Original subtitles

BBC 2 and BBC HD continue the untold

story of the countryside at

War the Great British

Countryside setting for one of the most

pivotal battles of the second world war

Churchill called it the front line of

Freedom it was a battle fought by the

farmers of

Britain when war broke out 2/3 of all

Britain's food was

imported now it fell under threat from a

Nazi

blockade the government turned to

Farmers to double homegrown food

production if they failed Britain could

be starved into surrender the war

started on day one for Farmers they were

told you have to turn this land into a

food producing Nation

[Music]

again now now historian Ruth Goodman and

archaeologists Alex langlands and Peter

gin are turning the clock back to the

1940s over the next year they'll work

Mana Farm in Hampshire as it would have

been during the second world

[Music]

war this time they face the conditions

of

1940 when Nazi bombers brought death and

destruction to Britain

[Music]

the team must deal with

rationing that in total is your fat

ration that's particularly hard to make

last the week make use of every last

resource but this was an experiment I

can see why people hadn't picked it

before and confront Temptation round

every corner you're well on your way to

becoming a black

marketeer as the race begins to beat the

shortages

oh on the wartime

[Applause]

[Music]

Farm in 1940 German bombers were

targeting Britain's

docks destroying food imports by sea and

by

air Britain's farmers were ordered to

plow up an extra 2 million acres of land

but with so many fields growing food for

people there weren't enough to grow food

for Animals as

[Music]

well oh nearly C's getting hungry

Hallelujah if you hit the lever and get

these belts

running Alex and Peter are preparing

feed for their

livestock it was cereals like this that

were now in short supply Peter's Milling

up a barley meal it's a classic feed for

feeding anything from pigs to cows but

of course barley could be used to make

beer could be used to feed human beings

so it was considered a waste really to

feed it to livestock if we were to turn

that into flour make it into bread you

can feed a lot more people than you good

animals

yeah this competition for land was

debated at the highest levels of

government the Ministry of Agriculture

had been granted emergency powers to

control farming and they now told

Farmers the time had come to make a

difficult

decision this is a map of Mana Farm is

it yeah this is Mana Farm the Ministry

of Agriculture are breathing down our

necks asking us to grow um more food for

human consumption but essentially

looking at this map there's not a lot of

room on our farm for growing wheat you

can't see the map for animals no exactly

wartime planners knew they could feed

more people with a field of wheat than

with a herd of cattle and encouraged

Farmers to drastically cut their

livestock numbers you've got to make a

call on what can stay and what can go if

we're going to keep anything it really

ought to be the Dairy herd the ministry

is saying that that the priority should

be milk production and then all the

other livestock only comes after that in

which case we've got to lose the beef

herd so these have all got to come out

and then if we're plowing up the

grassland we are not going to have it to

feed the sheep so I think they're going

to have to

go I mean basically pigs eat the same

food as people so they're in direct

competition so I think they ought to go

so we got a few chickens yeah and a

dairy herd and that's all that's left

millions of livestock was slaughtered in

the wartime Cole but they weren't the

only ones

affected does beg the question with no

sheep on the

farm what happens to little Henry

[Music]

dog it's a tough decision we all

thinking you know are we going to eat

enough you know is it people going to be

starving and all of a sudden you look at

that thing in the corner and think

you're eating food that I could be

eating well it's a tough one isn't it I

mean imagine being in this situation

you've got the faithful sheep dog you've

had all your life probably grown up with

it I think many people actually felt it

was a kindness to put them down rather

than pets actually starving to death we

just can't get rid of Henry cuz then we

have lost our most intelligent member of

the team so you know we got to keep the

guy just be a little bit too much there

he is he'll be useful we'll need

him but we still to try and find a way

to keep a dairy herd going throughout

the winter

[Music]

