Original subtitles

now and also on BBC HD step back in time

with us to

1942 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 fought by the farmers of

[Music]

Britain when when war broke out the

Nazis attacked British shipping

attempting to cut off food

imports 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 the nation could be starved

into

[Music]

surrender now archaeologists Alex

langlands and Peter

gin and historian Ruth

Goodman are turning back the

clock working Mana Farm in Hampshire as

it would have been in the second world

war

yes by

1942 Britain had endured 3 years of

blockades farmers were struggling to

deliver food targets and raw materials

were becoming

scarce so the team must learn how to

cope with short shortages of

fuel wood and animal

feed they must also address the hardship

that came with the bombing of our cities

by setting up an emergency feeding

Center sir this is the untold story of

the countryside at War

by the third year of War Britain's food

imports had hit a new

low in 1941 America had entered the war

which meant they had fewer ships to

export food to Britain increasing the

strain on

[Music]

Farmers to save the country from

starvation the minister of food demanded

that an extra 840,000 tons of wheat be

produced

[Music]

even more grassland was plowed up to

meet the demand but it still wasn't

enough with all these fields given over

to producing cereals Farmers struggled

to find the space for other

crops the minister of Agriculture

insisted that every spare scrap of land

be put to good use even leester square

and Regent Park were dug over to grow

vegetables we're going to get rid of all

this scrap metal which of course can can

be used in the Munitions factories to

build tanks and planes but we're also

going to free up a patch of land now it

doesn't look like much at the moment but

once we get this cleared if we ever get

this cleared do you want a hand there

Peter once we get it cleared okay we

will be able to put a crop in for

Harvest later in the year but we've got

to work

quickly Alex and Peter are going to grow

a bean crop to supplement the feed for

the dairy herd but there's a problem

small pieces of land like this had never

been cultivated so we're in need of

plowing wow this isn't good Nick but

their size and awkward shape meant an

ordinary tractor couldn't do the job so

we're looking for something that can

plow that land and Harrow that land the

government had a solution a scheme where

Farmers could lease specialist equipment

to help maximize

output and of course the the Ministry of

Agriculture is well they are encouraging

us to do these things they're actually

offering these things on higher so you

know let's take our pick let's have a

look here see what we've got obviously

something like that is too big

but what what's that the trusty tractor

it does the work of two horses it plows

over an acre per day using only two

gallons of petrol and a land girl can

start it and it steers itself wow on to

a winner well if a l girl can start it

then maybe even we can start it

Peter by 1942 there wasn't just a food

shortage Timber was in in short supply

too wood Imports declined as shipping

lanes were cut

off at the outbreak of War Britain was

importing almost all her

Timber indeed I think it was only 4% of

that Timber that we needed and used in

Britain that could be sourced from

Britain in fact once we looked around us

what we realized but the problem was not

so much where was the wood going to come

from but who the heck was going to get

it with many forestry workers being

drafted to fight the ministry of labor

called on the nation's women to step in

they formed the women's Timber core and

female tree fellas soon became known as

Lumber

[Applause]

[Music]

