmers to hire women, and convincing young women that "doing their bit" meant grueling 10-hour days in the mud.

The link between Oakham and the female workers was physical and social. The town became a processing center where recruits would arrive by train, often still dressed in the fashions of the city, only to be issued their radical new uniforms: corduroy breeches, high-top boots, and smocks. For many residents of Oakham, seeing women in trousers was a more shocking sight than the military hardware passing through the town.

The Daily Life of the "Land Lassies"

In the fields surrounding Oakham—stretching toward Braunston, Manton, and the Gwash Valley—women took on roles that had been strictly gender-coded for centuries.

The Forage Corps: Many women in the Oakham area were tasked with the "Forage Corps," which involved baling hay and straw for the thousands of army horses serving on the Western Front. It was backbreaking work, requiring immense physical strength and endurance.
The Dairy Maid Revolution: Roughly a quarter of the land girls were funneled into dairy work. In 1917 and 1918, the milk that fed the children of Oakham was increasingly provided by women who had learned to milk cows and manage herds in just a few short weeks of intensive training.
Rat Catching and Pests: Perhaps the least glamorous but most vital role was that of the anti-vermin squads. Rats were a genuine threat to the national grain stores. Teams of women, often based out of Oakham, traveled from farm to farm with terriers and traps to protect the harvest.

The Social Friction and Triumph

The transition was not seamless. In the early years of the war, "Land Girls" often faced mockery. Local farmers in the Rutland markets would joke about the "fancy dress" of the city girls. However, by the harvest of 1918, the tone had shifted to one of profound respect. These women had proved they could plow as straight a furrow as any man and handle the temperamental weather of the East Midlands without complaint.

In Oakham, the presence of these workers created a new social dynamic. The women weren't just laborers; they were symbols of a shifting world. They lived in hostels or were billeted in local cottages, participating in town life, attending services at All Saints Church, and bringing a sense of modern independence to the rural capital.

Why the Oakham Link Matters

The specific link to Oakham is vital because it highlights the "Cinderella Service" nature of agricultural work. Unlike the women in munitions factories, who were often in large, visible groups, the land workers of Rutland were scattered across isolated farms. Oakham was their anchor—the place where they received their meager pay (usually around 18 to 20 shillings a week), their rare medical check-ups, and their sense of community.

When the WLA was disbanded in 1919, the women returned to their previous lives, and the men returned to the plows. However, the precedent had been set. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the infrastructure Oakham had built in 1917—the committees, the training protocols, and the local acceptance—allowed the Land Army to mobilize almost instantly.

The Legacy of the 1918 Harvest

The 1918 harvest in Rutland was one of the most successful on record, largely thanks to the thousands of "Land Lassies." They had not only saved the country from starvation but had also won a significant battle for gender equality on the most traditional of stages: the English farm.

Today, as you walk the heritage trails around Oakham Castle or look out over the fields that now border Rutland Water, you are treading on ground that was once "conquered" by women in breeches. Their contribution is often overshadowed by the soldiers in the trenches, but in the history of Oakham, the female agricultural worker of WW1 remains a towering figure of resilience. They took a "delicious village" and turned it into a fortress of food production, ensuring that while the world was at war, the home fires—and the home larders—remained stocked.

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