months come on cows the Ministry of

Agriculture wanted Dairy Farmers to feed

their cows on a food stuff packed with

protein

silage silage is made by starving

freshly cut grass of oxygen preserving

its nutrients for feeding over winter

but with so many fields being plowed up

grass wasn't always available so the

boys must find an alternative so where

where exactly is it we're going we're

going to a farm that grows sugar beat

Peter sugar beat okay so get yourself

comfy it's a bit of a drive and I have

to say I haven't quite mastered the

gearbox on this old

boy so we're going to go and pick up

sugar beat yeah well no not actually

Sugar beat itself we're going to pick up

sugar beat tops and now you're going to

have to start swatting up Le Li number

four from the Ministry of Agriculture

and Fisheries okay it tells us all about

sugar beet tops and making silage fresh

sugar beat tops are equivalent in

feeding value to the same weight of

sweds wow and in normal weather they may

remain fit to feed for several weeks yes

but but if the supply of tops is too

great to feed fresh the Surplus should

be insed for later use that's the idea

Peter if we make a silage clamp or we

get some kind of drum we can get the

silage in we can use that feed all the

way through the winter so how many sugar

beat tops do you think will fit in this

car well I I don't know I'm sure we'll

uh the glove box is quite roomy get a

handful sugar beet was a vital wartime

crop grown to take the place of sugar

Imports but vast Acres of sugar beat

created an urgent need for machines to

harvest

it farmers were required to master some

particularly ingenious new

Contraptions hold it

Bel morning chaps morning good morning

good morning CH morning Alex and Peter

have come to meet the men of the peterb

farm machinery preservation Society who

are trying out one of the earliest of

these intricate Harvesters which was

made in Denmark in the

1940s what are you doing here uh we're

just doing a bit of a modification to

try to improve the performance of the

machine right okay so we've caught you a

point of experimentation have we you

have yes this is fantastic for us

because this is almost certainly a scene

that you would have seen in 1939 1940

with the outbreak of War and the

introduction of this type of Technology

farmers are confronted with this new and

innovative equipment which they've got

to tweak and Tinker with to get to work

and that's exactly what these guys are

doing basically a lot of filling with

nuts and

bolts the machine does two different

jobs one part lifts the beets out of the

ground and the other cuts the tops off

you got to Ste this yeah got that's

what's worrying me about that disc if it

don't steer me right you've always got a

bit of extra muscle here on just in case

you need it

so I think we're ready to go then aren't

we TR yes I'm sure we're ready if the

tractor driver is

ready whoa

whoa that's an early sign Ron that this

thing could go yes right okay didn't go

far did it

no so we're getting the rhythm going now

oh I just spoke too soon why did it miss

them L the other day right again Third

Time Lucky wo a little

W so what are they going to oh what are

they going to do then your guess is as

good as

mine while the boys focus on making food

for the dairy cows back on the farm

there are other animals that won't be so

lucky pigs were seen as a luxury and

bore the brunt of the wartime

[Music]

Co then their numbers fell by nearly 60%

over the course of the war and pork

became a much sought after

Rarity

yeah but there was one way around the

shortage Ruth's come to talk to stockan

Debbie Underwood about a possible

solution I was wondering if maybe we

could hang on to one as a pig Club what

do you think what do you mean by a pig

Club well it was a wartime scheme to get

together uh and raise the pig sort of

communally people bring all their

kitchen waste and their and their Garden

waste you got enough food to feed a pig

and then when you come to slaughter the

pig you divide the pig up between

everybody who's fed it you know it was a

way of keeping some bacon and pork in

the

system Pig clubs were officially

encouraged by the government and were

popular not just in the countryside but

in cities too around 7,000 were set up

raising 140,000 pigs between them how

are we going to choose one uh it's quite

a nice even litter isn't it they're all

uh they're good looking piglets these

they are yes so maybe if I find some

people who' like to be in the pig club

and then perhaps get together and we

cook up a batch of swill okay feed it to

those and see which one's greediest yeah

cuz whichever one is the greediest is

going to be the one that's going to

fatten

quickest lift it lift it out we get it

out there the machine is still causing

problems with the Beet Harvest

[Music]

okay if they can't get it going they'll

have to lift the crop by hand that's it

it should be Ron Knight harvested sugar

beat as a boy and remembers how it was

done they lay them out in rows like that

right and then go along and drop them

out and that knife has been replaced by

that that machine you ever go chopp in

that see how you get on I'm on your

thumb you don't get another

one a where back

a where you marked it yes there you are

that was a that was quite an excessive

job there you're in the in

look to harvest this field by hand would

take about a month the machine should

get it done in 2 days if they can get it

working I think we're getting clogged up

with the leaves that is cutting off the

top of the beats the tops that we should

be taking away for silage yeah so I

reckon we need to shovel them out of the

way of the machine looks like there's

going to be some work for us here

here with the tops pulled out of the way

the machine is able to run

[Music]

smoothly those two forks if they get

underneath the beat they lift it

up and as it goes around the drum knocks

all the dirt off of it okay and then

kicks it up into a bucket on the other

side when that's full Willie opens it

and it dumps the load onto the

ground

and this is what it's all about here are

our sugar beat they're a rather

unsightly looking turnip okay but six of

these boiled down would make about a

kilo of sugar and it's amazing to think

that actually During the period of the

war these are responsible for producing

the domestic sugar ration that's nearly

3 million tons of

[Music]

sugar sugar beet was the ultimate

wartime crop

it was transformed from being a niche

product grown by just a few Farmers to

being a mainstream crop farmed all over

the

[Music]

