Original subtitles

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now on BBC 2 earlier than in some

listings when our British Farmers faced

An Almighty Battle of their

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own 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 the plow had become a weapon

of War it was the farmers principal

weapon of War if they failed Britain

could be starved into

submission now now archaeologists Alex

langlands and Peter gin and historian

Ruth Goodman are turning the clock back

to the

1940s over the next year they're running

Mana Farm in Hampshire as it would have

been during the second world

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war

yes this time the team approached 1940

when Britain's cities were bombed by the

Nazis in the Blitz

they'll experience how the countryside

defended and protected the cities one at

8,000 Spitfire revived old crafts to

prepare for the biggest evacuation in

history p what are you

doing jop and C come on keep up with a

clay and celebrate the first Christmas

on ration put it all to the back of your

mind and have what fun while you can

the king

king this is the untold story of the

countryside at

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[Applause]

War by November 1940 Britain had been at

War for 14

months under the watchful eye of War

agricultural executive committees

Farmers had grown over 2 million extra

Acres of crops in a drive to Double

homegrown food

production but Britain faced an

unprecedented

Onslaught in the summer of 1940 the

Battle of Britain saw the German air

force attempt to destroy the Raf in

preparation for a full

invasion they

failed and prime minister Winston

Churchill saluted the courage of its

Pilots as a turning point in the

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war the Gratitude of every home in our

Island goes out to the British Airmen

who undaunted by odds UN wearied in

their constant Challenge and Mortal

danger are wining the tide of the World

War by their prowess and by their

devotion never in the field of human

conflict was so much owed by so many to

so

few but the buming of Britain's cities

and ports would

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continue the blitz killed some 40,000

civilians that first wave of bombing was

aimed not just at London but also at the

Port Towns along the South Coast

Portsmouth and Southampton came in for a

hammering night after night after night

and there was no underground to shelter

in if you were in Southampton huge

numbers of the population actually slept

in the

fields aerial bombardment was a

terrifying concept endangering civilians

in Britain cities as never before

so over 3 million women and children

were moved to the safety of the

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countryside the largest evacuation of

people in Britain's

history farms with their many

outbuildings were expected to

accommodate as many people as possible

yeah it's not the best candid is it and

that thing there is just too big to even

consider heating Alex and Peter are

checking Mana Farm's barns for potential

places to accommodate

evacuees this is another candidate yeah

there are a few holes on that roof

though yeah it's actually quite

significant really there's what there's

1 2 3 four there's four holes on this

side to make room for evacuees here they

must make urgent repairs to the roofs of

the

barns we just haven't got anywhere near

enough beds if we got all these people

coming so I'm just going to have to

knock something up quick they're going

to have to be pretty

crude with Imports restricted and

factories switching production to

weapons in 1940 everything was in short

supply including

Furniture word was all these Town's

people were on their way they had

nowhere else to go they were being

bombed out of their own homes and the

country suddenly had to absorb huge

numbers of extra

people so how' you do it you know where

did you find the facilities where did

you find the beds where did you find the

bedding where did you find the food

where did you find the pots and pans and

it all had to be done so fast up and

down the countryside Villages of All

Sorts were busily gathering together

everything they could to accommodate

this influx of really rather desperate

people

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well doing as an emergency bed was

it building materials too were in short

supply bombing destroyed thousands of

factories and houses all of which needed

to be repaired

brick and tile factories couldn't keep

up with demand so people in the

countryside revived old crafts to

produce

them good afternoon gentlemen afternoon

L if you come ready for work and a

picnic and a picnic all right it's just

the

weather Alex and Peter need roof tiles

to repair the barns for evacuees so

they're calling on experts in

traditional crafts Colin Richards and

mck

coooper what is it it's a tile making

machine that is quite something it

hasn't seen action for a long time so

we're recommissioning them can't buy

these anymore this is a bit of a beast

you put clay in one end right in theory

you get tiles out of the other how many

do you need probably a few hundred right

to the hundreds definitely so we need to

get busy then the first job is to soften

the clay from which the tiles will be

made dance

man yeah this needs to be pliable

otherwise there's no hope for of this

going through the

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machine well let's get it get it all in

get it all in

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yeah squeezing the clay through the slot

