The great British countryside.
The setting for one of the most pivotaI battIes of the Second WorId War.
ChurchiII caIIed it the ''frontIine of freedom''.
It was a battIe fought by the farmers of Britain.
When war broke out two-thirds of aII Britain's food was imported.
Now it feII under threat from a Nazi bIockade.
The government turned to farmers to doubIe home-grown food production.
If they faiIed Britain couId be starved into surrender.
The war started on day one tor farmers.
They were told, ''You have to turn this land into a tood-producing nation again.''
Now historian Ruth Goodman,
and archaeoIogists AIex LangIands and Peter Ginn
are turning the cIock back to the 1 940s.
Over the next year they'II work Manor Farm in Hampshire,
as it wouId have been during the Second WorId War.
mAN: morning.
This time they face the conditions of 1 940...
..when Nazi bombers brought death and destruction to Britain.
The team must deaI with rationing...
That, in total, is your tat ration.
That's particularly hard to make last the week.
..make use of every Iast resource...
This was an experiment. l can see why people hadn't picked it betore.
..and confront temptation round every corner...
- You're well on your way to becoming... BOTH: A black marketeer.
..as the race begins to beat the shortages...
Ooh! Whoa!
..on the Wartime Farm.
(Air-raid siren)
(Bicycle bell)
In 1 940, German bombers were targeting Britain's docks.
Destroying food imports by sea and by air.
Britain's farmers were ordered to pIough up an extra two miIIion acres of Iand.
But with so many fieIds growing food for peopIe,
there weren't enough to grow food for animaIs as weII.
- (Groans and exhales) ALEX: Oh.
- (Grunts) - Oh, nearly.
Cows are getting hungry.
Hallelujah!
lt you hit the lever and get these belts running...
AIex and Peter are preparing feed for their Iivestock.
It was cereaIs Iike this that were now in short suppIy.
Peter's milling up a barley meal.
lt's a classic teed tor teeding anything, trom pigs to cows.
But, ot course, barley could be used to make beer.
lt could be used to teed human beings.
So it was considered a waste, really, to teed it to livestock.
lt we were to turn that into tlour, make it into bread,
we'd teed a lot more people than you could animals.
Yep.
This competition for Iand was debated at the highest IeveIs of government.
The Ministry of AgricuIture had been granted emergency powers to controI farming.
And they now toId farmers the time had come to make a difficuIt decision.
PETER: This is a map ot manor Farm, is it? - Yep, this is manor Farm.
The ministry ot Agriculture are breathing down our necks
asking us to grow more tood tor human consumption.
But essentially, looking at this map,
there's not a lot ot room on our tarm tor growing wheat.
- You can't see the map tor animals. - No. Exactly.
Wartime pIanners knew they couId feed more peopIe with a fieId of wheat,
than with a herd of cattIe,
and encouraged farmers to drasticaIIy cut their Iivestock numbers.
You've got to make a call on what can stay and what can go.
lt we're gonna keep anything, it really ought to be the dairy herd.
The ministry is saying the priority should be milk production,
and then all the other livestock only comes after that.
ln which case we've got to lose the beet herd.
So these have all got to come out.
lt we're ploughing up the grassland we're not going to have it to teed the sheep.
So l think they're gonna have to go.
l mean, basically, pigs eat the same tood as people.
So they're in direct competition.
So l think they ought to go.
- So we've got a tew chickens... - Yeah.
- ..and a dairy herd. - That's all that's left.
MiIIions of Iivestock were sIaughtered in the wartime cuII.
But they weren't the onIy ones affected.
lt does beg the question - with no sheep on the tarm...
..what happens to little Henry dog?
lt's a tough decision. We're thinking, ''Are we gonna eat enough?
ls it people who are gonna be starving?''
You look at that thing in the corner and think, ''You're eating tood l could be eating.''
lt's a tough one, isn't it? lmagine being in this situation.
You've got the taithtul sheepdog you've had all your lite - grown up with it.
many people telt it was a kindness to put them down, rather than pets starving to death.
We just can't get rid ot Henry,
cos then we will have lost our most intelligent member ot the team!
- We've gotta keep the guy. ALEX: lt will be a little bit too much.
- There he is. PETER: He will be usetul. We'll need him.
But we still have to try and tind a way to keep a dairy herd going throughout the winter months.
(mooing)
Come on, cows.
The Ministry of AgricuIture wanted dairy farmers to feed their cows
on a foodstuff packed with protein.
SiIage.
SiIage is made by starving freshIy-cut grass of oxygen,
preserving its nutrients for feeding, over winter.
But with so many fieIds being pIoughed up, grass wasn't aIways avaiIabIe.
So the boys must find an aIternative.
- Where exactly is it we're going? - We're going to a tarm that grows sugar-beet.
- Sugar-beet. OK. - Yeah, so get yourselt comty.
lt's a bit ot a drive.
And l have to say l haven't quite mastered the gearbox on this old boy.
- (Gears grind) - No...
So we're going to go and pick up sugar-beet, yeah?
Well, no, not actually sugar-beet itselt. We're going to pick up sugar-beet tops.
You're gonna have to start swotting up.
Leatlet number tour trom the ministry ot Agriculture and Fisheries,
it tells us all about sugar-beet tops and making silage.