[Music]

country

hello hey you brought the

swill Ruth's got some recruits for her

Pig Club that's fat that pig

up fantastic go there we are so what we

got feet fruit thinnings ones haven't

fattened out tops of old CET cabbage

plants old potatoes there that are no

longer suitable for our use you want to

slop it all in I've got some on the go

already boiling away the scraps will be

turned into a soupy swill all good stuff

the swill was often collected by one

designated person as Pig Club member

Jill dicks recalls all right in thinking

Jill your parents actually were in a pig

club during the war that's right yes it

was sated by our local butcher what were

you putting in the pig sell everything

that wasn't eaten we didn't separate any

of it out if it was food it wasn't eaten

it went straight to the pigs and they

did also used to take the bones as well

I mean nowadays people would have

kittens about the idea of that they' be

really worried about contaminating the

food chain feeding pigs with animal

byproducts was linked to an increase in

foot and mouth disease during the war to

avoid the hazards Ruth's Pig will only

be fed with waste from the garden not

the kitchen so are you going to be able

to keep up the supplyer swill then do

you think we will try yes it's towards

the end of the year it's it's always

more difficult during the Autumn well if

we can keep it up you know six months

down the line half a pig between

us

[Music]

the beets will be sent to a factory to

be refined into sugar Alex and Peter are

collecting the tops which they plan to

turn into

silage how you feeling about this Peter

Well I can see why I mean obviously in

the war they want to produce as much

silage as possible keep the animals

going but this was an experiment I can

see why people had picked it as a silage

crop before but this is going to be the

key to keeping a dairy herd in a wartime

Farm isn't it this is going to provide

the succulents providing we get the silo

right providing we get the silo

[Music]

right

I got that first bucket of swirll ah

let's have a

look I'm

hungry funny enough it smells delicious

yeah let's see if they're hungry right

let's go this

come show us who's a big greedy

Pig what do you

think oh she's turned her nose up

yeah which is quite easy for her

well this is going well this is going

really well Ruth's plan is to choose the

greediest pig for her Pig Club come on

then little bit closer well they're

quite intrigued by this aren't they they

are aren't they they're interested they

not actually eating it yet but uh yes

they are yes they are especially her

with a little short tail yes little

shorty that's the little female so that

might be quite a nice one to keep let's

have a look at her go on grab let's a

looky listen to you this is one with the

short tails please she's good isn't she

and look at that that belly on her yeah

yeah I think I think so I think this is

the one for

us Ruth will keep shorty and snowflake

but the other pigs have to

go yeah I know you

can one thing do

[Music]

another Alex and Peter are back at the

farm they'll let the sugar beat tops

Wilt for a few days before turning them

into silage for the dairy

cows get on get on first they must deal

with the animals they don't want to

keep sheep were considered a low

priority as they needed to eat a lot of

food to produce relatively little

[Music]

meat all wartime Farmers getting rid of

livestock had to deal with a new force

that would come to dominate their

lives the ministry of

food the idea of the ministry was to

control really all of the produce that

came from farms so pretty much anything

that you produced on the farm would have

to go through the ministry of food the

arrival of the ministry of food meant

farmers were now answerable to two

government

bodies on this side of the farm gate

okay they had the Ministry of

Agriculture anything that went on in the

farm was the concern of the Ministry of

Agriculture but on this side of the gate

was all about the ministry of food so

when the livestock passed over this

threshold it then became the concern of

the ministry of food

[Music]

the ministry of food was responsible for

the biggest food distribution Network

attempted anywhere in the

world the rationing

system I've got here the ration for one

person for one week in

1940 of course not everything was

rationed you could in fact have as much

bread as you could afford as much

vegetables as you could get your hands

on but a whole range of things were

rationed rationing began in January

1940 with bacon the first meat to go on

the list 4 o per person per week you

could have it as ham instead but not as

well as it amounts to about four slices

the butter however is even more scarce

can you imagine trying to manage on that

much butter a

week you weren allowed other fats

this is for cooking

fat and that in total is your fat ration

that's particularly hard to make last

the week joining the first wave of

rationing was sugar around 12 ounces per

week so if these Foods were rationed in

January by March meat fresh 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 if in