requires a great deal of

power Colin is hoping the petrol engine

is up to the task

are you ready well I'm ready when you

are boys H in GE okay okay y currently

it's bringing the ram up to the clay in

the

Box get pressure boys Peter's been

handed the vital job of cutting the

molded clay into individual

tiles Peter what are you

doing you're on face work Peter chop and

Co come on keep up with a

clear Peter needs to raise his game at

the moment

who there we go and cut

okay nice right so how many did we get

out of that run Peter one two three

actually 297 toes to make down and let's

get on with it yeah

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nothing here we go

oh got him

after a bombb attack bricks often

remained intact so could be reused tiles

on the other hand easily shattered so

new ones were in great

demand the war distorted everything you

know with the damage in the big cities

the the Brick Works and the tile Works

were working overtime and there wasn't

any spare capacity and it was a case of

make do and mend Going Back to Basics

and if you had the knowledge and the

skill to make tiles this is what you

do few had produced tiles this way since

before the first world

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war during the war Imports of cotton and

linen was severely restricted so bedding

was in short supply Ruth's following

government advice and recycling old

fabric to make Patchwork quilts for the

evacuees I've been making these little

pockets every now and again when I've

got a little bit of time making these

little pockets I just run them up on the

machine and then stuff them full of

feathers the bags are made from scraps

of material known as

ticking ticking is just um a really

really tightly woven cotton it has to be

tightly woven otherwise the feathers

work their way out you see cuz look the

the end of a Feather is really quite

pointy and um on ordinary fabric if it

was just like say apron fabric you can

push it straight through there so that

would be really uncomfortable and

gradually the feathers would work their

way out so old mattress covers old

pillows they all are covered in in

ticking great for making quilts so then

all I've got my thin ball my needle I

just sew each bag up and this is sort of

part of this British pack work tradition

the idea of making you know stuffed

Pockets great huge fat stuffed crude

Pockets which I'm going to sew together

into something well I think perhaps to a

modern eye it would look more like a

duvet than anything else but this is

about

warmth it's amazing how quick it

grows gross 5 and 1 half ripped and then

everything Square to start off with to

harden the tiles they must be fired in a

Kil but with no access to Industrial

kils during the war temporary ones were

built using whatever materials were to

hand have we got many more to go no this

is the the last layer what sort of

temperature are we looking for here

we're going to need to get up to about

900 900° yeah that's going to be really

difficult though isn't it it is in these

conditions there you know quite a

challenge ahead of us

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really in these freezing November

conditions maintaining a constant

temperature of

900° requires some clever

engineering we've got to create four

little chimneys because we need to get

the heat all the way around the

perimeter of the K and as we move from

one corner to another we can suck the

heat across the stack so of heat is

drawn to these four corners and teas up

guys

oh that's very kind thank

you you got to stage now your kill's

basically complete but everything's very

very damp and we need to dry that out

slowly over a couple of hours because if

we drive the heat up too quickly it's

just going to burst them

tiles the Kiln must burn for two days

and two

nights this will require over a ton of

firewood gathered from the forest to

help them cut it up Alex and Peter have

dusted off the farm M's 1940s power

saw it looks extremely dangerous Peter

yeah yeah the what is it the Avon power

saw have you ever heard of Avon power SS

no no it's not that company that went

into prosthetic limbs is

it h on these

things nearly nearly

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nearly it wants to go doesn't it it just

wants to kick into

line yes yes can you use it now 1 two

three are you ready in

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gear nothing's moving too much is it

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ruths make do and mend quilts for the