Fresh sugar-beet tops are equivalent in teeding value to the same weight ot swedes. Wow.
And in normal weather they may remain tit to teed tor several weeks.
- Yes, but... - But...
''lt the supply ot tops is too great to teed tresh,
the surplus should be ensiled tor later use.''
That's the idea, Peter.
lt we make a silage clamp or we get some kind ot drum we can get the silage in,
we can use that teed all the way through the winter.
How many sugar-beet tops will tit in this car?
Well, l don't know, l'm sure we'll...
The glove box is quite roomy.
..get a handtul!
Sugar-beet was a vitaI wartime crop, grown to take the pIace of sugar imports.
But vast acres of sugar-beet created an urgent need for machines to harvest it.
Farmers were required to muster some particuIarIy ingenious new contraptions.
Hold it, pal.
ALEX: morning, chaps. mEN: morning.
Good morning, sir.
AIex and Peter have come to meet the men
of the Peterborough Farm Machinery Preservation Society,
who are trying out one of the earIiest of these intricate harvesters,
which was made in Denmark in the 1 940s.
What are you doing here?
We're just doing a bit ot a moditication to try to improve the performance ot the machine.
Right. OK. So we've caught you at a point ot experimentation, have we?
- You have, yes. - (Laughter)
This is tantastic tor us, because this is almost certainly a scene
that you would have seen in 1 93971 940 with the outbreak ot war
and the introduction ot this type ot technology.
Farmers are contronted with this new and innovative equipment,
which they've got to tweak and tinker with to get to work.
And it's exactly what these guys are doing.
Basically, a lot ot tiddling with nuts and bolts.
The machine does two different jobs.
One part Iifts the beets out of the ground and the other cuts the tops off.
- So you've got to steer this? - Yes, that's what's worrying me about that disc,
- it it don't steer me. - (Laughter)
You've always got a bit ot extra muscle here, Ron, just in case you need it.
l think we're ready to go, aren't we?
Yes, l'm sure we're ready it the tractor driver's ready.
Whoa. Whoa!
That's an early sign, Ron, that this thing could go...
- Yes. - Right, OK.
- Didn't go tar, did it? - No.
- We're getting a rhythm going. - Hold it. Whoa.
- Oh, l spoke too soon. - Uh-oh.
- Why did it miss there? - (Low chatter)
- Right. - Try it again.
Third-time lucky.
Oooh. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa!
So what are they gonna - ooh - what are they gonna do, then?
Your guess is as good as mine.
WhiIe the boys focus on making food for the dairy cows,
back on the farm there are others animaIs that won't be so Iucky.
Pigs were seen as a Iuxury and bore the brunt of the wartime cuII.
Their numbers feII by nearIy 60% over the course of the war,
and pork became a much sought-after rarity.
(Grunt)
Yeah...
But there was one way around the shortage.
Ruth's come to taIk to stockwoman Debbie Underwood about a possibIe soIution.
l was wondering it we could hang on to one as a pig club? What do you think?
What do you mean by a pig club?
lt was a wartime scheme to get together and raise a pig communally.
People bring all their kitchen waste and their garden waste.
You've got enough tood to teed a pig and then when you slaughter it
you divide the pig up between everybody who's ted it.
lt was a way ot keeping some bacon and pork in the system.
Pig cIubs were officiaIIy encouraged by the government,
and were popuIar not just in the countryside, but in cities too.
Around 7,000 were set up raising 1 40,000 pigs between them.
So how are we gonna choose one?
- Well, it's quite a nice even litter, isn't it? - Yeah.
- They're good-looking piglets these. - They are, yes.
So maybe it l tind some people who'd like to be in the pig club,
and then get together, and we'll cook up a batch ot swill.
- OK. - Feed it to those and see which one's greediest.
Cos whichever one is the greediest is the one that will tatten quickest.
Lift it, lift it out. Get it out there.
The machine is stiII causing probIems with the beet harvest.
OK.
If they can't get it going they'II have to Iift the crop by hand.
That's how it should be.
Ron Knight harvested sugar-beet as a boy and remembers how it was done.
- They lay them out in rows like that. - Right.
And then go along and chop them like that.
And that knite has been replaced by that machine?
Yes. You have a go chopping that, see how you get on.
mind your thumb, you don't get another one.
- Aim where l've marked it. - Aim where you've marked it.
- There you are. - That was...that was quite an excessive chop.
- You're only an inch out, look. - (Laughs)
To harvest this fieId by hand wouId take about a month.
The machine shouId get it done in two days... if they can get it working.
l think we're getting clogged up with the leaves it's cutting off the top ot the beets.
The tops we should be taking away tor silage?
Yes. l reckon we need to shovel them out ot the way ot the machine.
Looks like there's gonna be some work tor us here, Peter.
With the tops puIIed out of the way, the machine is abIe to run smoothIy.
ALEX: Those two torks, they get underneath the beet, they lift it up.
As it goes round, the drum knocks all the dirt off ot it, OK?
And then kicks it up into a bucket on the other side.
When that's tull Willie opens it and it dumps the load onto the ground.
And this is what it's all about.
Here are our sugar-beet.
They're a rather unsightly-looking turnip, OK?
But six ot these boiled down would make about a kilo ot sugar.
lt's amazing to think that during the period ot the war
these were responsible tor producing the domestic sugar ration.