1940 you bought a really good piece of

meat this is how far your one shilling

and 10 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 if I bought something

like a shin of

beef which you can see in immediately as

a less quality cut I could have an awful

lot more that there is1 pound of shin of

beef and I could in fact have had three

times that amount for the same rationed

money that I had for that cut of

beef and alongside it

aul and I've got here kidney and liver

this amount of aul cost the same as that

little bit of beef now to a modern eye

you might think well that's not so bad

that's not so very little meat and it's

true but this is the peak of meat eating

during the war at the beginning of the

war you allowed all of that as the war

went on the amount of ration for meat

reduced and reduced and reduced and

reduced So within a year and a half it

was half that size suddenly Russian was

just one of those a

week the ministry of food made huge

efforts to get people to accept the

ration

system people talked a great deal about

Fair shares about fairness at this time

of difficulty and scarcity the whole of

the rationing system was presented to

the population as about being about

fairness so that everybody had ration

cards including the royal family and

that was important people it made people

feel 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

hedro Harvest came into its own as

people went out to forage for whatever

they could

find here Henry you were supposed to be

spotting

these even in the depths of autumn

Nature's Bounty could be pressed into

use

there's no doubt about townies came off

a lot worse during the war you're out

here in the countryside you've got so

many more resources at your fingertips I

mean whether it's finding your mushrooms

or or acorns on the floor or horse

chestnuts or sweet chestnuts or black

Brees or whatever you know there's just

so much more food about in the

countryside there's loads of food really

when you start

looking Alex and Peter are getting on

with the job of deciding which farm

animals to

call now we got too many haven't we

there's definitely too many so

unfortunately the writing's on the wall

for some of these old

birds a chicken lays most of its eggs in

the first 3 years of its life after that

its productivity declines I looking that

one there if I grab a feet she's got to

Flap isn't if you grab both feet

together she will flap make a lot of

noise but she'll be safe yeah

that's the one that's it straight down

wrap her up perfectly done

beautiful quite a red here red W and

comb this is you know classic sign of an

older bird it's very deep red and it's

just those feet if you look at those

feet you know look at the oh bit of

fighting her isn'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 um so yeah that's it's a

natural bird to

call come on there

boy come on I'm sure there'll be

something in here for

you it wasn't just wild food that added

to rural

diets having more land meant country

people were far more likely to reap the

benefit of the government's dig for

victory

campaign oh Terry you're already here

sorry hello Ruth Mana Farm Gardener

Terry Bud will help Ruth decide what to

plant in the

[Music]

garden we've got this leaflet now from

the Ministry of Agriculture encouraging

us to grow some of our own veg sooys

Sprouts KES vegetables all the year

round if you dig well and crop wisely

the dig for victory leaflets were

written to help gardeners get fresh

produce every month of the year they

were widely distributed or you could

write to the ministry and request

that's quite a nice sensible plan isn't

it there's nothing fancy about it

there's nothing you know exhaust clo

this is your Basics through the

[Music]

year there are already some vegetables

to harvest in the garden and Ruth's

making them go as far as she

can so I'm making a giant great big

enormous stew huge several meals worth

anything anything that isn't eaten a

stew will be turned into soup

[Music]

later yum I do like

mushrooms Ruth's stove is powered by

paraffin but along with other types of

fuel paraffin was rationed so cooking

the stew for several hours would be a

real

waste there was a popular wartime

solution that Ruth's Keen to try this is

becoming plan I'm going to make a head H

box now it's a funny thing a hay box

there's no heat Source it's sort of just

insulation but it does the job that you

might think of say like a slow cooker so

hey and I'm making a really thick layer

not just on the bottom of the box but up

the sides of the box and eventually I'll

make it in the lid as

well it's all about keeping the heat in

so the stew that I've got on when it's

really thoroughly boiling and it does

have to be thoroughly boiling then I can

transfer it from there straight into

here really very fuel efficient I'm only

doing the cooking for that first initial

boiling

stage snuggle it down in

there then it

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 you do right cook her

[Music]