evacuees are taking

shape so this four when I've done them

together there will fit into that

Gap to be honest I'm to resist making it

overly pretty there is a sort of

Temptation to slow down and start doing

beautiful things and make it look

gorgeous I mean even a couple of

stitches made in a you know a little

pattern here and you'd start to not only

hold the feathers in place but it had

you know improv the look

enormously is it nice and warm under

there

okay chaps looks like grubs

up it wasn't just women and children who

were relocated to the countryside during

the

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war so was 20 year old Don

Sutherland but Don wasn't an evacuee he

was conscripted into Farm labor by the

government because like 61,000 men and

women he refused to fight

I decided to register as a conscien

objector uh when the call up came

I objected on religious grounds it was a

very difficult decision to make I I've

always believed that you love your

enemies and uh you you don't kill them

you know you don't you don't try and

hurt them right there must have been a

very very difficult time of your life it

was difficult you could only speak the

truth and say that you didn't

you couldn't do it

yourself and I I I couldn't do it I

couldn't go out and kill people and

that's what War's about were their

problems trying to convince the

authorities as as to why you you felt

you needed to to

object the usual question is what would

you do if a German did did such and such

a thing to your daughter or your sister

or your mother that sort of thing is

right but I don't think that questions

are really uh sensible questions to ask

really M uh one does not do know what

one would do an emergency I only know

that there are better ways of doing it

uh than

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that some 5,000 conscientious obors were

imprisoned but Don was one of the lucky

ones spending the rest of the war as a

farm

laborer wow so you're threshing out and

that's the middle of winter middle of

winter it must have been cold there yes

it was and that that's that's one of

myself

that's the sugar beat that's the sugar

beat I can't load with sugar beat right

you know I was an office worker because

I worked in office for seven years yeah

so it was completely new to me to work

with my hands but I think it's uh it's

good for any young man to do that really

yeah oh yeah absolutely the work you did

in the fields bringing in these harvests

did you did you feel even inadvertently

that this was part of the war effort and

that you in some way doing your bit

towards supporting Britain at that

time well indirectly I suppose you are

really I I don't um deny the men going

out there were making a much bigger

sacrifice than I was yeah yeah I must

admit that yeah uh but it's what it's

what they having to

do that I disagreed with you say yeah it

was always accepting that you you fight

and that's it of course without

realizing what War's like

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[Applause]

oh here you are oh let me take that

thank you this is Daisy is it Daisy H

Daisy by December 1940 the bombing of

Southampton and Portsmouth had reached a

new intensity

thousands more evacuees flooded from the

cities to the

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countryside bit nervous put me best coat

I'll make a good impression know who

we're getting children under five were

accompanied by their

mothers hello welcome to Mana Farm who

have we got here then we've got nnest

and

Morin welcome to my home thank you very

much someone who remembers evacuees

arriving here here over 70 years ago is

Betty

Rudd I found these mothers and these

children and they were weeping and in a

terrible State the children were crying

and feeling miserable why why can't we

go home Mommy you know why why do we

have to stay here Mommy and uh it was

really very tough and that was my first

experience actually of

evacu the Govern woman assigned

bulleting officers in every village to

find accommodation for the evacuees

Betty's father was the officer for the

area around man of farm yes my father's

here right in this long Overcoat yeah

there were extraordinary Mount of people

there with big houses oldtime gent they

didn't want to know at all the people of

the

Butlers we had a fight they thought they

were above it they did yes my father

just marched in and that was

and the people who were being bed out of

the countryside were not Countryside

people they were very much townies with

different ways that was the problem uh

they wouldn't eat their

greens they wanted fishing ships and we

encouraged them to actually grow

vegetables a lot of these children and

they did they were quite interested in

that really it is one of the things

about the war isn't it all sorts of

different groups of people had to learn

about each other yes they did Town

people had to learn about about the

countryside country people had to learn

about town people yes their life would

be never be the same again would it no

certainly

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wouldn't there we go your mud on your

Beats many of actuated children were put

to work helping Farmers to meet the

government's demands of doubling food

production don't get Med like this in

Portsmith do you for children from the

cities the countryside was full of new

ENC Hunters many had never seen a

chicken cow or Pig before used to she's

a big pig isn't she yeah she's

fat not as cute as the others though

she's not as cute as the others is she

she's big and

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scary to make room for more evacuees the

boys are making roof tiles to repair out

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buildings they've been firing for 24

