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 fought by the farmers of Britain.
When war broke out, the Nazis attacked British shipping,
attempting to cut off food imports.
The Government turned to farmers to doubIe home-grown food production.
The plough, really, had become a weapon ot war.
If they faiIed, the nation couId be starved into surrender.
Now, archaeoIogists AIex LangIands and Peter Ginn...
..and historian Ruth Goodman...
..are turning back the cIock,
working Manor Farm in Hampshire
as it wouId have been during the Second WorId War.
(Aeroplane tlies overhead)
By 1 943, Britain was at breaking point.
In the first few months of the year, there were record Iosses at sea,
depIeting imports more than ever.
AIthough the German army had been defeated at StaIingrad,
uItimate victory was not yet in sight.
After four years of war, Britain's farmers were exhausted.
So the team resort to new sources of Iabour.
We're going to need a lot more than that.
Scavenge crops from every scrap of wasteIand.
That looks absolutely lethal.
And find innovative ways to cIothe themseIves.
As resources are stretched to the Iimit on the Wartime Farm.
(Air-raid siren)
1 943 saw imports of food sIump to the Iowest IeveI of the war
and the Government feared a crisis.
Victory in EI AIamein created access to suppIies of petroI
to heIp the continuing offensive.
But with more ships given over to miIitary use, there were fewer to bring food to Britain.
At home, the Government demanded that an extra one miIIion tonnes of cereaIs be produced.
But arabIe Iand was becoming tired from years of consecutive use.
There's a Iarge excess of straw on the farm,
a by-product of aII the cereaI crops being grown.
Ruth's using this to make a fertiIiser.
Ot course, it we had a surplus ot barley straw, we could use that tor animal teed.
But wheat straw really isn't much use.
So all this spare straw l'm just adding to the dung heap to help it rot down.
lt it didn't have any dung at all, it wouldn't rot
and we'd have to add ammonia or lime or something like that to speed it up.
With a little bit ot dung, mix it all together,
eventually you get something spreadable on the tields.
And with harvest approaching,
we're perhaps paying a bit more attention to the dung heap than we were.
We know that as soon as that crop is in, we've got to get this lot back out on the tields
to tertilise and to start that cycle ot production all over again.
AIex and Peter have aIso found a use for the spare straw.
The harvest is on the horizon, but Manor Farm has a significant rodent probIem.
Before the war, rats cost British farmers an estimated £25 miIIion a year in damage,
eating crops and destroying buiIdings.
So the boys are determined to stamp them out before the precious wheat is brought in.
But they're going to need a IittIe heIp.
Now, we've got a rat-catcher in residence.
She's coming down tor a week or so,
serving our tarms and all the other tarms in the area.
So we have very chivalrously, Peter, haven't we, decided to give up our room.
We have.
BiIIeting was at an aII-time high,
with Iand girI numbers reaching a peak of aImost 90,000.
So farmers needed to create accommodation wherever and with whatever they couId.
One ot the things we've got a surplus ot on the tarm at the moment is straw.
So all ot this stuff is just knocking round the tarm.
We're going to use it to build ourselves a little straw bale house
to sleep in tor the next week or so.
Now, you keep count ot the bales, Henry.
Right, so l think a door here just running down to the path.
Yeah.
- You all right? - Yeah.
Straw buiIdings were not uncommon during the war
and were aIso used to house tooIs or even Iivestock.
Baled straw is absolutely superb tor using as a construction material.
Because you've got really good sturdy blocks here.
You know?
And it's all locking in beautitully.
And its main benetit, really, is that it's just so tantastic at insulation.
You know, there's no doubt about it.
This is going to keep the wind and the wet out ot this sheltered area.
Just going to pop on the end here.
- Think it's big enough? - l think it's going to be absolutely tine, Peter.
lt's certainly long enough.
Yeah. l'll get down there.
Plenty ot room there.
- Oh. - Hello, Henry.
We're missing something, Peter.
l can see the sky, Alex.
Well, it we put a root on it, which we have to,
a couple ot beds,
a picture ot the King,
bedside table...
- Home trom home. - Yeah.
By 1 943, there was a reaI concern that stamina was running out.
Britain's farmers had aIready been asked to give everything.
And now they were being asked to give even more.
RUTH: People had endured tour years ot war.
They had watched everything get worse and worse and harder and harder.
Rationing had started out reasonably OK and got tighter and tighter.
Clothes rationing, tood rationing, petrol rationing.
Everything rationing.
And while the early days ot the war, there was a sense ot adrenaline with the Blitz and so torth,
by 1 943 people had been slogging tor so long.
l think tor many people there was just an exhaustion, a weariness:
''Oh, God, will it ever be over?''
So we've got our walls up but there's been a slight change ot plan.
We were sort ot halt way through the root
when we thought, actually, we're doing ourselves a disservice
it we don't include, as an extra architectural teature,
a window, which l've managed to salvage.