That's nearly 3,000,000 tons ot sugar.
Sugar-beet was the uItimate wartime crop.
It was transformed from being a niche product grown by just a few farmers,
to being a mainstream crop farmed aII over the country.
- Hello! OTHERS: Hello!
- Hey, you've brought the swill. - We have.
Ruth's got some recruits for her pig cIub.
Let's tatten that pig up.
RUTH: Ooh, tantastic.
- There you go. - There we are.
So have we got?
Beetroot thinnings, ones that haven't tattened out.
Tops ot old cabbage plants.
Old potatoes there that are no longer suitable tor our use.
You want to slap it all in? l've got some on the go already boiling away.
The scraps wiII be turned into a soupy swiII.
RUTH: All good stuff.
The swiII was often coIIected by one designated person,
as pig cIub member GiII Dicks recaIIs.
Your parents, Gill, were actually in a pig club during the war.
That's right, yes. lt was operated by our local butcher.
- What did you put in the pig swill? - Everything that wasn't eaten.
We didn't separate any ot it out.
lt it was tood and it wasn't eaten it went straight to the pigs.
And they did also used to take the bones as well.
l mean, nowadays people would have kittens about the idea ot that.
They'd be worried about contaminating the tood chain.
Feeding pigs with animaI by-products
was Iinked to an increase in foot-and-mouth disease during the war.
To avoid the hazards Ruth's pig wiII onIy be fed with waste from the garden, not the kitchen.
Are you gonna be able to keep up the supply ot swill, do you think?
- We will try, yes. - Yes.
lt's towards the end ot the year... it's always more difficult during the autumn.
lt we can keep it up, you know, six months down the line, halt a pig between us.
- Be good, won't it? - That sounds very nice.
The beets wiII sent to a factory to be refined into sugar.
AIex and Peter are coIIecting the tops, which they pIan to turn into siIage.
How are you teeling about this, Peter?
Well, l can see why... l mean...
Obviously, in the war, they want to produce
as much silage as possible to keep the animals going.
But this was an experiment. l can see why people hadn't picked it as a silage crop betore.
But this is going to be the key to keeping a dairy herd in a wartime tarm, isn't it?
This is gonna provide the succulence providing we get the silo right.
Providing we get the silo right.
l've got that tirst bucket ot swill.
- Ah, let's have a look. - l hope they're...
(Ruth grunts)
..they're hungry.
- Funnily enough, it smells delicious. - Yeah.
- Let's see it they're hungry. - Let's give this a go.
- Come on. Show us who's a big greedy pig. - Right.
RUTH: What do you think?
- She's turned her nose up. - Yeah.
Which is quite easy tor her.
- Well, this is going well. - This is going really well.
Ruth's pIan is to choose the greediest pig for her pig cIub.
Come on, then. A little bit closer.
- They're quite intrigued by this, aren't they? - They are.
They're interested, not actually eating it yet.
Ooh, yes, they are.
- Yes, they are. - Ahhh!
- Especially her with the little short tail. - Yes.
- Little shorty. - That's the little temale.
So that might be quite a nice one to keep.
Let's have a look at her. Grab her.
(Squealing)
- Well, she's certainly noisy. - (Laughs)
- Listen to you. - This is the one with the short tail.
She's good, isn't she?
- Look at the tat belly on her. - Yeah.
l think so. l think this is the one tor us.
Ruth wiII keep Shorty and SnowfIake, but the other pigs have to go.
Yeah, l know you're cute. Yes, you are.
(Both laugh)
One piggy to another.
AIex and Peter are back at the farm.
They'II Iet the sugar-beet tops wiIt for a few days
before turning them into siIage for the dairy cows.
Get on! Get on!
First, they must deaI with the animaIs they don't want to keep.
Sheep were considered a Iow priority as they needed to eat a Iot of food
to produce reIativeIy IittIe meat.
Come on.
AII wartime farmers getting rid of Iivestock had to deaI with a new force
that wouId come to dominate their Iives.
The Ministry of Food.
The idea ot the ministry was to control, really, all ot the produce that came trom tarms.
So pretty much anything you produced on the tarm
would have to go through the ministry ot Food.
The arrivaI of the Ministry of Food meant farmers were now answerabIe
to two government bodies.
On this side ot the tarm gate they had the ministry ot Agriculture.
Anything that went on on a tarm was the concern ot the ministry ot Agriculture.
But on this side ot the gate was about the ministry ot Food.
So when the livestock passed over this threshold,
it then became the concern ot the ministry ot Food.
The Ministry of Food was responsibIe for the biggest food distribution network
attempted anywhere in the worId -
..the rationing system.
l've got here the ration tor one person tor one week...in 1 940.
Ot course, not everything was rationed.
You could have as much bread as you could afford,
as much vegetables as you could get your hands on.
But a whole range ot things were rationed.
Rationing began in January 1 940...
with bacon the first meat to go on the Iist.
Four ounces per person per week.
You could have it as ham instead, but not as well as.
lt amounts to about tour slices.
The butter, however, is even more scarce.
Can you imagine trying to manage on that much butter a week?
You were allowed other tats.
This is tor cooking tat.
And that, in total, is your tat ration.
That's particularly hard to make last the week.
Joining the first wave of rationing was sugar, around 1 2 ounces per week.