hours hour but the windy conditions are

causing unexpected

problems we had sort of gale force winds

we've tried to slow it down but what's

happened is we've almost got a blast

furnace all that heat has expanded the

Kil and so we needed to restrain it

otherwise it would have collapsed and

we'd have lost all that effort we'd have

broken our tiles and it would have been

disaster well I suppose at the moment

the Flames aren't coming up anymore so

we need to get some more wood on died

down a little bit and you need to keep

that Heat going through you can't afford

to let this temperature drop when we get

to these critical stages get some of

these right to the back of the Furnace

it's almost like a sleeping dragon and

as soon as you stoke it up then you know

the fire leaps out of the

Kil tending kils in all conditions night

and day is tough

work but Collins heard stories of how

tile makers made the job a little bit

more bearable

I thought we might try and rig ourselves

up a still we got apples and um distill

some um local Hooch what you think I

think that sounds like a good idea

you're talking about using this to

distill alcohol yeah the reason I know

about this is my uncle did this during

the war um he worked at a a brick and

Tire Works and um you know the heat was

used for sort of cooking any game they

caught and for uh making liqu really

question is though Colin is it legal if

we sort of treat it as medicinal then I

think we uh we might be able to get away

with it as long as we don't sell it a

little drop of medicine to soo the aches

and

pains alcohol has a lower boiling point

than water so when this fermented apple

juice is heated the alcohol in it

evaporates first and can be collected

put it on the heat now

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Collins improvised a distillation plant

from a bike in a

tube a water bottle and a sauce

pan so we fixed that to that that's

worked well because we're joining metal

to metal the inner tube acts like a

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gasket what we're going to do now is use

the heat from the K to slowly sort of

boil the mash that's in there and with

the water bottle that's going to act as

our first condensing chamber and then

the alcohol should come down the pipe

and because it's so cold this should

condense out so that what we get in here

the drips is going to be our distilled

alcohol I know Peter's got his tongue

hanging out at the

moment well there is already

conversation in that

[Laughter]

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P I don't blame her look at her sat wall

indoors was nice oh she looks lovely

come on my lovely come on

snowflake the government's drive to

Double food production meant Farmers had

to reduce their Livestock in favor of

growing

crops crops produce considerably more

calories per acre than

livestock with meat becoming scarce the

government encouraged people to set up

pig clubs raised communally on kitchen

scraps half the meat went to the

government with the rest div divided up

between the

members good girl come on snowflake

their piglet shorty is coming on well

but Ruth and fellow Pig Club member

Debbie Underwood want to breed a

replacement for when the time comes to

slaughter him come on I got another

treat waiting for you so she's taking

his mother snowflake to spend some time

with local boore Douglas there's a good

girl go on snowflake does she go

straight in with Douglas or does she

have to have a few days separate from

the piglet before she's introduced to

the bo we come into season 3 days after

she's been weaned from her piglets right

and so that's what we'll do we'll put

her in now and that hit all his hormones

will encourage her that in 3 days time

she will come in SE him come on we go

come on come on good

girl but things are not going to plan

somehow shorty has escaped to follow his

mother oh how on Earth did you get out

shorty well we'll have to find where

they're escaping from because uh that's

not good is it no cuz otherwise I'll

just follow her to the B but the gate

still

closed look there's a wi look at that

before we take her to the ball we're

going to have to fix that because

otherwise shorty is going to be straight

out of there

yeah oh way

way actually actually you might be lucky

yes look at that well done that woman

right wo speedy speedy right

that's

Douglas him with the hairy chops here he

is hello gorgeous boy yeah this is

Douglas he loves a back scratch um he's

only served about three cells so far so

uh hopefully many happy years ahead of

him there we

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go look like they're having fun together

AR they

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It's the final night tending the tile

Kil and the homemade still has produced

a tonic to help the team cope with the

cold well we're on our sixth bottle at

the moment so uh wow you know it's uh

it's really sort of taken off I think

you know to toast the Kiln yes we ought

to have a little sniff right

okay that looks clear enough certainly

lovely thank you very much that's very

pleasant I find this medicinal actually

yeah

absolutely it's not long before Colin's

tonic is making the hard graft

altogether more

appealing thanks you guys for a

fantastic experience fantastic

Kiln they must endure just one more

freezing night tending the tiles at the

Kiln to the to the k

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[Applause]