That looks really good.
- Let's have a proper look. - A bit ot cosmetics.
lt looks good. lt looks made-to-measure.
Excellent. Right, let's get this root on.
WhiIe Peter buiIds the roof's wooden frame,
AIex turns his mind to the best materiaI for wartime thatching.
l'm just hand-pulling nettles here.
Because it's going to be one ot the plants that we use tor our thatch.
Perfect time ot year to pull them as well
because they've got all their energy in the plants and the plant's very strong.
And the root is weak.
So when you give it a tug, what happens, it just comes away at the root.
Every time you throw that up, Alex, l get a constant shower ot mud coming down on me.
(Laughter)
The thing with nettles is they can sting.
But it you get stuck into them and show them who's boss,
they tend not to hurt as much.
Now l'm using what's called a gad
to secure the thatch
to the root.
A gad is a thin strip of wood.
The nettIes rest on the batons of the roof and the gad Iies on top of them,
pinning them into pIace.
You know, in the early 20th Century,
there were still thatchers who were very much using this style ot thatch.
So it wouldn't be entirely alien to Second World War tarmers.
lt's turning into a sort ot semi-permanent buildings, isn't it?
lt is, yeah.
This thing could last a very, very long time.
With the house compIete, the boys can move in.
lt's very, very cosy, Alex.
(Dog barks)
Henry.
That is extremely comtortable.
It's summer on the farm and there's an important job for the boys.
Making hay.
The team have dairy cows to feed.
Imports of cattIe feed were Iow but miIk production remained a priority.
The Government saw it as vitaI for the nation's heaIth
and at Ieast 1.3 biIIion gaIIons were required in 1 943.
Before the war, the cows wouId have been fed through the winter on hay.
But Britain's acreage of meadowIand had been hugeIy reduced.
l suppose all the pasture land has been turned over to arable
but there's still grass around
and this is a prime example, a churchyard.
This is a great hay crop, isn't it?
In desperation, farmers had begun turning to every spare scrap of Iand
to find grass to make hay
from verges to orchards
and now churchyards.
lt's a tricky piece ot land.
- lt's not tlat. There's gravestones everywhere. - Yeah.
We're going to have to think ot some way ot taking it down.
lt's just, the weather hasn't been on our side recently.
Not. lt's not.
l mean, to be honest, this is just still a bit too wet to cut now.
So we'll have to leave this tor a couple ot days and just hope we get some sun and some wind.
- Yeah. - And then come back.
- (Barking) - Henry's upset about something.
Let's go and tind out what.
lt's probably the pigeons and the rats.
WhiIe the team wait to bring in the hay,
AIex wants to deaI with Manor Farm's rodent probIem.
With the wheat harvest onIy a few months away, this is a major threat to their essentiaI crop.
During the war, it was estimated that rat damage to foodstuffs
cost Britain £60 miIIion a year,
more than twice pre-war IeveIs,
destroying over two miIIion tonnes of food.
This represented hundreds of cargo-ships' worth of imports
and was a huge bIow to the war effort.
Hello, Angela.
Nice to meet you.
So members of the Women's Land Army were trained as speciaIist rat catchers
by county committees
and moved from farm to farm in coordinated assauIts.
ProfessionaI pest controI agent AngeIa ChettIe has arrived on the farm
to heIp AIex tackIe the rat probIem.
Oh, we have got a bit ot an intestation here, haven't we?
Look at this.
lt you have a rummage, you don't need to look tar, do you?
Oh, look, there's detinite rat droppings.
- The common rat? - Detinitely.
And obviously you've got a tood source as well. So...
You're supplying everything they need in here.
- Shelter, tood... - Everything.
Water.
So what we've got to do here, then, is we've got to turn this into an anti-rat zone.
First ot all, we've got to look where they're obviously accessing,
which is here. They've gnawed in here.
Rats have to gnaw.
Because ot their teeth. They never stop growing.
lt's not because they like to gnaw. They have to.
Right, so they just gnawing.
lt's why they cause so much damage to buildings.
AngeIa has spotted yet more evidence of the probIem.
Look how dark it is here, look.
So this is their teet just running up and down these boards?
And their bellies are touching on it.
Look, can you see? We call it smearing.
That's what we call it.
The smearing is worsened by the fact that rats urinate on their surroundings.
So they urinate continuousIy on their surroundings.
But that is telling us where the rats are coming trom.
Exactly.
AIex and AngeIa are going to Iay some bait boxes.
We could probably get one ot the tubes underneath the shed.
The bait box consists of a tube which the rat can crawI down
and a gIassjar fuII of food at the end.
So what we're doing here, then, is we're pre-baiting.
We're getting the rats tamiliar with this place as a teeding place.
And then we sweep in, replace all ot the tood with poison
- and we get them in a clean hit. - Detinitely.
lt's going to take a while because rats are neophobic.
They don't like new objects at all.
