A WOMAN who helped Fryer’s roses to survive the Second World War has returned to the nursery for the first time in 60 years.

Mary Waterhouse, now 86, volunteered for the Women’s Land Army and was posted to work in Knutsford.

Fields at Fryer’s, then run by current owner Gareth’s grandfather Arthur, were turned over from rose cultivation to vegetable growing as part of the war effort.

But the Land Girls were also charged with ensuring the company did not have to start from scratch at the end of the war.

“That was a problem but my grandfather was shrewd enough to keep a small collection,” said Mr Fryer.

“One of the things Mary remembers is being taught to bud the roses.

“That meant we were quickly able to get the roses going again after the war.”

Miss Waterhouse, originally from Burnley, was living in Bollington when war broke out.

For four years she stayed during the week in a hostel at Tabley and returned home at weekends.

“A lot of it was weeding, but there was all sorts,” said Miss Waterhouse.

“We were planting vegetables, taking the sprouts to market, and sometimes budding the few roses.” When the war ended she went back to Bollington and worked in a Macclesfield textile factory, and now lives in Ingersley Court care home in the village.

Earlier this year she received a medal for her work in the Land Army, and was recently invited to a 1940s lunch and jitterbugs afternoon at the Manchester Road nursery - her first trip back since the war.

“It’s changed immensely,” said Miss Waterhouse. “I couldn’t describe what it used to be like. I wanted to come and see the remaining family and Gareth is really nice.”

She ate rabbit casserole when she visited Fryer’s, but she said that would not have been on the menu 60 years ago.

“When we weren’t working we would be given dripping butties and fried bread,” she said.

Miss Waterhouse, who plays the piano, said the jive music was not what she remembered listening to either.

“It’s a bit jazzy for me,” she said.

knutsfordguardian.co.uk