[Music]

although the government encouraged

Farmers to Cull Livestock in favor of

growing crops they made one exception

come on

girls dairy cattle time we got you

indoors you know milk was seen as

essential to the health of the nation

particularly for

children with cold weather on the way

the F's precious dairy cattle must be

taken

indoors the government set strict

targets for milk production that Dairy

Farmers had to meet so keeping the

cattle in top condition was Paramount

it's not just about keeping the cows fit

and healthy though obviously that's

really important it's also about the

quality of the milk and we have got to

keep the quality and the quota the

quantity up right through the winter

yeah that's really important yeah on you

know the

way oh over winter the cattle will be

fed silage fermented vegetation made by

Alex and

Peter go then on you go good girls Sarah

move I'm always amazed how much you can

taste what the cows been eating in the

milk yes there's a definite difference

isn't there is there just of course

another reason we need to look after

them is they're all in calf yeah so

they're all June at spring so we want to

take good care of them she looks like

she's got twins she's huge isn't

she after 2 days of firing the Kiln is

left to cool and the tiles to repair the

barns for evacuees should be

ready it's been an awful lot of work

that's gone into making this Kil into

firing these tiles into making the tiles

and uh you have no idea what the results

are one false move of the brick if Colin

slips and it lands on the tiles we could

smash a whole load of them

Colin's concerned that the harsh winter

conditions may have affected the firing

of the

tiles so what we're looking for is a

ring like a

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bell sounds like magic that sounds good

that is superb will this match your on

your Pharm uh it's going

now I'm not fussy I I don't think people

would have been

that's a good bunch of tows is that an

all

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HED Alex and Peter head back to the farm

to repair the buildings so they'll be

ready for more

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evacuees well you're a braver man than

me Alex

these new TOs certainly look the

part I think we'll probably use the best

part of 20 30 on this side of the

building leaves us with a couple of

hundred for some of the major farm

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buildings there we

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are with the roof repaired Alex and

Peter furnish the building with ruths

beds and

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quilts it's not the most salubrious of

uh accommodation on the farm but it's

warm it's dry better than being in the

city center of Southampton that's it you

come this way it Mommy's coming in as

well most had no idea when they would

ever return

home how's that then is that nice and

comfort

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although rural areas like this were seen

as safe havens they weren't necessarily

quite as safe as they first

appeared there was a top secret

operation to lure enemy bombers away

from the cities and into the countryside

code named Operation

starfish well I think this is the

remnant

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of the command post of starfish or at

least the starfish in this

area only the first wave of German

bombers were fitted with navigation

systems they dropped firebombs on the

Target lighting the way for the heavy

bombers but by lighting decoy fires in

the countryside the bombers could be led

off

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Target very very thick concrete

reinforced

from this armored bunker on Mana Farm

the decoy operation was put into

action so that's the itch in there isn't

it with all the sort of industrial zones

of Southampton the place that the German

bombers really want to Target yeah now

if you go a little bit further

east you've got a similar Bend in the

river so in the landcape it looks almost

identical yet other bombers are going to

be drawn to that site and instead of

raining their bombs down on a city

center on people and on Industrial

heartlands they're actually reing their

bonds down on fields okay and what have

we got there Mana

Farm here decoy fires would have been

ignited once the incendiary fires in

Southampton were under

control but this wasn't the only way the

countryside helped protect cities from

German

bombers so this is the Royal Observer

Corp that's right yes and uh we're part

of the royal Air Force and we provide

the Overland um observation service for

them because their radar only looks out

to see Neville cullingford served in the

Royal observers the um table you see

here the the map this is a small segment

of the main map on the control table at

Winchester so that's our little piece of

the basically what's within visual range

of us so you see the young women with

their long sticks and the boards and

they're pushing their around on a board

we're providing the information for

those girls that's right will be putting

your plots on the table that we've

observed from

here a huge network of Civilian

volunteers operated like a human radar 2

24 hours a day tracking enemy

aircraft in the countryside this job

often fell to

Farmers you actually had to have

somebody out here on duty out in the

open if it was pouring with rain

basically standing in a field all night

standing in a field all night we did

have quite a sad number of um of the

older um men who actually died of

pneumonia because it's got so cold you

really felt you were doing your bit if

you had stood out here that's right

seeing the planes go over doing

something about it that's right and the

ones that um the RF weren't able to

shoot down um were hopefully decoyed by

the local staish site so that they

actually um drop their bombs in you know

on a poor Farmer's field or on his farm

of decoy fires were often just simple

wooden baskets filled with flammable

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material we're just knocking up some