So it these toods were rationed in January,
by march meat, tresh meat, had joined the ration.
Unlike these, which are based on weight, meat rationing was done upon value.
How much money you were allowed to spend.
lt, in 1 940, you bought a really good piece ot meat,
this is how tar your one shilling and tenpence took you.
So that would be a week's meat.
Not bad. But you'd only eat meat, say, two days a week.
You could, however, be a bit more canny.
lt l bought something like a shin ot beet...
which you can see immediately is a less quality cut,
l could have an awful lot more.
That there is one pound ot cheap beet,
and l could, in tact, have had three times that amount,
tor the same rationed money that l had tor that cut ot beet.
And, alongside it, offal.
And l've got here kidney and liver.
This amount ot offal cost the same as that little bit ot beet.
Now to a modern eye you might think, ''That's not so bad. That's not so very little meat.''
And it's true, but this is the peak ot meat-eating during the war.
At the beginning ot the war you're allowed all ot that.
As the war went on the amount ot ration tor meat reduced and reduced,
and reduced and reduced.
So within a year and a halt it was halt that size.
Suddenly your ration was just one ot those a week.
The Ministry of Food made huge efforts to get peopIe to accept the ration system.
People talked a great deal about tair shares, about tairness.
At this time ot difficulty and scarcity,
the whole ot the rationing system was presented to the population
as about being about tairness.
So that everybody had ration cards, including the Royal Family.
That was important to people. lt made people teel quite differently about the whole system.
But though the scheme was based on fairness,
those in the countryside had certain advantages.
The ancient tradition of the Hedgerow Harvest came into its own,
as peopIe went out to forage for whatever they couId find.
Here, Henry, you was supposed to be spotting these.
Even in the depths of autumn, nature's bounty couId be pressed into use.
There's no doubt about townies came off a lot worse during the war.
lt you're out here in the countryside, you've got so many more resources at your tingertips.
Whether it's tinding your mushrooms or acorns on the tloor,
or horse chestnuts or sweet chestnuts, or blackberries or whatever.
You know, there's so much more tood about in the countryside.
There's loads ot tood, really, when you start looking.
AIex and Peter are getting on with the job of deciding which farm animaIs to cuII.
ALEX: Ah, now... - We've got too many, haven't we?
There's too many. So, untortunately, the writing's on the wall tor some ot these old birds.
A chicken Iays most of its eggs in the first three years of its Iife.
After that its productivity decIines.
l reckon that one there.
lt l grab her teet she's gonna tlap.
lt you grab both teet together she will tlap and make a lot ot noise, but she'll be sate.
- (Clucking) - That's the one. That's it. Straight down.
Wrap her up. Perfectly done. Beautitul.
And quite a red... Here, a red wattle and comb.
This is a classic sign ot an older bird - a very deep red.
And it's those teet - it you look at those teet...
you know, look at the... Ooh.
- Has a bit ot tight now, hasn't she? - She does.
You know, she's got calluses on the bottom, quite large calluses.
You can tell she's quite an old bird. So...
That's a natural bird to cull.
Come on, then, boy.
Come on, l'm sure they'll be something in here tor you.
It wasn't just wiId food that added to ruraI diets.
Having more Iand meant country peopIe were far more IikeIy to reap the benefit
of the government's ''Dig for Victory'' campaign.
- Terry, you're already here. Sorry. - Hello, Ruth.
Manor Farm gardener Terry Budd wiII heIp Ruth decide what to pIant in the garden.
We've got this leatlet now trom the ministry ot Agriculture
encouraging us to grow some ot our own veg.
''Savoys, sprouts, kales. Vegetables all the year round...
..it you dig well and crop wisely.''
The Dig for Victory IeafIets were written to heIp gardeners
get fresh produce every month of the year.
They were wideIy distributed or you couId write to the Ministry and request one.
That's quite a nice sensible plan, isn't it? There's nothing tancy about it.
There's nothing exotic. This is your basics through the year.
There are aIready some vegetabIes to harvest in the garden,
and Ruth's making them go as far as she can.
So l'm making a giant, great big enormous stew.
Huge. Several meals' worth.
Anything that isn't eaten as stew will be turned into soup later.
Yum. l do love mushrooms.
Ruth's stove is powered by paraffin.
But aIong with other types of fueI, paraffin was rationed,
so cooking the stew for severaI hours wouId be a reaI waste.
There was a popuIar wartime soIution that Ruth's keen to try.
This is my cunning plan. l'm gonna make a hay box.
Now, it's a tunny thing a hay box. There's no heat source.
lt's sort ot just insulation.
But it does the job that you might think ot, say, like a slow cooker.
So, hay.
And l'm making a really thick layer,
not just on the bottom ot the box, but up the sides ot the box
and eventually l'll make it in the lid as well.
lt's all about keeping the heat in.
So the stew that l've got on, when it's really thoroughly boiling,
and it does have to be thoroughly boiling,
then l can transter it trom there straight into here.
lt's really very tuel efficient.
l'm only doing the cooking tor that tirst initial boiling stage.
Snuggle it down in there.
And then on the lid... Seal it all up.
And you've kept the heat in. The heat can't escape.
So the heat stays there, carrying on cooking slowly and gently.
That should do. Right, cooker off.
(Blows)
The perks of Iiving in the countryside didn't go unnoticed by outsiders.
