The Longest Yarn 2: Britain at War
- suffolkwlamemorial
- Sep 2
- 7 min read
The Longest Yarn 2 – Britain at War premieres on 3rd September 2025. This new exhibition features 80 one-metre panels of intricate “wool art,” capturing life in Britain from the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 through to VE Day on 8 May 1945. Visitors will encounter powerful depictions of key moments and themes, including the King’s Speech, the Blitz, D-Day, the bombing of major cities, the Home Guard, the Women’s Land Army, rationing, and the everyday resilience of a nation at war.
Adding to the experience will be our very own Suffolk Girl, Daphne Hedges, a life-sized woollen figure representing the Women’s Land Army!
In October 1940, the right honourable R.S Hudon the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries sent a message to the Women’s Land Army – “The events of the past 6 months have made increased food production at home even more urgent. Total war is a war of endurance, and to ensure winning it we must make the most use of all our resources, especially the land. Milking the cows, feeding the pigs and the poultry, or driving a tractor, day after day, is unspectacular and at times may seem to you very dull.
But without the food you help to produce the bravery of the fighting services would be of no avail and the machinery in our munitions factories would be silent and still. Famine could achieve what no bomb or blitzkrieg or invading force will ever bring about. It is your vital task to see that such a thing could in no conceivable circumstance arise and is driven even further from the realms of possibility.”
East Suffolk born Daphne Hedges was just one of the many young girls that were attracted to the idea of working on the land to do their bit for the war effort, and on turning 18 years of age she joined the Women’s Land Army with expectations of being trained and beginning her outdoor agricultural experience in the fields; however with four years of efficient administrative practice in handling labour supply and demand under their belt, the Women’s Land Army had but a limited range of vacancies available and they offered Daphne a position in a pest control team in Devon.
Rat Catching one of the most unpleasant but vital jobs that Land Army members were trained to conduct. Girls like Daphne would be at war with the millions of rats that occupied the farmyards, barns, and outhouses where vital grain stores were held in the patch she covered. Catching rats was considered a specialist task, rats are clever, cunning, and cautious, so it took patience, practice, and perseverance to know their behaviours, tricking them into taking the bait and in dispatching and disposing of them efficiently. Ministry of Agriculture reports at the time estimated that every rat on the farm cost six shillings a year in lost or spoiled produce.
The Making of a Land Girl –
Born and bred in East Suffolk Daphne was just 18 years of age when she received her call up papers on the 8th of March 1944. Joining the land army at that point in the war saw Daphne joining an organisation that was some 80,000 women strong and although recruitment to the WLA was capped at the peak of its employment in late 1943 they were still looking for physically fit and active young women who were prepared to go anywhere they were needed in the country. Following her interview at the WLA offices in Guildford Surrey, where her family were lodging with relatives, she was sent a leaflet that gave her a limited range of options for employment; one of them being pest control.
Weeks later Daphne found herself being sent to Exeter in Devon and collecting her first parcel of uniform before being introduced to the tasks of rat catching on some local farms in the Ivybridge area.
One of her first jobs was to set gin traps after baiting them with food, returning a few days later to see what was caught. Working alongside other land girls who specialised in pest control she soon got used to using the various tools and implements that became part of her everyday routines.
Most of the girls that conducted pest control did them with them an array of handmade implements that they found useful including the widespread practice of tying a dessert spoon onto a long stick or cane that could be loaded with poisoned bate and poked down holes and burrows. The use of a hand operated pump with a hose would be used to deliver powder cyanide gas called ‘Cymag’ into holes to force the rats out of their underground nests and girls would often receive bonuses from farmers if they managed to catch a good number of them, so their catches were usually tied by the tail to a long rope so they could be counted easily. As her confidence and skills grew Daphne sat an exam offered by the WLA to recognise and reward her for her expertise.