One pair of rats can produce aImost 900 offspring a year,
capabIe of consuming nine tonnes of wheat.
Now we need some big bricks to weigh it down
because we've got the chickens roaming around the yard here.
Well, that's superb.
Sop they're the kind ot baiting stations l need to be setting up.
Now, once they are taking the grain, it's a case ot then tilling it up with poison.
- Detinitely. - Excellent.
AIex and Peter need to take advantage of the cIear weather
to get going with the cruciaI task of making hay.
Peter has found an AIIen scythe,
a mechanicaI scythe specificaIIy designed to tackIe unusuaI terrain.
Its motto, ''Wherever a man can waIk, an AIIen can cut. ''
Invented in the 1 930s, a new modeI appeared in 1 943
and farmers couId Iease them from the Ministry of AgricuIture.
The main thing, Peter, is not to hit any ot the headstones.
Good luck.
Let's give it a go.
- (Fails to start) - Oh.
lt's a bit noisier than the hand scythe, though, isn't it?
The AIIen scythe cuts the grass using a Iarge-toothed cutting bIade,
which sIides back and forth against a knife bed to give a scissor-Iike action.
This is the boss, basically. This thing is in charge.
lt pulls you torward.
When it's cutting, it's happy.
But then as soon as it comes out ot the grass you're tighting.
To get a successfuI hay crop requires dry conditions,
so keeping an eye on the weather was essentiaI.
But this posed a probIem for wartime farmers.
The Government banned weather forecasts
for fear they couId provide criticaI information to enemy bombers.
For five years, the British pubIic were not officiaIIy informed if it was going to rain or shine.
We're going to have to use the old haymaker's art
ot rushing out here when we see the storm clouds looming
and cocking the hay up.
We're going to be tighting our own mini-battle here in the churchyard.
But l have to say, it we can get this hay in,
it'll provide an extra bit ot nutrition tor the livestock on the tarm.
(Cockerel crows)
It's summer on the farm.
And the team's preparation for the harvest months are going weII.
This was especiaIIy important in the crisis year of 1 943
when increasing productivity was vitaI.
And the rat probIem is being tackIed.
They're detinitely taking that. lt's almost all gone.
Time tor some poison, then.
l did wonder where that vase had gone.
The dairy cows are heIping Ruth's dung heap to grow.
AIex and Peter are weeding the wheat fieId.
This will let a little more light in at this critical period ot growth.
And that light, obviously, is going to do the weeds a lot ot tavours.
But the jobs are mounting up and it's cIear they couId use some heIp.
In 1 942, there was a huge shortage of manpower on farms.
And by 1 943,
the Minister of AgricuIture anticipated that an extra 20,000 workers wouId be needed
if Britain was to feed itseIf.
How many children have we got?
20, 30, something like that.
The Ministry of Labour proposed that chiIdren be reIeased from schooI
to heIp farmers at the most criticaI times of the year.
These chiIdren wouId form harvest camps,
Iiving in tents and working on the Iand by day.
The team have appIied for a camp to come and assist on the farm.
lt's one thing, isn't it, to work outdoors all day
it you know you're going home to a nice hot bath at the end ot it.
But to have to do that and be living under canvas is a whole new...different thing.
- Some might call it character-building. - Character-building.
When you read like kids' accounts ot what it was like,
there were obviously two sorts ot tarmers locally,
those who supported the kids in the harvest camps and those who didn't.
And what type ot tarmers do you think we are, then, Peter?
l think the tact that we're stood here in the rain erecting tents tor these children
rather than making them do it themselves,
we're the type that are going to look after them,
give them a good time and get the best out ot them.
NormaIIy recruits were required to be over 1 4
but in speciaI circumstances younger chiIdren couId aIso take part.
AImost 70,000 chiIdren worked in harvest camps in 1 943.
Without them, producing food to feed the nation wouId have been aImost impossibIe.
- (Ruth laughs) How many have we got? - Looks about 20.
Hello!
Have you come tor our harvest camp?
One of the jobs the harvest camps were invoIved in was new to farmers.
CoIIecting herbs for the pharmaceuticaI industry.
At the start of the war, 90% of medicines were derived from pIants,
mainIy sourced abroad.
With imports cut off and drugs urgentIy needed,
pharmaceuticaI companies turned to home-grown herbs.
Don't just pick the top. We want the whole plant. All right?
In conjunction with Kew Gardens,
the Government drew up a Iist of essentiaI pIants needed for drug production
and paid the British pubIic to coIIect them.
This was an ideaI job for chiIdren.
MedicaI herbaIist Linda HaroId has come to Iend her expertise.
So this was quite a commercial thing.
- We're not talking about herbalism. - No, totally not.
We're talking about mainstream medicine,
pharmaceutical companies using these things as their raw materials
- and producing synthesised drugs trom them. - That is it.
