EDNA Beard fell in love with the countryside working the land to feed a nation at war.

Driving a tractor in the Land Army she helped produce crops as the country's men battled against Hitler's hordes during the Second World War.

Now 60 years later, the last remaining link to her land tilling past - her allotment - is under threat from the authorities.

Edna and other residents of Monks Way, Eastleigh, have been told to quit their allotments by March 10 next year to make way for up to 425 new flats.

Eastleigh Borough Council is to apply for outline planning permission to build the homes in the Lakeside Country Park.

Edna, 82, said: "I loved the Land Army it was wonderful. I didn't want to go at first because I'd never been away from home but I never regretted it.

"I used to do everything - ploughing the fields, cutting the corn, milking the cows.

"We lived in a big house and every morning we went to the bottom of the drive where we would be picked up.

"There was quite a number of us staying at the hostel. I shared my room with about five or six other girls.

"I slept on the top bunk. I remember because there was some kind of earth tremor one night and I fell out of bed. All I remember is opening my eyes and seeing loads of girls around me asking if I was all right."

After the war Edna married John Beard and moved to the south where his family lived.

At her new home in Eastleigh she continued to work the land on the allotments.

She said: "I've had these plots nearly 19 years. There's no way I could live without them. When my husband died 16 years ago this was what kept me going.

"I'm out here at 6.30 every morning. I love it."

And for 17 years the youngest daughter of a Yorkshire family of eight collected rents for the allotments and policed them for the council with an iron hand - free of charge.

She said: "I've worked hard for the council over the years and I've never got paid for it."

Leader of the council Keith House has given his assurance new allotments will be set up if the controversial property development is given the go ahead. Sites identified include land off Chestnut Avenue and Boyatt Lane.

He has accused protesters of going to "ludicrous lengths" in their fight to save the allotments.

A council spokesman said: "New allotment sites will be prepared to a high standard. The council will ensure that soil preparation works identified as necessary are undertaken so the sites are suitable for cultivation."

But for Edna this will mean at least a mile's walk to her new pitch several times a day which she is simply not up to at her age.

The grandmother of one said: "If I can't go out my gate and straight on to my allotments it will be very hard work for me. The new pitches will be too far for me to go."