When Evelyn Cowan was just 18, she left home and set off to play her part in the war effort.

It was 1941 and the Second World War was raging across Europe when Evelyn joined the Women's Land Army.

The memories of those days, almost 60 years ago, have stayed with the grandmother from Rottingdean and she always hoped one day she would be able to meet the friends she made in the fields once more.

Now her dream has come true and she has returned to Penn Street Farm in Penn, Buckinghamshire.

Mrs Cowan, 77, of Rowan Way, said: "I was imagining that everything would have changed. With so many places nowadays there are big roads going through and buildings ripped down, but everything looked the same. The same narrow lanes and farm buildings - it was wonderful."

She has happy memories of her time as a land girl and the trip has brought them all flooding back.

She said: "I lived in London when the war broke out.

"I made sailors' uniforms, but I didn't think I was doing war work, so my twin sister and I decided to sign up for the Wrens because we liked the uniform.

"But during World War One, the women in the armed forces had been looked down upon, so we joined the Women's Land Army to please our dad.

"We were given a uniform and put on a train to Aylesbury, where we were asked what kind of work we wanted to do.

"My sister and I, and some girls we knew from school, decided we didn't mind what we did as long as we were kept together."

Mrs Cowan found herself in the village of Holmer Green, where home was a large tent and a canvas bed. Hundreds of girls lived in this canvas village from April to November before finding lodgings in the main village.

She said: "When I first got there I just sat down and cried.

"I thought to myself 'What have I done?' I had never been camping before, my mother would never have allowed it."

Despite working from dawn until dusk, six days a week, Mrs Cowan says she loved the work, hoeing, building hay ricks, threshing, spreading manure and milking.

She said: "We were picked up in the morning in a truck and driven to whichever farm needed us that day.

"Some of the farmers were lovely to us and made us cups of tea after work, others were mean to us.

"We were working double summer time (two hours forward, rather than today's one) during the war, but we didn't mind working hard. After all, most of use had been working piecemeal before we joined up and were paid for how hard we worked.

"We only earned 25 shillings a week in the land army and had to pay our own board and lodgings and buy our own underwear, although we were given our uniforms and an extra cheese ration because we were working in the fields.

"The best nights were Saturdays when we would head off to the dances where we were joined by soldiers home on leave.

"We got four passes a year to go home to our families."

When the bombs stopped dropping and life returned to normal, Mrs Cowan first moved back to London and then to Brighton where she worked as a companion and helper to a lady who lived in the town.

It was there that she replied to an advert in the paper for girls to be dancing partners for blind servicemen at St Dunstan's in nearby Ovingdean.

Mrs Cowan was partnered with a young infantry man from the Norfolk Regiment called John who had lost both his eyes ten days before the end of the war.

Love blossomed and the couple were married, moving away from Sussex.

They had two children and five grandchildren before retiring to Rottingdean 20 years ago.

John died recently and Mrs Cowan's daughter, Linda, arranged for her to return to Penn Street Farm, where she had worked for more than a year, as a Mother's Day gift.

Following the trip she was contacted by Vi Bryan, 83, of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, who worked with her in the fields and taught her how to milk a cow. The pair have spent hours on the phone to each other and hope to meet again soon.