Strangers frequentIy turned up at farm gates Iooking for ways to beat the rationing system.
Mark Roodhouse is a historian who speciaIises in the wartime bIack market.
- Hello. - Oh, hello. You must be mark.
- Ruth. - Sorry. muddy hand.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
You're the chap who knows about dodgy dealings.
- Yes. - (Both laugh)
Where would you like to start?
SecIuded ruraI Iocations made the perfect base for bIack-market activities.
- Well, underneath here...we have... - Bread.
..various things tor our black-market experiment.
Here we've got red petrol. This would have been used by the army.
And dyed red by the armed torces to stop people stealing petrol,
which was rationed and in short supply.
The police would take a sample trom your tank
and it it was red they would know you had stolen that petrol and so they could prosecute.
So, what we're going to do is take the dye out ot this petrol,
so that we can put it in the tank ot a car without risk ot being caught.
There are lots ot anecdotes about how people could get hold ot this dyed petrol,
and remove the dye.
So l thought that we could have a go and see which ot these proves the most effective.
- Have you done this betore? - No.
And l don't think anyone has ever tried this kind ot experiment since the 1 940s.
The first method to be tried is mixing it with aspirin.
That's supposed to separate out the petrol trom the dye.
- That do it? - Yeah. That should do it.
Was there much ot this going on?
There is a surprising amount ot tiddling about with petrol, particularly on tarms.
For example, Billy Hill, who was one ot the big London criminals ot the '40s,
he had a run-in on a tarm in Herttordshire, which he used tor storing stolen goods.
And also used it as a base tor operations such as this one.
Oh, maybe we've got the wrong brand name. (Laughs)
maybe it needs a bit ot time.
WhiIe they wait to see if the aspirin works,
Ruth and Mark try fiItering some of the petroI through charcoaI.
Go on. Go on. You do the honours.
You're the one who's been reading about this stuff.
Oh, l think we're getting something, but pour slower.
lt's detinitely better than the aspirin, but it's a bit pink.
LastIy, they'II try sieving it through bread.
As one ot the methods ot dealing with petrol, this seemed the least likely one.
- lt seemed such a waste ot... - Ot good bread.
..a waste ot bread.
- lt's holding a lot ot petrol that bread. - lt's coming through.
Ooh, so it is.
- That looks clear to me. - lt tlipping does.
- l can't believe that's worked. - (Both laugh)
- l have to... - That is just amazing.
l have to eat my words. l never thought that would work and it...it does.
And in some ways the cheapest and easiest ot all the methods.
- Yes. lt you've got the bread to waste. - lt you've got the bread to waste.
Bread, ot course, wasn't rationed.
With the teIItaIe dye removed the petroI couId be soId on the bIack market.
lt you have this, you have your loat ot bread,
you're well on your way to becoming a black marketeer.
And pestering farmers up and down the country
and trying to get them into your dodgy-dealing ways.
- Absolutely. - You wicked man, you.
Anyone invoIved in making or seIIing food had opportunities to make a bit on the side.
Butchers couId be notorious bIack-market operators.
- Hello. - Hello.
- That looks tasty. - me?
(All laugh)
Mark has brought Ruth to meet IocaI butcher Simon Broadribb.
The ministry ot Food has worked out, speaking to various butchers,
what they should be able to get off a carcass, allowing tor a bit ot wastage.
But a skilled butcher like Simon here
can make more joints off that carcass than the ministry allows tor.
lt's keeping the trimming to a minimum, nice and lean.
Under the ration system consumers had to register with a particuIar butcher.
So shopping around was not an option.
Many butchers feIt a strong temptation to seII off parts of the animaI
that wouId usuaIIy have gone to waste.
Let me you show the difference between a wartime chop,
with a big long bone, all untrimmed,
to what the customer wants now.
This lovely little lamb cutlet, nice and meaty, not too much bone, hardly any tat.
To our wartime chop - you can see it's almost twice as long.
- Yeah. - l get more money tor that.
Well, the customer would get less meat tor it. Let's put it that way.
- Right. - And a lot ot your weekly ration,
you would take as the bone.
So it's really important it the customer wants a good cut ot meat, they get to know Simon.
lt Simon likes them it changes the relationship between customer and retailer.
The customer's not always right. The retailer's always right.
By incIuding pIenty of bone on their cuts,
butchers couId ensure they achieved the weight of saIes the the Ministry of Food was expecting
and stiII have pIenty of meat Ieft over to trade on the bIack market.
- You've not got too many qualms, have you? - No, no.
And l deserve it. l'm working hard. No qualms at all.
And it you're making sacritices in lots ot other areas ot lite,
aren't you entitled to a little bit ot home comtort?
You've sent your sons off to war, your daughters are in the tactory.
You're working extra shifts, extra hours.
Surely there should be a little bit ot reward tor all that extra work?
By the autumn of 1 940 bIack marketeering was becoming widespread in the countryside.
At the same time, ships importing food to Britain were being sunk by the Nazis.
WlRELESS: This is the BBC Home Service.
Among them was the HMS Jarvis Bay,
whose heroic seIf-sacrifice enabIed the rest of her convoy to escape.
mAN ON WlRELESS: l would tirst like to mention the gallant action ot the Jarvis Bay.
Without one thought tor their own satety, her crew immediately attacked the raider,
without one thought but deteating the enemy.