jills I mean nowadays you might think to

yourself well you know what's the big

deal wood you know what's it mostly used

for paper Furniture but in the war time

it had a really important function for a

start many of our best fighter aircraft

were made of

wood wartime industry also depended on

wood the largest consumers of Timber

were coal mines which required wooden

pit props to keep them

stable he looks pretty hard work I

should imagine you get pretty fit yeah

Joe Mason and Tracy Anderson work for

the forestry commission and have

Enlisted the help of Ruth and her

daughter

Eve basically if you just pull and don't

push hold don't push right this is a to

you to me isn't it to you

first girls as young as 14 were

recruited to work in the forest the

toughest job was faing the trees

something the government was initially

reluctant to allow women to

do it's hard work but it's not the full

body thing that I was sort of expecting

it to be when you look at who joined the

timber cor you find it girls who worked

in sharks second

teres I think it must have given a lot

of young women a real feeling of

self-confidence and

self-respect that that they could you

know be out there be doing something

truly helpful for the war effort

something for your country in a really

practical way this is exactly the sorts

of things that were proving that girls

were just as good at

boys the second world war saw a surge in

the mechanization of British Farms as

the Ministry of Agriculture encouraged

Farm fers to use machines to increase

efficiency with animal feed in short

supply Alex and Peter are using their

cleared patch of land to grow beans for

the cattle with the help of a trio of

tractor enthusiasts Richard Loden Jeff

ravenhall and Shane

Parry hello Peter what have we got here

oh little beast isn't it it's a sort of

tractor I could probably work with is

actually this is your trusty tractor for

the next week right trusty tractor yeah

bestselling small tractor of its type at

the moment the trusty tractor once

confined to Market Gardens was ideal for

entering the wartime need to cultivate

awkward patches of

land you've got it for a week with a

rang of attachments as well okay um I've

got a book here with all the attachments

in you've got a plow with it and disc

Harrows and all sorts so I should think

that will do you excellent but privy

reading for you there

Peter originally designed in

1933 the trustee was modified during the

war to redu the amount of Steel it

required as supplies ran short but this

is the kind of thing that for the patch

of land we've cleared would be ideal

yeah small patches like this are exactly

what was needed uh to be put into

production well let's hope so and we've

got something here that's sort of

halfway in between me and a spade and

and the tractor and the plow

this is kind of

exactly the first job is to prepare the

tractor for plowing rather than being

towed the plowing attachment forms one

unit with the

tractor it should be a oneman operation

this should so right the only time you

need five people is when you put it on

that hedge then you

need do you want to start this yes yeah

yeah yeah show you better show me how to

start it okay FS on right all right so

this is like starting the old lawn

mother here we go

oh that's a

dream you're field

away over half a billion cubic feet of

wood was needed during the war for

everything from aircraft to ships and

rifles Ruth and Eve have hit a common

stumbling block the weight of the tree

is causing the saw to jam I think we

definitely need to Chee pin isn't yeah I

we need a

wed might be the safest option at this

point yeah do we just have a oh yeah

we're starting to pinch we are yeah well

he got quite quite a big crown on it

this one so he's going to catch the wind

you can see it rocking and when it rocks

it'll come back and it'll Jam the saw

and you won't be able to do anything at

all so the best thing we can do to give

you guys a hand now is if we put a wedge

in the back that'll keep the cut open

means the saw will move freely through

right bang the wedge in at the back here

just taking care not to bang it into the

saw that is so much Freer with that

wedging oh that's moving I think we're

nearly there she is beginning to really

wobble now you can see the gap opening

and closing you can also see the wedge

bobbing up and down when she goes we

need to get out the way if you can also

shout Timber when it goes cuz they would

have been working in groups so you would

have laed to let everybody else know

that tre's about to go

[Music]

yes she's going she's going going timber

[Laughter]

[Music]

yeah okay right the trusty tractor is

ready to

go it's now time to start

plowing the depth of the plow could be

easily controlled by a cranked

handle experienced Farmers could even

set the tractor running on its own only

needing to turn it around at each end of

the plot

first appearance this is a pretty heavy

looking piece of kit but

actually with it set

right you can let the engine do all of

the work and I'm actually now just

guiding it you

know but it's still quite cumbersome and

I'm terrified of hitting the

[Music]

stone the trust Rusty tractor was

entirely British made until 1943 when

wartime shortages resulted in the use of

American

engines with the land plowed the final

job is to smooth out the soil ready for

sewing the plow could be easily replaced

with a harrow attachment one of over 20

accessories that came with the trusty

tractor so that's the field done time to

get the beans in while the Sun's still

Shining

right here we

[Music]