baskets all mode one operation

starfish overseeing the operation is

military expert Jerry sliff well and you

good to see you again good to see you

excellent

you worked out how to set them off yet

well I was going to try and do it

remotely by remotely sending Peter over

here with a match but have a feeling

that would take uh the best part of the

night to try and get them all lit we

could arrange something with some

batteries and uh some pieces of wire

current should go down which will heat

up the fuse okay which will go bang and

hopefully the rest will go with it so we

can be actually sat quite a way away

then that's the idea

patterns of fire baskets were arranged

to look like burning buildings and

flammable liquids like turpentine

creosote and paraffin gave the

impression from the air of factories and

fuel dumps Going Up in

Flames all right that's nicely I should

catch quick if you stick some of the

inflammable liquids and that on there I

can get it wide

up all the fires were triggered remotely

using electrically operated detonator s

from the safety of a

bunker trail that wire out okay to

somewhere

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safe so Jerry we're in a situation now

where we've got our fires ready to light

now we'd in effect be waiting for a call

from somewhere like Southampton

Industrial Area they would have um

dampened out all of the incend bombs

there they're then putting in a call to

us at which point we act when we get the

signal okay so we're waiting for that

call that's

correct Neville's teaching Ruth how the

Royal observers tracked an identified

aircraft um we have a height bar here on

which the number one Observer sets the

height yeah and when you report it if

it's 6,000 or 5,000 you report it as

five or six or right I just don't bother

to mention the Thousand cuz everybody

knows it's that's right it's all um all

number one does is to sight the aircraft

and follow it

round and when he says on that means

that wherever the square is that's the

report you give right in this case is

8168 direction direction it's which

direction he's going ah yes okay so he's

heading yes one one at whatever I tell

and she acknowledges by saying thank you

it's time to put it all into practice

[Music]

on April 4 ail four

8365 heading north one at 8,000 Spitfire

thank

you at the bunker operation starfish is

about to spring into action are we going

together here

yep go

[Music]

if all went to plan bombs would have

soon been raining down here on the

fields of Mana Farm rather than on

[Music]

Southampton it's difficult really to

measure the success of operation

starfish you know in many ways you look

at Southampton today and it is an

absolute shadow of the city it was

before the LOF raer raised it to the

ground really they flattened the entire

city so it can't have been that

effective but at the same time if

operation starfish saved just one life

then it was

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worthwhile by December 1940 despite the

Valiant efforts of the royal Observer

Corps and operation starish across

Britain 24,000 thousand civilians had

been killed in the

blitz hundreds of thousands had been

made homeless and millions were

displaced yet the nation was determined

to celebrate

[Music]

Christmas it really was the only sort of

unifying celebration that you got during

the war I mean bonfire night obviously

had to be cancelled blackout makes sense

Easter well with no chocolate that was a

bit of a damp squib Christmas was the

one big CommunityWide celebration of the

year that means that shortages or no

shortages have somehow got to pull it

all together and create something that

people recognize the sort of Christmases

they were used to

[Music]

so Ruth's planning a Christmas meal and

dance she's keeping the evacuees

occupied by making decorations for the

cottage oh good you are nice and careful

I thought you'd be the lad for the

job so many Town children who are you

know trying to get used to Country

Living For The First Time in their lives

you also get the fact that many of the

hosts out in the countryside were trying

to get used to children not just Town

children but any children they was no

sort of rhyme nor reason really to the

buting and people who were lifelong

Bachelors suddenly found themselves with

a house full of

kids so good job I know some things how

to keep you little occupied is

it that's looking nice I like

this Alex is also preparing for

Christmas with factories working

overtime on the war effort toys were in

very short

supply the government came to the rescue

with advice on how to make your

own I've got a pamphlet here this is

called improvised toys for nurseries and

refugee camps these are the sort of

toys that would put a smile on my face

today here we've got a little little

horse you can ride on and a rocking

horse and it gives you all the patterns

and here these are from cotton reels

this little man here is made entirely

out of cotton Wheels there's a I like

that one that's a dragon

taking inspiration from the pamphlet

Alex is making a Spitfire out of old tin

cans already made the prop this is the

propeller got an old roofing nail there

which I'm going to um somehow fix in

there so that that

spins but I'm just hoping that um you

know that these toys bring a bit of

Light Relief during our our wartime

Christmas celebrations and there's

actually a lovely line in here which

says

some children may have passed through

such Horrors or be so weakened by

illness or malnutrition that they have

temporarily lost the creative art of

play a toy which they may carry with

them always may do far more than we

might imagine to restore the health and

confidence and peace of mind to a child

[Music]