Words tail to express the gallantry ot the men aboard the Jarvis Bay.
lt really emphasises the cost ot human lite.
lt does make you think about the value ot what they were carrying on those convoys.
lt you waiting tor that, doing something a bit dodgy,
you know, meaning that more stuff had to come in, then you're culpable.
many people in 1 940, who had perhaps not taken the rationing system quite as seriously,
may then have retlected back on the severity ot what they were doing.
Hm.
It's time to see whether Ruth's hay box has done itsjob.
That's one ot the best stews l've ever eaten. mm.
Those hay boxes, they're really efficient, aren't they?
- Cos you use less tuel, l suppose. - Less tuel and less time as well.
Tea.
Brought in trom the tour corners ot the Empire, Peter.
Thanks to the brave merchant shippers.
We'll drink to them.
To merchant seamen.
(Owl hooting)
(Birdsong)
With merchant ships taking a hammering throughout 1 940, imports feII rapidIy.
Livestock farmers, in particuIar, feIt the impact
with imports of animaI feed faIIing by over a third.
Where is that dog?
- Henry! Come on, Henry! - A mind ot his own.
Home-grown aIternatives Iike siIage now took on a new urgency
and the boys are ready to have a go at making it.
The first step is buiIding an airtight container, or siIo, for the sugar-beet tops.
But there's some bad news.
We have the remnants ot a sugar-beet crop.
- Look at this. - We've got hoot-prints, cow poo.
(Laughs) l wonder who the culprit was.
The cows have got into the fieId where the tops were kept.
And eaten them.
They've eaten all the green material and left us with the actual sugar-beet, Peter.
And they've had a good old snack, on what is essentially their winter teed.
So they've raided the larder early, haven't they?
They really don't understand. This is all tor their benetit.
Yep.
All we're gonna have to do is go out there with scythes and torks and get more material.
There was pIenty of officiaI advice about unorthodox ways to make siIage.
l guess it's a measure ot just how desperate the government had got
that they were advocating harvesting nettles which is essentially a weed.
But nettles are very nutritious. Good iron content.
Good protein content.
They crop up and they just grow everywhere.
It isn't just scraps to go in the siIo that the boys need to gather.
They must aIso forage for materiaIs to make the structure itseIf.
All ot the metal in Britain in 1 940, ot course would be used to build bombers,
..tighter planes.
So we're gonna to have to make do with scrap trom the tarmyard.
- The problem is, it's a lot ot work, isn't it? - lt's a hell ot a lot ot work.
- We need some help. - l think l should get down the labour exchange,
and see it we can't pick ourselves up a couple ot land girls to help us out with this.
Cos we're gonna need it.
The wartime drive for food production meant extra Iabour was desperateIy needed.
An intense campaign encouraged women to join in the battIe of the fieIds.
Thousands responded and the Women's Land Army
soon became a feature of farms across the country.
Historians NicoIa Verdon and CaroIine Bressey have come to heIp buiId the siIo -
a cIassicjob for the indispensabIe Iand girIs.
- This is Peter. - Hi.
Peter, Nicola and Caroline. They're our land girls tor the day.
Yeah, so, Nicola, shall we get cracking on sorting this tin out?
- OK. - lt you do that,
it we go grab some tops, to stick in it.
- Sure. - When we tinally build it - it we tinally build it.
Henry's not enjoying this damp ground, is he?
l don't think anyone's enjoying this damp ground.
Land girIs worked at Ieast 50 hours a week,
with fuII-timers paid roughIy two-thirds the wages of maIe agricuIturaI Iabourers.
NicoIa Verdon has written extensiveIy on the history of women in the British countryside.
Was there a clamour to join the Women's Land Army?
Certainly it was a very attractive proposition tor some women,
who saw it as a way to get out ot the city centres, and to enjoy the outdoor lite.
They may have had a certain image ot what tarm work was like
and, ot course, the government propaganda and the posters were rather glamorous.
l think the reality when they got here was rather different.
lt must have been quite a steep learning curve tor many ot these young girls,
coming trom the town to a completely sort ot alien environment, and an alien set ot jobs.
Farmers and also a lot ot women themselves had to be persuaded
that they were both physically capable ot doing the work and doing it well.
Yeah.
So there was quite a lot ot prejudice amongst the tarming community
but women proved themselves.
They proved they were physically capable ot doing the work,
that they were honest and kind ot honourable workers.
So a lot ot farmers were won over.
lt's certainly a great story and we're incredibly indebted to you tor your help today.
Cos otherwise l don't think we'd get this done in the time we have.
The number of women in work rose by over two miIIion between 1 939 and 1 943.
And voIuntary organisations aIso fIourished.
The pears have all dropped in the orchard.
But the tree round the back has still got quite a lot on.
Ruth is getting invoIved with the Women's Institute, or WI,
and has roped in her daughter Eve to heIp with her first task - food preservation.
So, mum, what exactly is the Wl?
Well, it's a women's organisation that was very much part ot that whole desire to do your bit,
and to try and sort out some ot the problems that war had caused the population.
And tood preservation was high on their agenda.
Over 5,000 tons ot tood that would have just rotted on the tloor
and been eaten by wasps and things.
- 5,000 tons... - That's a lot.
..ot extra tood because ot this.