So when you see pictures ot people in wartime with the aspirin,
the little white pill, the main painkiller ot the day,
it's not synthesised. They're collecting vast quantities ot meadowsweet
and white willow bark
- to make aspirin. - Absolutely.
Today, the chiIdren are Iooking for goosegrass.
You've got loads.
What was this used tor, the goosegrass?
The goosegrass was used very much tor treating intections.
lt's very good... lt works on the lymphatic system.
And obviously, at that time, lots more people were ill.
Lots more intections.
But that's a really brilliant one.
- Yeah. - For intections.
And you've got loads ot it. l'm really pleased to see loads ot it.
But we're going to need a lot more than that, aren't we? (Laughs)
That's the good thing about child labour.
You can just send them off.
l wish l had that energy.
They were so important during this time.
They picked so many herbs. They really...
lt was incredible, what they actually achieved.
By 1 944, the chiIdren of Britain were coIIecting up to 4,000 tonnes of pIants a year.
The hay has been drying in the churchyard.
And Peter is aIso making use of the harvest camp chiIdren to heIp him gather it up.
Now, watch your points.
We've had a really good spell ot weather but...
l teel that the rain's coming on
and we've got to get this hay cocked
because otherwise it'll ruin. lt'll go black in the ground.
So the idea is to build it up into piles
and the bigger the piles as possible, with a very small surface area,
it just means that when the rains comes it will basically run off
and it will affect very, very little hay.
(Children chatter)
We've roped in a bit ot help
and, well, it's mayhem.
(Shouts)
mind those spikes!
To avoid expIoitation,
the Ministry of AgricuIture introduced a minimum wage of sixpence an hour
for under-1 6s.
We've got nine kids here. They're all very, very enthusiastic.
They've all been armed with a pitchtork.
Each pitchtork has at least two spikes.
All kids have at the moment at least two eyes.
Catering for chiIdren was often done by the farmer's wife.
Today, Ruth is doing the cooking.
Government advice was quite determined that despite the difficult conditions,
despite the shortness ot rations,
that the children should be well-ted,
that they should be getting a nutritious balanced diet.
But doing that on next to nothing is not easy.
The sorts ot rations that were available to those out in a tent
teeding children day in, day out,
two hot meals and packed lunches,
were very thin indeed.
LocaI peopIe were encouraged to donate suppIies of foods
such as fruit, vegetabIes and rabbit to the camps.
But these were far from abundant.
The Government issued a number ot leatlets in an attempt to help people who had to do this.
lt was all sorts ot advice,
trom how to set up your tield kitchen
to how to store the tood outdoors in these sorts ot conditions...
..through to recipes and menu planning.
They even advised how thick to slice the bread tor the sandwiches.
So this recipe is a salmon loat
and this comes trom one ot the Government leatlets,
Carried meals, Snacks And Sandwiches.
The amounts here are either a small recipe tor tour or scaled up tor 1 00 people at a time.
Ruth has made a white sauce, which she adds to the mashed potatoes
before stirring in some tinned saImon.
Fresh tish was in real short supply during the war.
l mean, it you think about it,
pretty much everybody who'd made their livings on the sea betore the war
got called up one way or another,
either into the merchant navy or into the Royal Navy,
in a large number ot cases.
And huge amounts ot British waters were out ot bounds to those tew tishermen who were left.
So tinned salmon coming in trom Canada
was one ot the very tew torms ot tish available to most people in wartime Britain.
Tinned saImon was so popuIar in Britain
that we became the biggest market for both US and Canadian exports.
Right, all mixed in.
Now, this gets steamed.
This just sits on top ot there.
And steams or boils, whichever you want to call it,
in a sort ot bain-marie,
tor an hour and a halt.
With aII the chaIIenges faced in 1 943,
the heIp provided by chiId Iabour was vitaI to farmers.
That's a doorstep and a halt.
ChiIdren often worked an eight-hour day, so dinner was weII-earned.
Righto, then. Take yourselves a sandwich.
Come and get some hot chocolate in a minute.
lt makes you hungry, doesn't it, all this hard work out in the cold.
- Who's next? - lt's your turn.
Come and get yourselt a sandwich.
- So, what are they like? - Yummy.
Yum, yum, yum.
- You like them? - Nice and tilling, aren't they? Keep you going.
The best sandwiches.
Herbs were not the onIy medicinaI product to be found on farms.
Honey couId be used to dress wounds,
due to its antiseptic properties,
and heIp to reduce scarring.
It's stiII used in medicine today.
But it was aIso an exceIIent sugar substitute.
By 1 943, the rationing system was really starting to bite.
And morale was suffering.
People were having to do without all ot the toodstuffs they'd really enjoyed betore the war.
And top ot that list was sugar.
So to boost morale here on our wartime tarm,
l'm going to see it l can't get myselt a tew jars ot honey by the end ot the summer.
AIex is Iooking for a speciaI type of brambIe which grows up through bushes,
creating a Iong stem.
l've got a very old-tashioned way ot making honey.