off the perks of living in the

countryside didn't go unnoticed by

Outsiders strangers frequently turned up

at Farm Gates looking for ways to beat

the rationing

system Mark rud housee is a historian

who specializes in the wartime Black

Market hello oh hello you must be Mark

Ruth sorry muddy and nice meet nice to

meet you you're the chaper knows about

all the dodgy dealings aren't you

yes where would you like to start

secluded rural locations made the

perfect base for Black Market

activities well underneath

here we have various things for our

black market

experiment here we've got red petrol

this would have been used by the Army uh

died Red by the Armed Forces uh to stop

people stealing petrol which was

rationed and in short supply the police

would take a sample from your tank and

if it was red they would know that you

had stolen that pet petol and so they

could prosecute so what we're going to

do is take the dye out of this petrol so

that we can put it in the tank of a car

uh without risk of being caught there

are lots of anecdotes about how people

could get a hold of this dyed petrol and

remove the dye so I thought that we

could have a go and see which of these

proves the most have you done this

before no and I don't think anyone has

ever tried this kind of experiment since

the

1940s the first method to be tried is

mixing it with

Aspirin that's supposed to separate out

the petrol from the

dye that do it yeah should do was there

much of this going on there is a

surprising amount of fiddling about with

petrol particularly on farms for example

Billy Hill who was uh one of the big

London criminals of the 40s he had a

runin on a farm in Harford Shire uh

which he used for Ste for storing stolen

goods and also used it as a base for

operations such as this

[Music]

one oh maybe we've got the wrong brand

name maybe it needs a bit of

time while they wait to see if the

aspirin Works Ruth and Mark try

filtering some of the petrol through

charcoal go on Goan you do the honors

you're the one who's been reading about

this

stuff oh I think we're getting something

but pour

slower it's definitely better than the

aspirin but it's a bit

pink lastly they'll try sving it through

bread the one of the methods of dealing

with petrol this seemed the least likely

one it seems such a waste of good bread

waste of bread that's holding a lot of

petrol that bread work ah it's coming

through oh so it is that looks clear to

me you're flipping does I can't believe

that's worked

I have just amazing I have to eat my

words I never thought that would work

and it it

does and in some ways the cheapest and

easiest of all the methods yes yeah if

you've got the bread to waste the bread

of course wasn't wasn't rationed with

The Telltale dye removed the petrol

could be sold on the black market if you

have this you have your loaf of 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

[Laughter]

you anyone involved in making or selling

food had opportunities to make a bit on

the

side butchers could be notorious Black

Market

operators hello hello oh it looks tasty

me Mark has brought Ruth to meet local

butcher Simon broadb the ministry of

food has worked out speaking to various

butchers what they should be able to get

off a carcass allowing for a bit of

wastage uh but a skilled butcher like

Simon here can make more Joints off that

carcass than the ministry allows for I

mean it's keeping it's keeping the

trimming to a minimum nice and lean

under the ration system consumers had to

register with a particular butcher so

shopping around was not an

option many butchers felt a strong

temptation to sell off parts of the

animal that would usually have gone to

waste let me show you the difference

between like a war time chop with a big

long bone all untrimmed to uh what the

customer wants now this lovely little

lamb cutlet nice and Meaty not too much

bone hardly any fat to our war time chop

you see it's almost almost twice as long

isn't it yeah I get more money for that

wow the customer would get Less meat for

it let's put it that way right and a lot

of your weekly ration you would take as

the bone so it's really important if the

customer wants a good cut of meat they

get to know Simon Simon likes them it

changes the relationship between

customer and retailer so the customer is

not always right the retailer is always

right by including plenty of bone on

their Cuts butchers could ensure they

achieved the weight of sales the

ministry of food was expecting and still

have plenty of meat left over to trade

on the black

market you're not got too many quarms

there no no I'm fine and I deserve it

yeah I'm working hard no quams at all

I'm fine and if you're making sacrifices

in lots of other areas of life aren't

you entitled to a little bit of Home

Comfort if you sent your sons off to war

and your daughter's in the factory

you're working at extra shifts extra

hours surely there should be a little

bit of reward for all that extra

work by the Autumn of 1940 black

marketeering was becoming widespread in

the

countryside at the same time ships

importing food to Britain were being

sunk by the

Nazis this is the BBC Home Service among

them was the HMS Jarvis Bay whose heroic

selfs sacrifice enabled the rest of her

Convoy to escape I would first like to

mention the Gallant action of the Jarvis

Bay without one thought for their own

safety her crew immediately attacked the

Raider without one thought of defeating

the Enemy words failed to express the

gallantry of the men aboard the Jarvis

Bay really emphasizes the um the cost of

human life does make you think about the

value of all what they were carrying on

those convoys doesn't it you know and if

you'd been wasting that if You' been

doing something a bit dodgy you know

meaning that more stuff had to come in

then you're culpable many people in

1940 who had perhaps not not taken the

rationing system quite seriously May

then have reflected back on the severity

of what they were

doing it's time to see whether Ruth's

hay box has done its

[Music]

job it's one of the best shes I've ever

eaten those hay boxes they're really

efficient aren't they

less fuel I suppose less Fuel and less

time as well

tea brought in from four corners of the

Empire

Pizza thanks to Brave Merchant

shippers and drink to

them it's a merchant

[Music]