so what we're trying to make is fake

sparkly

snow it's like glitter it's like cheap

form of glitter like so many other

things actual glitter was in short

supply I mean you can hardly justify

having a glitter making factory during

war time can you make I've got a load of

epom salts here and then I just want as

little amount of water as I possibly can

to make them all

dissolve there we go look at that

scarcely liquid do you fancy a bit of

sparkly on your lanterns yeah think PR

nice

yeah

yes it's going to need some guns if it's

going to shoot the lift vaer down so put

a little nail in

[Music]

there a shame to give this away

[Music]

by December 1940 nearly 4 million tons

of merchant shipping including

desperately needed food had been lost to

German

uots the usual Christmas Fair of turkey

had become scarce as Farmers turned away

from Livestock in favor of

crops so the government suggested an

alternative I've plumped for something

that the ministry of food suggested

something called a murky Dreadful Sly

name isn't it that's awful it's a mock

turkey and these par Snips they'll be

his

legs it's basically sausage meat sort of

glorified

[Music]

stuffing mind you that is between 15

right just straight all in I

think

clunk there Comes The Crafty bit

according to the recipe the mixture must

be molded into the shape of a real

turkey to shape that into something or

shape are turkeys on a plate okay parnet

legs all that might have to do the one

benefit though of having so many people

in the house is access to their ration

books basically as soon as they're boted

with me they have to hand their ration

books over to me and then I can you know

I'm in charge of doing all the shopping

doing all the food which means that you

get sort of economies of scale it's all

a bit more efficient when you've got a

larger number of you this says it all

this does that there £ 4 oz of bacon

that is five people's ration for the

week you know one person's ration two

little rashes you couldn't really do

much with but when you get a block of

five people's rations you can start to

do a bit more with it you've got a few

more options it makes a bit more sense

[Music]

there he goes one mock

turkey ready for the

oven as well as caring for evacuees the

farm work must go on now the cows are

inside for winter they need McKing out

daily it's just a sort of job that would

have been undertaken by conscientious

objectors this way

and as usual the government had some

advice right well as it says in the

leaflet here dung must not be wasted

chaps okay I'll be leaving this by your

bedsides later tonight for you to read

through I mean obviously as a farmer we

know that this has the ability to

fertilize the fields but failing to use

it we're also uh doing our country and

ourselves a poor turns yeah got your

shovels yep got your stuff Tom and

Lauren are getting their first taste of

life on a Farm there we have it in

operation liquid manure come on in in in

in so coming from the city Lauren uh is

this something you're used to uh no

no if you once you forget what it is

you're standing in yeah it's actually

not so bad yeah the great thing about

farmyard smells is the longer you spend

with them the less you notice them

and once this had been the main stay of

all fertilizing on

farms but it had been superseded really

by artificial fertilizers which it was

just sort of Cheaper to to to buy in but

many of the fertilizers things like a

potach for example had come from places

like Germany so to make up for that

shortfall the government were advising

Farmers to turn back to this natural

manure

there's a nice lot of urine in there as

well it's a nice lot of ammonia which

again is another really good part of the

whole fertilizing process it's all for

the war effort though so what you have

to keep reminding yourself with every

shovel

[Applause]