And this bramble is going to help me in that process.
AIex is aIso making use of the surpIus straw on the farm
to create a skep,
a traditionaI basket beehive.
To stitch it together, he'II be using the brambIe.
It needs to be carefuIIy spIit open and the insides removed
to form a strip which is both fIexibIe and strong.
The brambIe stem is threaded through the hoIes in a wooden ring
to create a cage for the straw to sit in.
OK? So, the idea is, that is going to thread in here...
And there we go. That's the start.
Right, we're getting to the end
ot the wooden wheel.
So we're going to have to start now stitching into the straw
and into the previous bind.
A hoIIowed out and sharpened turkey bone heIps thread the cane through the straw.
He wiII keep adding Iayers untiI the basket is compIete.
Ruth is processing the herbs she picked with the harvest camp.
PharmaceuticaI companies wouId pay good money for the herbs.
A handy suppIement to the farm's income.
But onIy if the pIants were properIy dried and packaged to preserve their active ingredients.
Up to 80% ot the herb's weight is lost during drying.
That's how much water you need to drive off.
And ot course, to do that effectively, the air needs to get all the way around the herbs.
And you don't want anywhere where things are against each other
and moisture can get trapped.
Because it you do, rot'll set in.
And that includes turning things regularly.
Another day or two and they'll be ready to be packed up.
The ideaI temperature for drying herbs is around 35 degrees CeIsius.
On a damp day like today, then this comes into play.
The stove.
Which is just turning out a little gentle heat.
l don't want too much. l don't want to cook anything.
l just want to maintain warm airflow through the whole space.
This shed's beautitully ventilated.
So the air in here, which can get...
As all this moisture comes off the herbs, the damp is driven up by the heat
and can make its way out.
So the tirst things l do when l get them back is to sort ot go through the herbs
and pick them clean.
Because the pharmaceutical companies will only buy top quality.
This is sage, ot course.
Pharmaceutical companies will only pay tivepence a pound
tor dried sage.
l've got a lot ot it. So it's worth my doing.
Foxglove, however, that was much more lucrative.
All the seed that l'm drying out.
Now, that retailed tor seven and six a pound.
That's a lot more than tivepence.
And even the leaves were one shilling and threepence.
FoxgIove was so vaIuabIe because of its abiIity to Iower bIood pressure.
But it must be handIed with care, as it's extremeIy poisonous.
When l've tinished here, the last job l will have to do, as l leave the shed,
will be to block up all the windows to keep the light out.
Because sunlight, UV light, helps to decay the essential ingredients in the plants.
So they don't only need it warm, they also need it dark.
AIex's skep is compIete.
During the war, a coIony of honeybees couId be purchased for around three pounds.
But beekeeping expert Mike HoIIoway has brought one aIong for free.
- Hello, mike. - Hello, Alex.
l apologise tor my lack ot mobility.
- l've turned my ankle over. - Oh, dear, oh, dear.
But thanks ever so much tor coming down.
- Great to see you. - And you.
Now, tirst things tirst, obviously, is the skep inspection.
So tell me what you think ot that.
- l think... - You can be honest, mike. l don't mind.
l think you've done a proper job there, Alex.
UnIike with a wooden hive containing removabIe frames,
AIex won't be abIe to inspect the bees'progress.
But as it's made from surpIus materiaIs,
the skep is a good, cheap and disposabIe wartime aIternative.
Now, the other thing l've made as well is a sort ot top compartment.
Because my understanding ot this is that we can get the queen and the brood in here
and her young in here,
- but we can deprive her access to this top area. - lndeed.
But the workers can still get in there and produce comb and honey.
What we will have to do is put a grille across there,
which is...with spaces in large enough tor workers to get through,
- too small tor the queen to go through. - Great. OK.
Mike has aIready prepared a straw and nettIe sheIter for the skep.
Talk me through the process. Now, you've brought a colony here.
lt was a swarm that we picked up yesterday.
And l've actually got the queen... We've got her in a little cage here.
She's in there, then?
lndeed she is.
That's a sort ot old-school hair curler.
ls that one ot your hair curlers, mike?
l wish!
Well, we'll just put this on to make sure we don't get any little stings.
You don't want a sting to the tace.
And we'll make sure the queen goes into your skep.
And all the other bees will tollow.
Mike's swarm contains around 1 0,000 bees.
He introduces a few into AIex's skep before pIacing it in the sheIter.
Put that down tor a moment.
We don't want them all coming out ot the top, do we,
so l'll put this on
- the top. - Well done.
That should keep them interested in there.
So we'll just shake those out onto there.
When bees are swarming, their honey stomachs are fuII,
making it difficuIt for them to sting.
In the hands of experts, they're safe to work with,
which is why AIex and Mike aren't wearing gIoves.
Bees naturaIIy tend to crawI upwards.
So the sheet is pIaced at a gradient.