go the next stage for Ruth and Eve is to

remove all the smaller branches from the

tree a process known as

sneeding when you joined the timber cor

you went off on 4 weeks training and the

first couple of weeks you did everything

a little bit of absolutely everything

and then you were allowed to sort of

choose which things you were best at and

for the second two weeks of training

that's what you concentrated on whether

it be the measuring the surveying the

felling itself the sneeding or indeed

bark peeling this is the wrong species

for that but if you were interested in

making explosives a really really useful

thing was the bark and an old the

Buckthorn tree so anything like that was

carefully peeled and debarked the bark

to be made into charcoal That Was Then

part of the explosives

industry girls could be sent anywhere in

the country to be bed with locals or to

stay in hosts or

camps one person who knows firsthand the

trials of being in the women's Timber

Corp is Irene Howell who became a lumber

Jill in

1943 what were you doing beforehand

though I mean Upstairs Downstairs really

so a complete change from what you've

been doing before I mean that must have

been quite nice actually to be out and

out and about doing something different

than upstairs and down stairs

yes not a very nice job I'm afraid yeah

so the the women's Timber cor was in a

sense sort of a step up yes lovely but

conditions were tough rheumatism was a

common ailment amongst Lumber gills

resulting from long periods working in

the forest in damp

conditions you got some FR oh is this

you yes what I mean what did you like

best about being a member of the

timle well being with the other girls

really I wasn't used to being with a lot

the girls used to have a good time we

used to enjoy it did you feel you were

part of you know the war effort when you

were out in the woods well

yes yeah she was certainly part of the

war effort we had to do something we all

after 18 you all had to do something so

just got on with it yeah just as

important as felling a tree was

measuring

it so this is to work out how everybody

gets paid yes we get paid well the

women's Tim call got paid by results yep

okay dog so let's measure us off a 10t

length and see how much we got shall we

calculating the amount of wood in a tree

was the most intellectually demanding

job it was vital to ensure that nothing

was wasted so there we go 10 foot okay

it normally went to well educated girls

who excelled at

maths okay we'll just take the

circumference of the tree now at the

point that you've not all the timber in

the tree is usable the curved sides must

be removed leaving the central

portion to calculate the amount of

usable Timber a Hoppus conversion table

was

used so that's nine something nine can't

see what 4' n 4' n okay so 10t length

we're looking at a girth of what did we

say 4T n 10t log and then you just read

across there to the number next 14.1

sare ft in that piece of Timber now the

tree is ready to be sent to The Sawmill

for final

processing before the war only 4% of the

Timber used in Britain was homegrown by

the end it was 60% over 18 million

[Music]

tons throughout the war milk was seen by

the government as essential for the

nation's Health a much needed source of

nutrition especially for children

to produce enough for the population

calves were removed from their mothers

very soon after birth and fed with

artificial milk leaving the fresh milk

for human consumption oh it's up to you

Mana Farms carves have been taught to

feed from bottles but bottle feeding is

timec consuming so Alex and Peter must

train them to drink from a

[Music]

bucket oh this one's got teeth Peter

nearly

[Music]

oh it's not stupid that one okay see

what we do see what we do is we remove

these from the equation entirely yeah

yeah come on there we go you're so close

yeah yeah yeah yeah nearly nearly it's

still sucking from my fingers yeah it

needs to learn to lap here we are here

we

are it's like a milk Bonanza

this is where it is this is where the

good stuff

is and there we

go there we

go it's one of those moments on a farm

on any farm when you get that moment of

Independence in an animal you know it's

got just a much better chance in

life improved methods of dairy farming

paid off in 1942 sales of milk hit over

a billion G tons 40% above pre-war

levels but with imported feeds scarce

and less milk for the carves they needed

an additional source of protein in their

diet one solution was

beans Alex and Peter have ordered a new

seed drill to sew the beans more quickly

but their efforts have been thwarted by

the

weather well here we

are not as dry as it could be it's not

and the problem is the rain isn't

letting up we've got clouds in the sky

we're expecting more rain on top of what

we've already had you can see there's

water sitting on the ground but we've

got an afternoon of dry and we've got to

the stage where we've just got to get

these beans in the ground you ready for

it Peter I am but the main thing is in

the context of the war this was bonus

ground this was turning every inch of

your farm into something that could

produce a crop

so that's enough in there that's enough

in there so that's the hopper full and

it's a fantastic piece of Kit really

this this is really versatile you can

sew virtually any type of seed at the

moment we've got it set up so that it's

it's for beans and there's a regulator

on the back which determines how often

it drops the beans out there we've got

it set up for 6 in something like that

yep 6 Ines now the only problem is Peter

is as you're pushing this through this

claggy filthy clay you're going to

struggle to get traction with this wheel

it's my only concern so you're going to

walk in front so I'm going to stand here

I'm no I'm going to stand here on the

dry and watch

[Music]

you as the wheel rotates it turns two

Chambers one removes the bean from the

hopper and sends it into the second

chamber which drops the bean into the

ground producing a clicking sound that

is going going good but we're so quite

thin to start with just so we know we've

got enough beans to do the whole patch

then we can just come over and sew again

but this should

oh

oops that that hopp is not fixed

sh look you doing should I just put them

to on the road put them put put put them

yes put them on the road put them on the

road

pleas oops we we for a long afternoon I

think

[Music]

the water loged soil is making the job

difficult but the boys need to

[Music]