[Music]

full she hold that hold the

book b o think about where are you

reading tomorrow they will celebrate

Christmas and many in the village will

attend the local dance so Ruth and Peter

are learning to Foxtrot it should be

easy this is supposed to be the easy

dance that everybody knew it's not quite

the Pogo is it it's

not dancer Lisa mlan has come along to

teach Ruth and Peter the steps help

hello we really really really need your

help well we've been trying to D the fox

truck we got the book and we've been um

we're not going very far though really

have we I'm not surprised you really are

not going to learn from that so you

think I should just ditch the book I

should throw

it the Fox Trot was developed in 1920s

New York and during the war reached the

peak of its

popularity let's try it so two slow

walks forward so slow slow quick quick

slow slow quick quick slow slow quick

quick easy

eh why don't you try it together is that

it that's it ready here we go slow slow

quick quick slow slow quick quick very

good up until the 1950s the foxtrot was

the most popular dance and early rock

and roll records were categorized as

foxtrots slow quick quick so would

absolutely everybody be able to do this

everybody would have known this dance it

was a really really social thing to do

it's quite chatty though you can

actually check while you're dancing

can't you you're not leading slow slow

quick quick slow oh you're turning the

wrong way now oh no oh no disaster

struck the team are celebrating

Christmas Day 1940 Style by inviting

evacuees and neighbors to their

austerity Christmas meal well certain

someone seems to have uh his way over

here oh hello

hello it's a chance to sample the

Delights of wartime mock Delicacies it

smells really really good though do it

very nice yes so what is it

Goose you should be so lucky it's known

as murky why is it called murky mock

turkey mock Turkey right quite

mungry got to say this actually looks

more appetizing than a dry boots

turkey anybody interested in a pnip leg

half you have half a

leg what do you all think of the Mery is

it edible very good very good done a

marvelous job nice and stuffing is the

favorite part of my Christmas dinner so

that is my favorite Christmas

dinner here we go

Henry have some mky

Henry loves the mury he does he does

[Music]

good I think that brings us around to

present time doesn't it that's for

gobbling down your mince pie there we go

Christmas Ryan as

well is it a Spitfire it's meant to be

it is a Spitfire

trctor there's a special present for you

oh my goodness magazines often included

instructions for homemade

gifts oh a hat oh F oh gosh that's

fantastic a little tilt hat for you Ruth

on the front like that that's it on the

side on the side that's it made from a

man's trilby hat make do a mend really C

down it is I am really

impressed consumer goods became scarce

as factories were turned over to war

workor so presents tended to be

practical items right now next up Ruth

mhm no prizes for

guessing unwrap it see what it is oh I

can't imagine what this

is you Alex thank you all I'm going to

be maybe I've got an airplane as well

very

fragrant

so are you trying to tell me something

guys in 1940 soap was in fact the most

popular of all Christmas

presents a familiar

smell happy Christmas to everybody and

let's hope we're all here for the next

one

Christmas after lunch everyone heads to

the Village Dance

[Music]

[Music]

Hall it was a chance just for a few

hours to forget the horrors of War

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

it's wonderful isn't it I mean you know

all that pressure bombers overhead

people being blitzed out of their homes

you know they all really coming home and

then

suddenly you can just forget it all yeah

well that's the thing I there's no way I

can imagine the stress that everyone was

under during the war but I can see how

this would have been such a release yes

you can can't you I mean people are

losing their loved ones by this point

people are being bombed out of their

homes the whole hardness of war is

really starting to bite home

and here we have the community just

letting their hair down letting their

hair down forget it all 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

[Music]

can ladies and Gentlemen The King The

King King

King and to absent friendss

God save our

gracious King long live our

no King God Save the

King send him

Victorious happy and

glorious long to rain on

over us God Save the

King here

[Music]

here despite the brief rest bite for

Christmas Britain would have to fight on

for another 5

[Music]

years the pressure on the water time

farmer would get even greater as they

battled to defend shelter and feed the

nation next time the team faced the

conditions of 1941 when the Nazis

engulfed Europe and demands on Farmers

increased the farm gets a government

inspection uh kind of like the iron fist

in the velvet glove production steps

up I have an absolute bag of

bones and in the darkness of War there's

new life on the wartime

Farm find out how Britain fed itself

during the second world war by ordering

the open University's free wartime Farm

booklet call 0845

36257 or go to bbc.co.uk k/w time farm

and follow the links to the open

[Music]

University hom guard are facing a battle

to look younger Dad's Army later at 7:40

but next on BBC 2 fighting for the title

of one man and his dog Champions this

year's competition concludes in just a

moment

n

[Music]