Now we're hoping that they tind that entrance, yeah?
The queen is reIeased near the edge of the skep.
Pop her out. There she goes.
And the bees wiII foIIow her scent inside.
lt's almost as it someone's put a call out and all ot a sudden they are racing up that sheet
to get into that skep.
That's amazing, mike.
- lsn't it tascinating? - That is absolutely wonderful to watch.
- lt's like water running uphill, isn't it? - lt is.
lt you notice, there are some bees that have got their tails in the air.
- Like that one there. - Oh, yeah.
And there. All around the periphery ot the slope.
They are actually tanning an attractant pheromone
which is bringing down these bees that are tlying
to go into the skep
- and join the queen. - (Hum ot airborne bees)
lt is a happy sound, isn't it, that you can hear? These bees.
- This is a happy sound, yeah? - Yes. lndeed.
In May 1 943, the British peopIe received a much-needed moraIe boost.
RAF Squadron 61 7, better known as the Dambusters,
had destroyed two major German dams
and there was a surge of pubIic interest in RAF bombers.
In desperate need of funds, the Government seized on this enthusiasm
by Iaunching the Wings for Victory Fundraising Scheme.
The scheme encouraged peopIe to do yet more for the war effort,
by saving money in Government bonds.
- lt is quite a difficult moment, isn't it? - mm.
You know, sort ot... we've been on the detensive tor so long
and seeing ourselves as the victims here.
And suddenly we get in a point where, no, no, we're going to become the aggressors.
And at the end ot the day, the Germans had been pouring bombs on British cities
but how did British people teel about then doing the very same
to German women and children?
lt is always this dilemma with any torm ot aggression.
The Wings for Victory Scheme reIied on IocaI fundraising drives.
Well, l obviously don't think we should set about raising tunds to buy bombs to bomb people.
But l do think we should have some kind ot party
to retlect some ot these tundraising activities.
The team are organising a Wings for Victory fundraising dance.
Even with a war on, women stiII wanted to Iook good.
And Ruth is after a new dress.
At the outbreak of war, Britain was one of the Ieading textiIe manufacturers in the worId.
But it reIied on raw materiaIs from abroad, and these soon became scarce.
CIothes rationing started in 1 94 1.
And the Board of Trade introduced a scheme of utiIity fashion,
where the Government reguIated
the cIoth, price, quaIity and even styIe
of the cIothes being produced.
Many women started creating their own cIothes.
Ruth wants to make a new dress
and she's found a noveI source of fabric.
We've all heard ot parachute silk dresses
but that's not the only source ot tabric that people turned to.
This is quite an ingenious one.
Look, l've got a tlour sack.
They have to be made ot cloth one way or another.
The manutacturers had cottoned on
that it they made it in an attractive sort ot material,
people would buy their brand rather than somebody else's brand.
So you get this sort ot thing.
lt's amazing, isn't it? This is a tlour sack.
So the whole ot this sort ot advertising stuff here can just peel straight off.
lt's only held on with tlour and water paste.
There's a little bit here. lt says, ''To remove Paper Band, Soak in Water.''
They knew that's what people were going to do.
So this is my cunning plan tor my summer dress.
A couple ot tlour sacks.
AIex's bees wiII take some weeks to start producing honey.
He wants to prepare some as a thank you to the chiIdren from the harvest camp.
So Mike has Ient him a comb from one of his hives.
These cells on this trame are used by the worker bees
to store surplus honey.
And what they do is they then cap it over with wax
so that they can come back to it and teed throughout the winter.
To extract the honey, the comb is scraped out of the frame.
And l think those little kids at our dance are just going to be so gratetul tor this stuff.
They're going to love it.
The next step is to pound the comb, breaking down the wax and honey.
This is quite a workout, this.
Right, l think that is now pounded enough.
lt's certainly a lot tiner grain than this stuff here.
So that is now ready to go into the muslin sheet.
So l just lay the sheet over this bowl.
Now the theory is that the honey is that much tiner grained than the wax.
So it will pour through the weave ot this muslin sheet.
And already actually you can see we've got some coming through.
During the war the price of honey was reguIated
and it couId onIy be soId for around two shiIIings and sixpence per pound.
About four pounds in today's money.
l think we've got the right temperature in the room to do this.
Ot course, l'd love to have been sat outside doing this catching the last tew rays ot sunshine.
But l would have had every bee in the county breathing down my neck.
Not only is our house bomb-proot, it's also bee-proot.
As the war progressed and the pressure on imports became even greater,
cIothes rationing grew ever tighter.
In 1 94 1, a year's worth of coupons wouId have purchased a whoIe new outfit.
But by 1 943, the cIothing aIIowance had aImost haIved.
As a way of getting round the shortages, women formed communaI sewing pooIs.
Ruth's enIisted the heIp of Jean Haines
to turn her fIour sack into a new dress for the fund-raising dance.