persevere hold on hold on bit of a

struggle but we got there yes how's it

looking well it is looking like they're

evenly drilled here let's just hope that

they're evenly drilled across the whole

patch but the main problem we're going

to have here is we don't have very good

drainage and this clay soil is holding

the water so you know it's going to be a

tough

call the wartime reduction in imported

animal feed was especially tough on

pigs without enough food to sustain them

the government ordered a massive cull

and pig meat became

scarce one solution from the ministry of

food was to establish Pig clubs where

communities collected their kitchen

leftovers to feed a shared animal

turning waste into

meat 6 months ago Ruth started a club

with a piglet called

shorty now Ruth and stock woman Debbie

Underwood have come to check whether

shorty has grown large enough for

Slaughter hello

girl she's is she she is woo sorry mind

me hello shorty how you doing girl yeah

right so she's about 6 months old now

yeah 6 months she'd been eating our Pig

Club scraps enjoying herself I mean I

don't think she's quite ready for

Slaughter yet no she's still a bit on

the small side yeah um if you feel back

yeah that's the way we do things

nowadays of course in Years Gone by they

did things differently and one way they

used to feel how much weight they had on

them they put a thumb up the pig's

bottom and you could pinch and see how

much meat was there there was between we

don't do that nowadays doesn't sound

terribly lovely no no I'm not offering

to do that now but that is one way of uh

it right so can you feel if you push

down you can feel you can feel where the

bones are yeah you can and it gives you

a good idea of how much uh covering of

fat there is on there okay but they also

love a good back scratch as

well she's really firm fleshed which is

good what that means is that the muscle

is building there but at the moment

there's not a great deal of fat and um

nowadays of course people don't want too

much fat on their pigs but during the

war we were desperate for any animal

fats we could get our hands on so a nice

fat pig gives you lots of lards it

wouldn't be too bad thing if you put on

a bit interesting that now we are

getting close to slaughter we're sort of

looking at her and sizing up we've got

to share her half of her has to go back

to the government we get the other half

so that's a half of a pig between four

of us it might not seem like very much

but when you're so extremely short of

absolutely everything that every little

bit

helps as well as B

petrol and Diesel had also been rationed

since the start of the war but in 1942

the shortages grew even more

extreme fuel for the Armed Forces was

prioritized so those who didn't need

their cars for Vital work could no

longer buy

petrol farmers were allowed small

rations of petrol primarily for their

tractors but they needed to look for

alternative options for other Farm

vehicles

the boys have found inspiration from an

unlikely Contraption what you doing you

breaking something have a look at

this Massie Harris Massy Harris tractor

but what else well obviously be modified

to run off of some other form of fuel

yes exactly solid fuel so wood and coal

fighting in North Africa severely

disrupted petrol Imports inp but there

was an alternative fuel that was

abundant in Britain Co

so you've got all of your solid fuel

burning in here okay but that isn't

what's providing the power source it's

merely providing the gas that you're

then going to burn for the power source

so I suppose colon wood contains a

caloric value a lot of that calorific

value is turning into gas and that's

what we're trying to capture this is a

filter chamber it must be so we got a

rough idea of how this works you can

find us a vehicle and you can convert it

I can

try well look I'll tell you what

you try and get your head around this

see if you can knock something up and

what I'll do is see if I can get my

hands on some wartime fuel with which to

power it perfect with Petrol in short

supply gas powered engines grew more

popular in the

1940s in cities Town gas was available

via a main Supply and was carried in a

balloon on the chassis to power the

vehicle but many areas of the

countryside weren't linked up to the

mains so the boys will have to make

their own coal

gas Peter has Enlisted the help of

conservation officer Colin Richards who

has a 1930s

ambulance he's hoping to convert its

engine so the vehicle can be used for

important jobs on the farm well this is

it this is our this is our vehicle Colin

is bringing it in now it's it's

currently running off petrol and we're

going to convert this to run off C

gas this is the

machine once the task is done the

ambulance should be able to travel for

30 m on one load of coal have you ever

done this before no okay I know the

theory know it's it's not easy but I

think between us we can sort of have a

goat making it

work the first job is to make a

furnace Colin is using an old metal

container with walls thick enough to

survive the heat there we go

but we have an engine that's currently

running off of petrol and we need to

convert it to run off the gas that's

coming from coal so on the front we're

going to put essentially a hopper into

which we will put our

coal and this coal will be on

fire and this fire will be giving off

gas off the coal and we're going

to collect this gas

and feed it down into another

container this is just going to take out

all those impurities that's in the smoke

so what eventually gets fed into our

engine is good clean

gas when burning coal only 40% of the

energy in the coal goes into heating the

other 60% escapes as coal gas and it's

this this that will power the

engine next Colin begins work on the