Sean with Merchant ships taking a

hammering throughout 1940 Imports fell

rapidly livestock farmers in particular

felt the impact with Imports of animal

feed Falling by over a third who is that

dog Henry come on Henry mind of his own

homegrown Alternatives like silage now

took on a new urgency and the boys are

ready to have a go at making it the

first step is building an airtight

container or Silo for the sugar bead

tops

but there's some bad news we have the

remnants of a sugar beat crop look at

this we got look hoof Prince cow poo I

wonder who the culprit was the cows have

got into the field where the tops were

kept and eaten them they've eaten all

the green material and left us with the

actual sugar beat Peter and they've had

a good old snack on what is essentially

their winter feed so they've raided the

lder early haven't they they really

don't understand this is all for their

benefit

yeah all we're going to have to do is

we're just going to have to go out there

with the Sid with the forks and get some

more

material there was plenty of official

advice about unorthodox ways to make

silage I guess it's a measure of 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

[Music]

everywhere it isn't just scraps to go in

The Silo that the boys need to

gather there must also forage for

materials to make the structure

itself all of the metal in Britain in

1940 of course would be used to build

bombers fighter

planes so we're going to have to make

do basically scrap from the

farmyard problem is it's a lot of work

isn't it it's a hell of a lot of work we

need some help I think I should I should

get down the labor exchange and see if

we can't pick ourselves up a couple of L

girls help us out with this cuz we're

going to need

it the wartime drive for food production

meant extra labor was desperately

needed an intense campaign encouraged

women to join in the battle of the

fields thousands responded and the

women's land Army soon became a feature

of farms across the

country historians Nicola verden and

Caroline brassy have come to help build

The Silo a classic job for the

indispensible land girls and this is

Peter hi Nicol and Caroline they're on

girls for the day um yeah so Nichol

should we get cracking on sing some of

this tin out if you do that if we go

grab some tops to stick in it sure when

we finally build it if we finally build

it Henry's not enjoying this damp ground

is he I don't think anyone's enjoying

this damp ground land girls worked at

least 50 hours a week with full-timers

paid roughly 2/3 the wages of male

agricultural

laborers Nicola verden has written

extensively on the history of women in

the British Countryside was there a

clamor then to join the women's land

Army um certainly it was a very

attractive proposition for for some

women who saw it as a way to get out the

city centers and to enjoy the outdoor

life um they may have had a certain

image of what farmw work was like and of

course the the government propaganda and

the posters and so on were rather

glamorous I think the reality when they

got here was rather different I mean it

must have been quite steep learning

curve then for for many of these young

girls coming from the town uh to a

completely sort of alien environment and

an alien set of jobs farmers and also a

lot of women themselves had to be

persuaded that they were both physically

capable of of doing the work and doing

it well yeah so there was quite a lot of

prejudice amongst the farming Community

well women proved themselves they proved

that they were physically capable of

doing the work that they were um honest

and kind of honorable workers so a lot

of farmers were one over certainly a

great story uh and we're um incredibly

indebted to you for your help today

because otherwise I don't think we'd get

this done in the time we

have the number of women in work Rose by

over 2 million between 1939 and

1943 and voluntary organizations also

flourished so the mostly all dropped in

the Orchard really the tree around the

back still got quite a lot on okay Ruth

is getting involved with the women's

Institute or wi and has roped in her

daughter Eve to help with her first task

food

preservation so Mom what exactly is the

wi well it's a women's organization that

was very much part of that whole desire

to do your bit and to try and sort out

some of the problems that war had caused

the population

and food preservation was high on their

agenda over 5,000 tons of food that

would have just rotted on the floor and

been eaten by wasps and things 5,000

tons just a lot extra food because of

this you can sort of feel you know every

Apple you pick is one in the eye for

Hitler he ain't going to starve us out

cuz we're going to sort it

yeah Ruth will collect apples from all

over the farm then take them to a wi

Center to be

preserved at The Silo the girls of the

land Army are proving their

worth okay this one's a bit shorter than

that one doesn't matter about the length

but the the camber will be the same

right okay the internal

circumference does that make sense I

haven't got a clue what you're talking

about the thing is I've worked with P

for years so I know his strange

language but not all women were accepted

into its

ranks an Infamous rejection was that of

London born Amelia King who tried to

joined the land Army in

1943 Caroline brassy has studied

Amelia's

case initially she was rejected from the

land Army from serving because she was a

a black woman the woman who was

recruiting noted the color of her skin

and um suggested that it might be a

problem and Amelia was rejected four