Oh, that's not bad, is it? That's quite a reasonable skirt width.
But we haven't got enough tabric to cut the skirt in a one-piece,
so we've had to do a bit ot asymmetrical lines on it
- and we've got it in two. - making a virtue ot a necessity.
Yes. There isn't enough material to go cutting away as we want to do,
so we really have to cut tight.
Minimising fabric waste was of vitaI importance.
And there were strict government ruIes
dictating the number of pockets, seams and even buttons garments couId have.
'40s tashion was really dictated by this need tor clever cutting,
tor using the minimum ot tabric.
lt was all very, very cleverly put together.
There were darts, there were gathers.
Collars were detachable because you could have one blouse, three colours, three outtits.
Sewing pooIs increased in popuIarity throughout the war.
They not onIy provided the equipment for dressmaking
but aIso some much-needed expertise.
The youngsters, and particularly the young townies coming out into the countryside,
they just hadn't picked up those skills in quite the same way.
So it was a way ot learning as well as sharing equipment.
That's right. making do with what you could get.
WhiIe Ruth prepares for the fundraising dance, Peter has urgent work to do with the hay.
It's been drying in the churchyard and now he must bring it in before the rain comes.
He's going to take advantage of a baIing machine,
something that increased in use during the war
thanks to Ministry of AgricuIture's scheme of Iending equipment
and experienced operators to farmers.
mr Evans. How are you?
Not so bad.
- We've brought you some hay. - Yeah.
- And you've got a baler. - Yeah.
So this sort ot baler would have gone round the tarms.
Round different tarms on contract.
- What, trom the War Ag? - War Ag, yeah.
Farmer Maurice Evans stiII uses his Massey Harris 701 baIer today.
It was one of the first machines that couId be moved around a fieId coIIecting hay as it went
as weII as being used as a static baIer.
So these spikes here are picking up the hay, taking it in here,
and it's going up into the auger.
l can't even get the lid open.
Oh, wow. OK.
Righty, l wasn't expecting that.
So the hay is coming up into here,
the Archimedes screw, the auger, is pushing it this way
and into that hay box.
Obviously, the bale comes out there, l take it.
Yeah.
And that pushes it down into the chamber.
- Sorry, what is this? - That's a knotter.
- A knotter? - Yeah.
- Looks like something out ot science tiction. - Yeah.
l mean, this really is tarming being dragged into the modern world.
Yeah.
l mean, a tarmer during the Second World War...
Previously there were ricks.
Ricks are a lot ot work.
They used to put it in ricks
and then it got to the stage where they could sell the hay
but they had to carry it loose and then it would be all up the road.
So then they decided they'd hire a baler in, take the loose hay out ot the rick
and bale it up and put it on the trailer and it would be easier tor transport.
That looks absolutely lethal.
This might look like a lot ot hay but it isn't.
Not after this machine's tinished with it.
lt's going to reduce this down to maybe six bales tops.
So it just emphasises how much easier it must have made it
tor someone tarming during that period in the war
to be able to transport the hay, to be able to gauge exactly how much they had
and ot course to be able to sell any surplus.
This is looking pretty good.
There's certainly a split there.
ln tact, that is a hay bale.
That's a really good hay bale, actually. That's one ot the best hay bales l've ever seen.
But it's my hay bale.
lt's the hay that l've cut in the churchyard and baled up.
That is awesome.
Beauty products were abundant in Britain during the 1 930s
but the outbreak of war meant many of the raw ingredients were no Ionger avaiIabIe.
AIthough makeup wasn't rationed,
cosmetics companies were onIy making a quarter of pre-war amounts.
But for women it was important to stiII Iook their best.
With her dress finished and hair washed,
Ruth and her daughter Eve
have caIIed upon the services of historic makeup speciaIists Sharon and GIoria
to heIp them get ready for the Wings for Victory dance.
l've been having a bit ot a look in all the women's magazines
and there's an enormous number ot articles about hair and makeup.
''Beauty Tightens the Belt.
lt's our patriotic duty to cut down a bit on cosmetics but you can still stay lovely...''
But it is a huge issue ot morale now when we come into wartime.
- Still trying to look good and look your best... - Yeah.
..is a sense ot actually being detiant.
You know, you would be letting the side down it you let yourselt go.
Let's have a little bit ot that in there, then, Gloria.
In the absence of factory-made products,
women empIoyed home-made methods to enhance their Iooks,
incIuding using sugar water to set their hair.
Some ladies used beer but when we spoke to our great-aunt about it,
she said, ''lt there was any beer around we would have drunk it.''
Beauty was seen as such a moraIe booster
that the Minister of Labour made skiIIed hairdressers exempt from conscription.
AImost aII hair styIes in the '40s required the hair to be curIed,
taking inspiration from the HoIIywood movie stars of the day.
So the tinger wave technique is to use your comb and tingers
to push the hair into tlat S-shaped waves.