hopper made from an old boiler hammered

into shape it will sit near the top of

the furnace and carry the coal the

reason that uh we need this Dome shape

is so that as the vehicle is moving

along and it's sort of shaking around it

actually shakes the coal down into the

fire because of this shape it's pretty

hot yeah it is I'm I'm going to go for

another I'm going to go for another

quench

yeah during the war million tons of coal

was needed each year to keep the country

running and power the factories involved

in the war effort Alex has come to a

mine in The Forest of Dean owned by

Robin Morgan so how far down are we

going then Robin um I would say uh the

cover you've got here is somewhere

around 200 ft 200 ft yeah vertical that

is right coal was plentiful in Britain

the problem was how to get it out of the

ground before the War British mining was

hugely dependent on manual labor less

than 10% of coal was cut by

machine so Robin was this mine open

during the second World War uh this mine

was open actually 200 years ago actually

part of this mine was right okay um so

and so some of these workings here would

definitely have been work during the

second world war oh definitely

yeah but skilled miners were leaving for

the battlefield and there was a real

danger that Cole vital to the war effort

would run

short okay so where are we now then well

we're nearly down to the call face now I

can hear I can hear people working away

the government appealed for volunteer

miners but conditions in the mines were

so notoriously bad that few signed up so

in 1943 Ernest Bevin the minister for

labor resorted to conscripting young men

to work in the

mines 10% of all those called up for war

went under ground they became known as

the Bevin boys there's not a lot of room

up there is there no there's not a lot

of room up there uh but it's surprising

oh you can adapt yourself to work in

places like that yeah when I first came

into the mines years ago uh it used to

terrify me to look up these C faces I

wouldn't even put my foot in there I

thought but you get so used to it after

not so dangerous as you think are

actually right so lot of B boys though

they would have come down the mine and

felt exactly like you did the first time

definitely yeah been terrified yes

absolutely terrified yeah without a

doubt yeah right but you want us to go

up there and have a go then yeah by all

means yeah you'll see what it take

you'll find it a bit awkward to start

with like you

know mining expert Rick Stewart has come

to help Alex extract Some

Coal so he's really loving this and I'm

not so certain

okay it's quite roomy here you're joking

aren't you all right so Rick this is the

cold face yeah absolutely andan you can

see sort of the black coal there yeah

and it's our job to basically take this

out so what's the strategy here then

picking it out by hand no what we're

going to do we are going to use a pick

but just with a small hole in the face

but then we're going to use our sort of

uh air boring machine so if you want to

crawl in where that dish is yeah and

just put a hole in

couple of inches deep yeah the holes

made in the wall would be filled with

gel knite to blast away the coal

face just I've just cracked my Knuckles

on this pit prop here digging this hole

this is working in the most extreme

conditions it has to be said well I

think I'm pretty much about there yeah

that's not bad okay not bad for the

first time anyway so next thing we need

to do is uh you want to get this thing

set up yeah yeah that's a pretty mean

looking drill bit there it is isn't it

so that's now in yeah so once we've got

the air on we're more or less ready to

drill Robin could you oblige with the

air please I

will that is a beast whoa that is a bit

of Kit and we just put in 2ft shot hole

in 10 15 seconds

the almost 22,000 Bevin boys were

conscripted news that many found

devastating it's the first day of work

for these lbs who have been drafted into

one of the toughest but most essential

jobs of the war after December

1943 10% of those boys would come down

the mines yeah and that was done

effectively on a random ballot right 40%

of those called into the mines appealed

against their fate but their cries fell

on deaf ears 500 men were prosecuted for

refusing to work and many paid a high

price for their

descent there were many who rather than

coming underground actually went to jail

instead yeah which you know what what

sort of choice is that so we' now

drilled the hole next thing we're going

to do is charge it yeah so this is

electric charge yeah absolutely we're

using electric detonators here okay so

first thing we do is put the charge into

the hole on got the uh charge itself in

we then need to put the stemming in the

stemming is a piece of clay which holds

the charge in the hole directing the

blast into the coal face next job is to

connect up the firing

wires when we're satisfied that

everything's okay when we've tested our

circuit we then fire our

charge back at the forge Peter and Colin

have made the furnace for burning the

coal this will produce coal gas to power

the engine of their 1930s

ambulance the next stage is to make the

gas cooler a long pipe which will

transport the coal gas between the

furnace and the

filter right so col we we've got to bend

this pipe yeah yeah and to do this we're

we're going to fill it with sand are we

yeah because it's a hollow tube and once

we heat it up this gets very soft and if

we bend it it'll just Kink and what we

want is the gas to be able to flow

evenly through the pipe work so we have

to fill it with something which is

flexible but can take the heat in the

fire and that is kill dried sand using

sand to bend pipe work is a very

traditional technique dating back

hundreds of