times and eventually she went to her MP

and questions are raised in the House of

Commons yeah and that's when it hit the

headline Amelia's plight was taken up by

the national

press the land Army claimed that no

farmer would employ a black woman but

one farmer went out of his way to

challenge

this Alfred

Roberts he said well she's willing to

work I'm happy to take her on so she

said yes I'd like to do that job but

only if the land girl or the land Army

employs me as a land girl it was you

know matter of principal but she wanted

them to take her on and of course the

fact that he had come forward undermined

their argument that the pr you know they

couldn't find her a place because of

prejudice with the farmers so they took

her

on the story was especially famous at

Mana Farm because Alfred Roberts was a

neighboring

farmer where are you here then in this

Photograph well I'm in the background

somewhere his daughter Betty Rudd worked

side by side with Amelia King on the

land is that you there yeah that's me so

you're right behind Amelia I'm right

behind her yes Betty your father was the

farmer who

uh gave Amelia King a job yes he was yes

and do you know why he he did that well

because he felt so strongly about it why

should she be refused to work um it was

in the headlines in the every paper that

particular time and nobody would accept

her so he immediately got hold of the

phone number and phon these people and

said she certainly can come here Amia

came and she was s part of the Gang she

she enjoyed her time here raw she did

and she was very good she and also the

other girls were good to her you know

they accepted her it was hard work yeah

yeah very hard work when you think of it

looking back they you they all said you

know it seems like 5 years just went

like that yeah cuz we were enjoying

ourselves so much working and doing

things for Country yes growing food

growing food yes which is the essential

thing after her time in the land Army

Amelia King disappears from the pages of

History it's believed she died in

1995 but her actions as a young woman

helped to chip away at the Prejudice in

British society as wartime pressures

forced barriers to be broken

[Music]

down although women were doing the same

jobs as men they were still expected to

run the home the women's in Institute

advised their members to let nothing go

to

waste I've got this great book come

through from the wi Thrift crafts it's

got all sorts of things in here

including what to do with feathers which

considering we've just had to color

chickens makes sense the wi put out

wartime Publications with a heavy

emphasis on Reviving old-fashioned rural

skills using every feather off every

bird you pluck I mean people in the

countryside been doing that for

centuries but it had fallen out of favor

suddenly you didn't really need to in

quite the same way things were more

available in the shops you know and here

we all are the beginning of the 40s

suddenly happen to go back to this older

more Thrifty Way and the wi they were

just in pole position to be the ones to

disseminate this knowledge into a much

wider section of the

population the book recommends using the

chicken wing feathers to make

dusters as well as being the very best

feathers for feather dusters the wing

feathers are almost one of the hardest

to pull I mean you'd expect it really

would you by far the biggest and

toughest and you've got this nice strong

quill at the bottom which is what makes

them so good for the

[Music]

job it doesn't actually say in the book

how you're supposed to make the feather

duster it just says that you should so

um I thought I'd probably just sort of

tie them with some thread and then my

theory is if I start with a little sort

of like a posy or tuft to be the

top I wonder if this is going to

[Music]

work binding the feathers in a spiral

makes a duster that will get into every

[Music]

[Laughter]

[Music]

crevice quite serviceable I think thank

goodness for the wi I'm little

[Music]

booklets with the silo built the team

can start filling it but first they must

make careful preparation to ensure the

silage material isn't contaminated with

soil a little M here otherwise unwanted

bacteria will develop and ruin the taste

of the cow's milk that's fine I think

that's a pretty good good y right

pitchforks Choose Your Weapon your work

doesn't end there though nich I stay in

here you have to stay in there and as um

Caroline Forks it over with our help you

got your fork handy I have You're Going

To Tread it like an Italian treading

grapes yeah yeah don't you

feel so am I trying to kind of shift it

it's the trampling down that that

counts treading the material forces

oxygen out of it which in turn allows

the nutrients inside it to be preserved

a bit like pickling it's actually very

hard work I'm quite out of breath now

but we're getting there it's getting

higher although silage had been known

about for centuries until the second

world war many farmers in Britain had

never tried making

it this really is at the Forefront of

1940s farming all their lives Farmers

you see they've been making hay and that

was really very much more of an art form

whereas making silage was really a

science and it was a science that they

didn't really understand so they were

deeply ly skeptical really the

government wanted this to happen on

every Farm but the reality was it

happened on very very few Farms so we

would have been sort of innovators of

our

age where do you want it that far Corner

come

[Music]

now the women's Institute preserving day

has

begun staffed by the ladies of the

Hampshire

[Music]

