Eighty-year-old Rosemary Hyder was among the former Land Girls who met to recount their fond memories of the war days.

The former members of the Women’s Land Army (WLA), along with members of the Women’s Timber Corps (TC), met at a special tea party held in their honour in the grand setting of Osterley Park.

During the party, they were greeted by the mayor of Hounslow, Councillor Genevieve Hibbs, before joining in a sing-along of popular wartime songs, including We’ll Meet Again and Roses of Picardy.

Along with memories of their time working in the fields, many came armed with old photos of their time in the Land Army, which saw them posted to the countryside to take on roles traditionally filled by men who had gone off to war.

Mrs Hyder, from Hounslow, was posted to Hertfordshire from her home in Kensington when she signed up to the WLA at the age of 17.

"I milked the cows and did a bit of thrashing and thatching of roofs,” she said.

“There was a milking machine but the old farmer didn't believe in it and made me go round and milk 50 cows by hand. I enjoyed myself but I didn't like thatching.

"The men on the farm used to call me blossom or rose bud."

Josephine Mortlock, 79, from Chiswick, was posted to Hertfordshire as a land girl at 17, where she worked for a year-and-a-half.

She said: “You had to work hard. It was so cold, especially when you were picking the Brussel sprouts.

“I cried the first weekend I went home. I said to my mum ‘I’m not going back’. But after that it was wonderful. They were the best years of my life.”

The WLA and WTC were set up in 1939 to replace the tens of thousands of men who had to leave their civilian jobs to enlist in the military.

The Land Army’s main job was to grow produce to feed the people of Britain because with war, came a shortage of food being imported from overseas.

While the women of the timber corps cut down trees or worked in saw mills to produce the timber necessary for the war effort.

The women, in their late teens and early 20s, were often sent miles from home to help.

Joan Hamilton, 86, from Isleworth, went to Canterbury as part of the WLA at the age of 23.

She said: “I milked 16 cows a day. I did a milk round at 6am. I would take the milk round with a pony and trap and then had to come back and clean out the cow shed. I felt very fit.”

However, amid the hard work there was plenty of fun and the former Land Girls reminisced about dances and film nights with soldiers who were posted nearby.

One couple at the tea party, Kay and Ted Milford, from Isleworth, met when Kay worked as a Land Girl in Oxford, not far from where Ted was based with the RAF.

Kay, 85, said: “We went to a dance at their camp and met there. He went off to British Rhodesia and we didn’t meet up until three years later but we were writing to each other during this time.”

They have been married 63 years.

Coun Hibbs told the former Land Girls: “I’m delighted to be with you here today to thank you personally for your hard work carried out in extremely difficult circumstances.”