years this is the the former that we've

made to bend the pipe to give us a

sweeping curve from the top of the

Furnace down into the

filter right

okay in order to be flexible enough to

bend the pipe must be heated to 800°

C that's okay keep going keep going keep

going okay

well look at that good bend yeah

cool the pipe will be shaped into a

concertina increasing the distance the

gas has to travel as it passes through

the gas cools becoming denser and more

combustible

right job done yeah yeah well done right

okay just work it way

back oh politicians can only dream of a

you like

that unlike farming where the women's

land Army and conscientious objectors

could provide help the mines relied

solely on Bevin boys for extra

labor part of the reason that mining was

such an unpopular occupation was the

danger

involved around a quarter of all wartime

miners would suffer a serious injury

during their time

Underground blasting the coal face was a

particularly hazardous

task now what do we do this is the

Exploder yeah

so first job yeah is to connect up the

firing wires but like a car battery then

exactly yeah exactly okay the firing

handle's in yeah and what you're waiting

for is that light to come on there yeah

which tells us that we've got enough

charge in there to fire okay so give

that a

wind there we go so building up the

charge yeah building up Char okay you

got you got enough charge there Y and

then when you're ready you just press

the fire button and that's that one

there so I can press that now

y once the coal was blasted from the

face the Bevin boys had the hard task of

clearing it

away so being an experienced Miner would

be up to you Rick to set the charges but

the Bon boys would be the ones charged

with actually taking all the coal away

from the face and out of the mind yeah

and they' be doing sort of the less

skilled work of pulling sort of the coal

down from the face and also then

tramming it up to surface so dangerous

work but you it wasn't technically

difficult no no and not glamorous

either unlike military conscripts there

was no letup for the Bevin boys even

after the war ended in

1945 Britain still needed coal and the

Bevin boys were not demobilized for

another 3

years so a kind of big thank you if you

like is long overdue for all of those

men that were forced to come down here

in M absolutely I mean so of you know

the 20,000 bevon boys you know you know

many of whom are dead now most of whom

are dead yeah and a huge thank you from

the

nation all

right who you made this very heavy Peter

and Colin are at last ready to assemble

their coal powerered

[Music]

creation one of the things that this

sort of characterizes is the fact that a

lot of the sort of blacksmiths and

Engineers had gone away to war and it

was the farm hands who were having to

turn their hand to sort of engineering

and improvisation using whatever lay

around the farm and the the problems

that we've encountered and the uh the

the sheer effort involved in in making

this work is exactly what would have

happened during the

[Music]

1940s as Colin welds the pieces together

Peter has one more job to do before they

can test the

[Music]

engine right we need to fill up our

filter this is going to take all the

particles coming through which is

essentially just smoke it's going to

filter those out so we're all left with

it's gas now just got some Heather so

we're just going to start putting this

in essentially the leaves and the

flowers are highly absorbent and also

the the particles will stick to the the

the very large surface area I haven't I

haven't pushed it down too much no

that's fine it's just sort of just

lightly packed yeah here we go lid on

it's been absolutely natur 3-day

Marathon Al three you look like you just

done a 3-day Marathon here's your coal

now

this I can barely recognize you in there

filthy as usual this looks absolutely

amazing what this is this is Collin's

Collin's Vision come to

life with the coal in the hopper a fire

is lit in the furnace to start producing

gas Ruth has arrived to give the

ambulance its first test test drive are

you going to talk me through this

right okay okay I'm in and there's a

starter button

underneath right we'll put the choke

on

[Laughter]

nearly you just want partly on my

grandfather drove Lor's right throughout

the War I wonder if he had this s b get

it's amazing though how many women did

do the driving during the war one of the

easiest groups to train up were young

women so for a brief period in the early

history of Motoring wartime motoring was

surprisingly

feminine perhaps the most famous wartime

ambulance driver was the future Queen

herself taking a driving course at a

training center is Prin princess

Elizabeth second suton

ATS after watching other girls at work

the king returned and jokingly asked the

princess haven't you got it mended

yet with everything finally in place now

for the Moment of

Truth

y 3 days and a lot of hard work have

paid off the coal powerered ambulance

works now all that's left is to take it

for a

spin this is this is looking promising

yeah she's so heavy that that fan as

well she tell them that we have added a

lot of weight haven't

we well I have to say Peter this this is

an absolute thrill it's not the fastest

it's not the fastest ride in Wartime

Britain but it's certainly one of the

most exciting you have to hold the door

shut while you're

driving this is a vehicle that we can

use around the farm for pretty much

[Music]

anything Vehicles like this were a fuel

saving

godsend fella moving

livestock could be right the back there

Peter with him

he's off to a nice flock of user lucky

[Music]

boy carting animal feed the ambulance

can do us the good service of running

them around for

[Music]

