WHEN the roof of her house was blown off during an air raid in the Second World War, Edna Green knew she had to leave. The war had been cruel to the teenager. School friends had perished beneath the rubble, and she had lost many of her most treasured possessions.
After the war ended in 1945, the country's infrastructure was on its knees as a severely depleted workforce was struggling to rebuild the lasting damage of a costly conflict.
By the spring of 1947, the 16-year-old decided she would swap London buses for farm tractors and make a new life for herself by joining the Women's Land Army in the countryside.
The mother-of-three, who was born in Romford on June 18, 1929, said: "I had been a town girl all my life, but despite the doubts of my parents, I'd had enough and decided it was something I needed to do.
"When I enlisted I said I was 17 rather than 16 so that they would let me join. I wasn't sure what the future had in store for me but, whatever it was, I was determined to see it through.
"That May I found myself at Graveleys Farm, near Hartford End (near Felsted). It was very isolated and the village only had one pub, but the family who looked after me made me feel like one of their own."
Edna left behind her elder sister Eve, mother Alice and father Bill, but was greeted on her first morning by the farm Collie dog, Bob, as she set about kick-starting the nation's agricultural industry.
She was the only girl at the farm, picking potatoes, harvesting sugar beet and cleaning out where the pigs and chickens lived, in what was an exhausting, but "idyllic" life.
The 85-year-old also remembers the mischief her friends would cause on another farm, when they crept out at night for a rendezvous before climbing back up the drainpipe as the sun rose. Despite the camaraderie, Edna claims the experience felt alien to her, remarking that she had only ever seen as many live sheep at the Romford cattle market.
"It was all so new to me, but I loved working with nature," she said. "The fresh air always gave me an unimaginable appetite and the only form of evening entertainment we needed was conversation."
One of Edna's favourite jobs was working with the farm's Shire horse, Old Blossom.
Edna would keep treats in her dungarees for the workhorse and always liked to reward her after ploughing the meadows together.
However, Edna's budding relationship with Old Blossom would soon lead her to the man who stole her heart and away from the prying eyes of the German prisoners of war working at the farm.
She said: "We used to be kept separate from the Germans but they would still try their luck. They used to say: 'Come with us German boys, the English men are no good'. They were so arrogant. In the end we didn't have too much to do with them as they would speak their language and we would speak ours.
"But I met my Prince Charming when I was taking Old Blossom to be shod at the blacksmith. I was plodding along a country lane when a brown lorry slowed to let me pass.
"A young, dark-haired man was at the wheel, smiling. I couldn't resist his charm, so we met for a second time a week later at the village pub. The rest is history."
The whirlwind romance that ensued between Edna and Don started just a fortnight after she arrived in the countryside, recounting how they would feed each other wild blackberries by the river in spring and pick hazelnuts during the autumn.
The couple married in August 1949 at the Romford Registry Office before moving in with Ron's parents, and later to the Brewery House in Hartford End for six years.
The grandmother-of-three and the former Royal Marine then took over the Cross Keys pub in Great Notley in 1958, where they raised a son Tony, 56, and a daughter Gill, 51. Tony's twin brother died shortly after birth.
The family made the pub their home for 31 years, devoting so much time to their business that Edna and Don had to take separate holidays so the pub didn't suffer financially.
Edna said: "The work was so intense but when we retired to Maldon, we more than made up for lost time by relaxing on cruise ships all over the world.
"We had friends in Tennessee in America, so we used to travel and see them quite often. We also visited Mexico, the West Indies and places in Europe. It was bliss."
Don died of pancreatic cancer in 2005 aged 82, at which point Edna moved in to a retirement home in Albert Court, Braintree.
Edna reveals that life without her childhood sweetheart has been tough, and illustrates the kind of man he was by revealing that he didn't bar a single person in all his years as a landlord.
She began writing a short memoir of her time with the Women's Land Army as a coping mechanism, but now she wants a publisher to print her work, so her tales are not just limited to her family.
The great-grandmother-of-two said: "My time with the Women's Land Army changed my life forever. As soon as I arrived, it seemed as if my path was already mapped out for me.
"I owe everything to that decision I made in 1947, when the summers were warm and wonderful, and I found my love sitting on the back of a horse.
"Now I want to share my story with others."