And when the hair has dried, it does create a beautitul wave.
Ruth's hairstyIe requires fIat pin-curIs at the front, which wiII add definition,
and Iarger barreI curIs at the back for voIume.
l teel really weird like this.
- Do l look weird? - Yes.
(Laughter)
Glamour in the making. Glamour in the making.
FemaIe munitions workers aIso had a speciaI aIIowance of high-end makeup
to wear in the factories,
raising their spirits as they Iaboured in often grimy conditions.
For a period that was very austere, it's still very glamorous.
So a cream rouge just to give a bit ot a tlush.
You get them starting to use mascaras.
They came in a little block there and a brush.
And you'd mix it with water or a bit ot spit.
And brush it on.
And this was something which started off as a little pack ot product
tor men to use on their beards and moustaches.
So trom men's vanity came a product which women could use.
lsn't that tantastic?
my God!
Well, wait till you get the lippy on.
The hay baIing is going weII.
But to maximise efficiency,
it's vitaI that Peter gets it finished whiIe he stiII has access to the baIer.
When l said that we'd get six bales out ot this load, l didn't actually think we'd get six bales.
But we have.
Now you could probably get three times this amount on a trailer.
So that means you can use less tuel in your tractor.
lt's just so beneticial having these bales.
But we've got hay all over this tarm.
We need to get it in, we need to get it baled.
l'll get another load. lt'll take me into the evening.
So l don't think l'm going to make this dance tonight.
America had entered the war in December 1 94 1
foIIowing the attack on PearI Harbor.
From 1 942, US troops poured into Britain,
incIuding more than 1 30,000 African-American servicemen.
They brought with them a new phenomenon.
The jive.
Occasions Iike this provided an escape from the drudgery of everyday Iife
as weII as raising money for the Government's Wings for Victory NationaI Savings Scheme.
Whoa!
You certainly scrubbed up.
That's a new dress, isn't it?
There may be a war on but some people can still turn out well, can't they?
- But you haven't noticed the shoes. Look. - That's the sign ot a hard-working tarm girl.
(Women sing)
Wow!
- lt's great, isn't it? - l can tell the Americans are in town.
(Woman sings)
(Applause)
Joseph SeweII is an expert in jive and swing dancing.
lt's an intectious dance. You can't tind a dance tor dancing that's not smiling.
lt's just impossible.
lt's such a vibrant torm ot dance, isn't it?
l mean, what is it officially called?
The dance that we're doing is called Lindy Hop.
lt's an Atrican-American dance.
When you had the black Gls coming across and brought the real deal, the Lindy Hop,
that's when it really started, you know, to take off.
lt must have made such an enormous impact in village halls up and down the country.
l guess the white dancing would have been a little bit more subdued.
Once the Gls started chucking the ladies around, it would have blown people's socks off.
But it would have made everyone teel good that was watching.
There is one thing here that wouldn't really have happened during the war
and that's black and white Gls being in the same dance.
The Americans brought with them not only their dance but they also brought their social attitudes
and their segregation
that we weren't used to here.
Yes, the white Gls would not tolerate being in the same building as the black Gls.
African-American troops frequentIy came over in advance of the white GIs
and had estabIished themseIves in IocaI communities.
When white GIs arrived and tried to impose segregation,
they often met a stony response from the British peopIe.
Think we could have a go? Show us how to do it?
Absolutely.
Two tine young ladies like yourselves.
Ladies, get ready tor the time ot your lite.
- Ooh, sorry. - You're doing well.
The Lindy Hop was deveIoped by mixing estabIished dances
Iike the Breakaway and the CharIeston,
becoming popuIar at the Savoy BaIIroom in HarIem.
This new styIe spread Iike wiIdfire.
Whoo!
Wow!
That was tantastic, Joseph.
Tuck into that and tell me what you think.
The chiIdren from the harvest camp have aIso come aIong to the jive,
and have had some bread and honey as a fareweII treat.
One ot the main reasons
tor these sorts ot events
was to raise money tor the war effort, wasn't it?
Yeah.
National Savings Certiticates.
A system whereby ordinary people,
instead ot putting money in the bank,
gave it to the Government.
Nearly tour million pounds at their prices,
which, when you think ot what that means today, it's just vast. How would we have done it
without the savings ot ordinary people?
They made it possible tor us to win.
Hopetully while we're all here Peter will tinish baling that hay.
- That's a must-do job. - Yeah.
And the children, haven't they been an enormous help?
- You know, just done loads. - lt's been great to have them around
and l sort ot teel like we've generally boosted morale here on the tarm.
Yeah.
But it's all to play tor in the next couple ot months.
lt's make or break season.
We've got to bring in a wartime harvest and it's not going to be easy.
Despite another year of hardship at home,
farmers'efforts in the fieIds wouId not go unrewarded.
1 943 wouId see Britain's biggest acreage of crops,
not just in the Second WorId War but in the history of the country.