Question Author
After passing the 11-plus examination, I qualified for the High School for Girls in the local town. I found it quite a culture shock – coming from a village school containing a TOTAL of 40 children and going to High School with 40 girls in ONE CLASS. Although I enjoyed my time at school, I left after passing my O level examinations aged 17 and went to work in a farm office doing wages and costings. All wages were calculated manually and paid out weekly in cash. The costings side of the job consisted of estimating how much profit each field on the 6,000-acre farm would yield from ploughing to harvest.
The farm produced all kinds of crops from corn to pulses. The area factory dried the wheat and barley, which then went for animal feedstuffs; and the peas and beans went to the frozen food industry. I later learned that the factory extracted chlorophyll from grass and lucerne, which was then used as a food additive for colouring (as well as being used in the cosmetic and soap industry). I had five happy years “down on the farm” -- until I married into the RAF, but that is another story!