us and even cooking

dinner come on Ruth let's get some food

no heat must be

wasted I love it camp cooking in a whole

new way of doing it camp cooking two

three

whoa pan

fantastic how many curls can you cook

your dinner on right one tin of

spam couple of eggs and a bit of bread

Alex yep dinging

wow oh joy of

Joys oh slice another one into the pan

Ro no I hate spam as a kid but that is

absolutely delicious I must have been

[Music]

mad after months of being fattened on

scraps shorty has reached the size a

wartime Pig would have been at Slaughter

so this is it then shorty Time to Say

Goodbye remember the local constabulary

here to make sure we do it all above

board fair play yeah because meat was so

valuable during the war a license was

required to slaughter

pigs every time the pig Club slaughtered

a pig you were supposed to have a police

officer present to ensure that it was

all done properly and above board the

license yes as a part of the license so

that we can't be sneaking off any extras

well we confiscated it if you

did I think she's done really well

considering what she's been eating she's

not bad shape is she she's looking quite

good isn't she yeah she's really put on

weight come on then let's get you going

come on girl

you on in

girl half of every Pig slaughtered from

a pig Club was taken by the government

to be distributed as part of the war

effort while much of this went into the

rationing system some also went to

provide emergency relief for the victims

of Air

Raids Southampton just 6 mil from the

farm was a strategic Target for German

bombers throughout the war

those who survived were often left

homeless so the ministry of food set up

emergency feeding centers often using

meat from sources like Pig clubs to feed

the

victims Ruth has come to lend a hand at

her local

Center the prices were cheap and were

kept capped in order to ensure that this

food really was available to everyone so

for example a St like soup would be 2 p

and a main course with meat potatoes and

two veg you're talking about 8 p and

that really was dirt cheap for

food as with all restaurants during the

war you didn't need a ration book to eat

at the

centers here I've got the stock of a

local emergency feeding station and it

is really quite Grim reading they had 13

cases of baked beans with 24 cans in

each casee they had beef hash biscuit

cocoa tea and sugar condensed milk meat

roll rice pudding and soup and that was

it for several weeks the carves have

been fed on a diet of artificial milk

and

oats but with imported feeds strictly

rationed Farmers often used fodder crops

such as swed to supplement their diets

to save petrol the boys are resorting to

Old technology to prepare the

[Music]

feed this is our horse gin or our horse

engine and like many a wartime farmer I

haven't used one of these for a long

time a Jin is a geared mechanism which

is turned by a horse transferring power

through a series of shafts to any

machine a farmer

chooses all the Machinery have been

driven by one of these during the

Victorian period but they were phased

out and they were replaced by liser

engines but obviously they run on petrol

and during the war there was a fuel

shortage so kit like this was being dug

out put back together to see if it

worked and if it did it could drive

machines like this and this is just a a

beat slicer and it's going to slice up

our Our Roots and hopefully we can wean

our cattle onto solid foods while Peter

fixes the Gin Alex is attacking up the

horse Okay

Ben it's always the hardest bit of

getting a horse tacked up is throwing

all of this stuff over his

backside by the time you get to 1942

well the numbers of tractors have more

than doubled and I'm sure many old boy

Farmers as well would have found

themselves in this situation must have

been lovely for them I think to have

brought old faithful animals back into

service and to have seen them working

once again for British

agriculture this belly band

on personally I relish the opportunity

to get a heavy horse in on the farm

because you know they really are a

fantastic form of

power okay with his Bridal on now he's

ready to go Peter has finished

assembling the

Gin I think we're ready to get the horse

on this and slice up Roots waa how you

doing P we're looking good Alex it's all

there it's all connected okay you're

happy with it as happy as I'll ever be

jolly good the horse is hooked up to the

main drive shaft which will turn the

gears well here we go let's see how it

gets on walk on walk

on and this is the tricky bit for the

first time we're going to walk over this

SP come on walk on walk on steady steady

good lads good

lads okay Alex I'm going to start

introducing some Roots

[Music]

okay the use of fodder crops Rose by a

third during the

war he

[Music]