Daphne and her friends were in Ivybridge on D Day in 1945 and recall seeing the soldiers march past in a parade all carrying their kitbags over their shoulders. Moving to Kingsbridge a few weeks later saw Daphne join a larger group of land girl rat catchers who worked in gangs touring the area’s many farms and smallholdings in vans that they took turns in driving.
September 1945 saw Daphne’s contract in Devon end, and she returned to Suffolk to accept work organised by the East Suffolk War Agricultural Executive Committee; being sent out to work on various local farms potato picking, hedge laying and clearing woodland. 1946 and 1947 were spent on general farm work contracts pulling sugar beet, muck spreading, ditch clearing and hedge laying and harvesting in fields and local fruit orchards. Daphne recalls in her diaries taking a trip to London on the 7th June 1946 to watch the Victory Celebrations, and closer to home she recalls learning to drive a tractor properly, also recalling an encounter with a Flying Fortress that spotted her and pals harvesting in a field whilst loading sheaves of corn onto a flatbed trailer – apparently it came in so low that all the girls fell to their bellies flat on the trailer then the plane dipped its wings in a cheeky nod after it had flown over them.
In 1948 Daphne and her friends took time off to attend the Suffolk Agricultural Show and ended up with their pictures in the local paper.
In1949 whilst working on local farms around Wattisham Daphne’s tractor broke down and a young man called Victor Scarff, who was a local poultry farmer, came to her rescue managing to get the tractor running again, this chance meeting led to more arranged ones and in August 1950 Daphne applied to leave the Land Army ahead of her wedding to Victor. After their marriage they settled on the family farm just outside Stowmarket in Suffolk and raised their family that continues to farm the land today.
Daphne Hedges was just one of the many thousands of young women that stepped up and out into the fields and forests across the United Kingdom doing their bit for King and Country in feeding the nation in a time of greatest need. For all those groundbreaking women regardless of their background and the length of time they served, their experience on the land was a period of unprecedented liberation and self-discovery and as a nation we owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be truly repaid.
The Longest Yarn 2 (TLY2) Britain at War project-
The Suffolk Women’s Land Army Memorial Trust are truly delighted that one of their most marvellous Land Girl’s is representing the Women’s Land Army at this amazing touring exhibition.
We had the idea to create a scene of successful rat catching, so Daphne is displayed in her best walking out uniform along with the tools of her trade at her side, all expertly created in wool by an international team of fabulous yarners—so you will see an array of tools that were very much part of everyday use for a land Army Rat Catcher. Items such as the gas pump used to send cyanide gas into burrows and drains, and the long-handled spoon that was used to push bait far down the rat and rabbit holes. We also aim to show Daphne’s successful catch strung up by their tails so the daily tally could be easily accounted for.
The Mischief Makers -
The collective noun for rats is aptly called ‘a mischief 'and so we have put together a large collection of individually tagged and numbered rats all made by volunteers that we met through the TLY projects and interested craft groups and individuals across the UK, in particular the WI both in Suffolk and Devon.
We know that rats come in all shapes and sizes, colours and tones so we have been happy to have them in an assortment of yarns and finishes, and as long as they look reasonably rattish, we have worked on the principle of the more variety the merrier!
Daphne’s daughter Desiree Shelley is just one of the many wonderful women who have contributed to the challenge of creating Daphne in yarn. Desi has been centrally involved in bringing the story of her Mum’s service to life and her book about her Mums life in the land army’ created from personal diary accounts of Daphne’s adventures and activities shaped our narrative and she has personally knitted some of her Mums uniform pieces.
‘The making of a Land Girl’ which includes Daphne’s photographs and certificates has been a wonderful reference point inspiring all those involved in the making of this land girl a truly unforgettable and unifying experience. The entire team of 20+ makers have worked tirelessly since October 2024 to create items in amazing detail and accuracy working from measurements of items of Daphne’s original uniform pieces and taking inspiration from the many photos of Daphne and her friends in their time of service.
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