[Applause]

wi throughout the war centers like this

operated all over the country preserving

thousands of tons of produce for the

nation an Stamper is the wi's archivist

and has come along to supervise

proceedings

I mean the sheer numbers of tins the

sheer numbers of pounds of fruit it's

huge yes yes I mean just on this one

page here um 682 lb of fruit 412 lb of

sugar and that yielded 74 lb of jam and

jelly free free one day yeah quite

right but though the w was famous for

Jam making that wasn't the only

preserving method at their

disposal that's why you've come in 1940

home canning machines were donated to

Britain from North

America but home front Housewives had

never seen this technology before no you

don't hear much about home canning do

you not very much no have you done it I

haven't done it though really no you've

never done it has anybody here ever

canned any fruit no no

bottled and jammed but not canned not

canned oh I hope we get this right

then oops Ruth's about to put this

machine into action for the first time

since the second world war line it up

carefully sits in there sits in a Groove

actually that's quite easy so lock it in

right plunk and now I've got to turn the

handle at least 20 times better 1 2 4 5

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 20 did anything happen

there

[Music]

stop so then this has got to be

sterilized so this is what this other

pan of water's for that's right so we

sort of cook it in the can I think we

can get the hang of

this after being peeled and CED the

apples are covered in sugar syrup to

make sure no oxygen gets in working

closely with the ministry of food the wi

sent their produce straight into the

rationing system with no reward for

themselves and all these people in here

they would have been

volunteers oh yes these these women are

other wi members would be coming in here

from 9:00 in the morning till 5: in the

evening so as a volunteer you know

making a gift of your apples making a

donation of all your time you get

nothing back personally no it's your

contribution as a countrywoman to

winning the

[Music]

war

[Music]

okay Peter we ready with the Molasses we

are anex now this is another

byproduct of the sugar beat

industry okay it's a bit like brown

sauce this stuff it's really sweet but

it was ABS crucial this stuff to making

silage so whereas sugar was rationed and

in all other parts of the war of course

the government was so Keen for Farmers

to make silage that they gave them

special dispensation to use this

[Music]

stuff molasses was seen as vital to the

preservation process helping

fermentation of the crop to

begin the government encouraged all

wartime Farmers to make silage and

though it never became widely popular

levels of production are estimated by

some to have reached a million

[Music]

tons the ladies of the women's Institute

are celebrating a successful canning

Drive

together the wi and the land Army

engaged almost 600,000 women in the war

effort in fact the two organizations

were headed by the same person lady

Gertrude Denman who did everything she

could to ensure they helped each other

out in fact in this um this copy of um

home and Country which was the wi

magazine lady Denman actually wrote a

letter

um which she actually headed um an

appeal to Farmer's wives oh

yeah the prejudice against a woman

attempting to do a man's work dies hard

that's true enough isn't it um but the

progress of the land Army in the past

years shows that it can be overcome and

very practical too I mean she goes on in

that letter to suggest that um one of

the ways that wi members can help is um

by inviting land girls into their houses

um to to have a bath if the place where

they're working hasn't got a bath yeah

and she suggests they come as guests to

the Wi meetings and indeed that did

happen and quite a few joined the

wi yeah it's looking good you getting

higher in tribute to their sisters in

the field the ladies of the wi are

rounding off the day with the land

Army's official Anthem back to the

land back to the land we must

all to the fs and the

we

must there's

[Music]

[Music]

to was against time this SP yeah rain's

coming got to move

faster

little overlap there

yeah not a bad job but that's a

brilliant job it makes you realize how

hard work it was it's been a tough one

but we're extremely grateful for your

help with Autumn's Bounty safely

preserved the team are ready to face the

winter and the shortages that wartime

would continue to

[Music]

bring come with us back to

the hey

[Applause]

y next

time an influx of evacuees means a

shortage of space it's warm it's dry

better than being in the city center of

Southampton emergency repairs are

[Music]

needed what are you doing is edible and

the team prepare for Christmas Under

Fire just put it all to the back of your

mind and have what fun while you can

while you can make the most of it while

you

can to find out more about how Britain

fed itself during the second world war

the open university has produced a free

booklet and online interactive

challenges for you to explore call 0845

36257 or go to

bbc.co.uk timef farm and follow the

links bbc2's back on the wartime Farm

next Thursday at 8: next tonight can

British women learn from Norway and make

it to the top Hillary D asks if quotas

are the answer or let the train take the

strain on BBC 4 with a man who created a

railway Revolution with the inter city

125 learn how people lived in Wartime

Britain in this BBC book which

accompanies the

series