You could sort ot teel that every apple you pick is one in the eye tor Hitler.
(Both laugh)
''He ain't gonna starve us out, cos we're gonna sort it.''
Yeah.
Ruth wiII coIIect appIes from aII over the farm then take them to a WI centre to be preserved.
At the siIo, the girIs of the Land Army are proving their worth.
OK, this one's a bit shorter than that one.
Doesn't matter about the length, but the camber will be the same.
- Right. OK. - The internal circumterence.
- Does that make sense? - (Laughter)
l haven't got a clue what you're talking about.
The thing is, l've worked with Peter tor years so l know his strange language.
But not aII women were accepted into its ranks.
An infamous rejection was that of London-born AmeIia King,
who tried to join the Land Army in 1 943.
CaroIine Bressey has studied AmeIia's case.
lnitially, she was rejected trom the Land Army, trom serving, because she was a black woman.
The woman who was recruiting noted the colour ot her skin and erm...
suggested that it might be a problem, and Amelia was rejected tour times.
Eventually, she went to her mP and questions were raised in the House ot Commons.
- Yeah. - And that's when it hit the headlines.
AmeIia's pIight was taken up by the nationaI press.
The Land Army cIaimed that no farmer wouId empIoy a bIack woman.
But one farmer went out of his way to chaIIenge this.
AIfred Roberts.
He said, ''Well, it she's willing to work, l'm happy to take her on.''
So she said, ''Yes, l'd like to do that job,
but only it the Land Army employs me as a land girl.''
lt was a matter ot principle that she wanted them to take her on.
And the tact that he had come torward undermined their argument
that they couldn't tind her a place because ot prejudice with farmers.
So they took her on.
The story was especiaIIy famous at Manor Farm,
because AIfred Roberts was a neighbouring farmer.
Where are you here in this photograph?
l'm in the background somewhere.
His daughter Betty Rudd worked side by side with AmeIia King on the Iand.
- ls that you there? - Yes, that's me.
- You're right behind Amelia. - l'm right behind her, yes.
Betty, your tather was the tarmer who gave Amelia King a job.
Yes. He was, yes.
Do you know why he did that?
Well, because he telt so strongly about it.
Why should she be retused to work?
lt was the headlines in every paper at that particular time,
and nobody would accept her.
So he immediately got hold ot the phone number and phoned these people and said,
''She certainly can come here.''
Amelia came and she was part ot the gang. She enjoyed her time here.
She did. She was very good.
And also the other girls were good to her. They accepted her.
- lt was hard work. Very hard work. - Yeah, yeah.
When you think ot it, looking back, they all said, you know,
it seems like tive years just sort ot went like that,
cos we were enjoying ourselves so much, working and doing things tor the country.
- Yes. ALEX: And growing tood.
Growing tood, yes, which is the essential thing.
After her time in the Land Army AmeIia King disappears from the pages of history.
It's beIieved she died in 1 995.
But her actions as a young woman heIped to chip away at the prejudice in British society
as wartime pressures forced barriers to be broken down.
AIthough women were doing the same jobs as men
they were stiII expected to run the home.
The Women's Institute advised their members to Iet nothing go to waste.
l got this great book come through trom the Wl.
Thrift Crafts.
lt's got all sorts ot things in here including what to do with teathers,
which considering we've just had to cull the chickens makes sense.
The WI put out wartime pubIications with a heavy emphasis
on reviving oId-fashioned ruraI skiIIs.
Using every teather off every bird you pluck,
l mean, people in the countryside have been doing that tor centuries.
But it had tallen out ot tavour.
Suddenly you didn't need to in quite the same way.
Things were more available in the shops, you know.
And here we all are at the beginning ot the '40s
suddenly having to go back to this older, more thrifty way.
And the Wl they were just in pole position to be the ones to disseminate this knowledge
into a much wider section ot the population.
The book recommends using the chicken's wing feathers to make dusters.
As well as being the very best teathers tor teather dusters
the wing teathers are also some ot the hardest to pull.
l mean, you'd expect it, really, wouldn't you?
By tar the biggest and toughest and you've got this strong quill at the bottom,
which makes them so good tor the job.
lt doesn't actually say in the book how you make the teather duster, it just says that you should.
So, erm...l thought l'd probably just sort ot tie them with some thread.
my theory is it l start with a little, sort ot like a posy or a tuft to be the top,
(Sings) Doo, doo-doo, doo-doo.
l wonder it this is gonna work.
Binding the feathers in a spiraI makes a duster that wiII get into every crevice.
Quite serviceable, l think.
Thank goodness tor the Wl and their little booklets.
With the siIo buiIt, the team can start fiIIing it.
But first they must make carefuI preparation to ensure the siIage materiaI
isn't contaminated with soiI.
A little mat here.
Otherwise, unwanted bacteria wiII deveIop and ruin the taste of the cows'miIk.
- That's tine. - l think that's a good covering.
- Looks good. - Right, pitchtorks.
- Choose your weapon. - Your work doesn't end there.
- Do l stay in here? - You stay in there.
And as Caroline torks it over with our help - have you got your tork handy?
- l have. - You'll tread it like an ltalian treading grapes.
- Yeah. - Chuck it over.
So am l trying to shift it?
lt's the trampling down that counts.
