Rationing

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

One last photo.

HE WORK OF THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY IN THE RECLAMATION OF FEN LAND, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND, 1942
Land Girls Ivy Reid, Alice Crook, Joy Godsall and a colleague dig an old bog oak out of this piece of reclaimed fen land in Cambridgeshire. The original caption stated that this tree was over 100 years old.

The caption should read "over 1000 years old" because these trees are remnants of an ancient 2,000 to 4,000 year old forest that ran along the Fen Edge. As the waters rose with global cooling, they fell and were swallowed up in Fen peat.

These trees have become like iron, and weigh many many tonnes. They are hard to remove even now with a thirty tonne excavator.

These poor girls have the job of doing it by hand.

I don't fancy the state of their backs, that night!

Regards

Nick Balmer