Treading the materiaI forces oxygen out of it,
which in turn aIIows the nutrients inside it to be preserved - a bit Iike pickIing.
lt's actually very hard work. l'm quite out ot breath now.
But we're getting there. lt's getting higher.
AIthough siIage had been known about for centuries,
untiI the Second WorId War many farmers in Britain had never tried making it.
This really is at the toretront ot 1 940s tarming.
All their lives farmers, you see, they've been making hay,
and that was really much more ot an art torm, whereas making silage was a science.
And it was a science they didn't really understand.
So they were deeply sceptical.
Really, the government wanted this to happen on every tarm,
but the reality was it happened on very, very tew tarms.
So we would have been innovators ot our age.
ALEX: Where do you want it? - That tar corner.
The Women's Institute preserving day has begun...
..staffed by the Iadies of the Hampshire WI.
Throughout the war centres Iike this operated aII over the country,
preserving thousands of tons of produce for the nation.
Anne Stamper is the WI's archivist and has come aIong to supervise proceedings.
l mean, the sheer numbers ot tins, the sheer numbers ot pounds ot truit.
- lt's huge! - Yes.
Yes. And we're just on this one page here.
68 and a halt pounds ot truit.
41 and a halt pounds ot sugar.
And that yielded 7 4 pounds ot jam and jelly.
- Free...tor one day. - Yeah.
But though the WI was famous forjam-making,
that wasn't the onIy preserving method at their disposaI.
(Low chatter)
In 1 940 home-canning machines were donated to Britain from North America.
But home front housewives had never seen this technoIogy before.
You don't hear much about home-canning, do you?
- Not very much, no. - Have you done it?
- l haven't done it, no. - Really?
- No. Never. - Has anybody here ever canned any truit?
WOmEN: No.
- Bottled and jammed, but not canned. - Not canned.
Oh, l hope we get this right, then.
Oops.
Ruth's about to put this machine into action for the first time since the Second WorId War.
- Line it up caretully. lt sits in there. - Sits in a groove. That's quite easy.
- So lock it in. Clunk. - Right.
- And now... - Got to turn the handle at least 20 times.
That's better. One, two, three, tour,
tive, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
1 1 , 1 2, 1 3...
..20. Did anything happen there?
lt's stuck.
- Well, it seems to have worked. - (Laughter)
So then this has got to be sterilised. This is what this other pan ot water's tor.
- That's right. - So we sort ot cook it in the can.
l think we can get the hang ot this.
After being peeIed and cored the appIes are covered in sugar syrup
to make sure no oxygen gets in.
Working cIoseIy with the Ministry of Food
the WIs sent their produce straight into the rationing system with no reward for themseIves.
And all these people in here they would have been volunteers?
Oh, yes, these women or other Wl members would be coming in here
trom nine in the morning until tive in the evening.
So, as a volunteer, making a gift ot your apples, making a donation ot all your time,
you get nothing back personally?
No, it's your contribution as a countrywoman to winning the war.
OK, Peter, are we ready with the molasses?
We are, Alex.
Now, this is another by-product ot the sugar-beet industry.
OK? lt's a bit like brown sauce this stuff.
lt's really sweet.
But it was absolutely crucial, this stuff, to making silage.
So whereas sugar was rationed in all other parts ot the war,
ot course the government was so keen tor farmers to make silage
that they gave them a special dispensation to use this stuff.
MoIasses were seen as vitaI to the preservation process,
heIping fermentation of the crop to begin.
The government encouraged aII wartime farmers to make siIage.
And though it never became wideIy popuIar
IeveIs of production are estimated by some to have reached a miIIion tons.
The Iadies of the Women's Institute are ceIebrating a successfuI canning drive.
Together the WI and the Land Army engaged aImost 600,000 women in the war effort.
In fact, the two organisations were headed by the same person,
Lady Gertrude Denman,
who did everything she couId to ensure they heIped each other out.
ln tact, in this copy ot Home And Country,
which was the Wl magazine,
Lady Denman actually wrote a letter which she actually headed ''An Appeal to Farmers' Wives''.
Oh, yeah.
''The prejudice against a woman attempting to do a man's work dies hard...''
That's true enough, isn't it?
''..but the progress ot the Land Army in the past year shows that it can be overcome.''
And very practical too. She goes on in that letter to suggest
that one ot the ways that Wl members can help is by inviting Land Girls into their houses
to have a bath, it the place where they're working hasn't got a bath.
And she suggests they come as guests ot the Wl meetings and indeed that did happen,
and quite a tew joined the Wl.
Yeah, it's looking good. You're getting higher.
In tribute to their sisters in the fieId,
the Iadies of the WI are rounding off the day
with the Land Army's officiaI anthem, Back To The Land.
(Piano intro)
Back to the land, we must all lend a hand
To the tarms and the tields we must go
There's a job to be done
Though we can't tire a gun
We can still do our bit with the hoe...
(Hums tune)
- A race against time this, Peter. - Yeah.
- Gotta move taster. - Yeah.
A little overlap there.
- Not a bad job that. - That's a brilliant job.
- lt makes you realise how hard work it was. - We're extremely gratetul tor your help.
With autumn's bounty safeIy preserved, the team are ready to face the winter,
and the shortages that wartime wouId continue to bring.
lt you come with us back to the land!
RUTH: Hip hip! ALL: Hooray!