[Applause]

slicing he's doing really well really

pleased with him this is the tricky bit

and step

up and there we go easy and it just goes

to show that horses could still do a job

on wartime Farms good

lad and step

up emergency feeding centers employed

volunteers to make and serve the food

especially in rural

areas Jill digs has volunteered to help

Ruth with the cooking but their

ingredients are

limited so the menu today is boiled

onions with white sauce and Jill's

making white sauce aren't you I can see

it looks very exciting uh mostly corn

flour um pork roll made with the pork

and the beans and the bread to Pat it

out and then the pudding plumbed off and

custard the meat itself was supplied by

the government for such feeding centers

off ration um but where it originally

came from is that of course all that

pork that is being collected from the

pig clubs up and down the

country you having fun with that white

sauce well it would be much more fun

with a nice doll of marine is and proper

flare it's

thickening the next stage is to mix the

pork beans and breadcrumbs

together I think it's quite interesting

that the cheap food of wartime was in

many ways exactly the polar opposite of

modern cheap food modern fast food this

is food almost entirely without fat and

without sugar and that pretty much is

exactly what the modern fast food is

not the mixture is wrapped in flowed

cloth ready for boiling I mean the

advantage of boiling everything and and

an awful lot of food in these British

restaurants was boiled is that you can

do Mass catering very easily another

good point is that those who are eating

it haven't seen it made that is a good

point that is it does look like

something the C don't say it don't say

it I know it

does the meat roll will be boiled for 3

hours and then coated in

breadcrumbs dessert is plum Duff which

of course is this sort of spotted

dick the plum Duff is made from flour

breadcrumbs sew raisins for sweetness

and powdered eggs

I was going to mix up the egg powder now

this was something that was new coming

in from America eggs were rationed

whether they were in powder form or

fresh form the powdered eggs are mixed

with water the equivalent of two eggs

made dessert for 12

people the war is the sort of height of

processed foods in many ways powdered

milk which we're making the sources out

of rather than fresh milk powdered egg

partly because it was a way of

concentrating nutritional value into a

very tiny space for the ships you know I

mean if you can get nutritional value

of 12 eggs into a packet that size why

would you move fresh eggs

around however lacking in meat the main

course may be however tired you're

feeling there's nothing like a stodgy

pudding and custard for cheering a

person

up Alex and Peter have finished Milling

the swed and are ready to try it on the

carves

smells good do smell too bad actually

yeah now I'm quite confident here

because um eating everything

inside don't have my bath today

no okay going on then Peter hey what's

that he's just licking it is

he no he's not listening no's yeah he's

eating it he's eating

it you you can hear him putting those

molars to work grinding down the

feed in Wartime Farmers would be looking

to balance the diet so they don't miss

out too much from not having their

mother's milk they still put on bulk

still put on the weight and will go on

and become good dairy

cows certainly in a wartime situation

you'd have no choice because you don't

have the feed and the ministry of food

is demanding all of your milk you you

just have to wean them earlier than you

would

otherwise I I haven't really considered

how much

the second world war encroached upon the

countryside I've all seen it very much

in terms of city life and the blitz but

it really was being fought in these

fields out here in

Hampshire emergency feeding centers soon

became permanent fixtures and Churchill

renamed them British

restaurants until

1942 most working people only ate at

home eating in public was regarded as

embarrassing

but after the government introduced a

price cap of 5 Shillings for three

courses for the first time Ordinary

People had the option to eat

out British restaurants would become a

lasting social phenomenon and signaled

the start of High Street dining right

you're going to be needing a lump of

bread with that sir Ruth's feeding

center is open for

business the meat roll is being served

with baked beans which were considered

to be such a staple part of the British

diet that they were off- rtion for the

duration of the

war what would you like I'm going to

have a Bo onion Ruth's father Jeff used

to eat in British restaurants as a child

he's come to the feeding Center to

sample Ruth's

efforts

get I'm having one of those onion please

oh my goodness's one of those so you're

testing out whether this really is the

real thing by the end of the war British

restaurants were serving 600,000 meals a

day British restaurants really sort of

Mark a turning point in in sort of

British eating culture too I mean this

is a time when

affordable basic catering is suddenly

available to a wide number of people

British restaurants really sort of

opened up the catering industry in many

ways oh yes yes I think that's true one

or two like like the ones I knew in

Oxford they stayed right up until about

the 50s well well into the ' 50s but

people just got used to eating out they

got used to the idea of eating out they

got and I think Caterers as well got

used to the idea that there was money to

be made out of doing cheap food well as

a kid I didn't know what the money side

of it really

was I must admit that's not as bad as I

thought it would be either the meat roll

it's actually it's quite edible it

really is quite edible but you still

like boiled onions I'm amazed you still

like they're all right actually very

nice aren't they I don't know who's

cooked them this time that was me that

was you right okay but they're they're

they're very

nice lovely Ruth's emergency feeding

Center also seems to be a hit with the

boys sorry Millie look knacked stood up

for an hour long you at it then so I

mean yeah that was that was really good

I love the me though it was all right

wasn't it delicious AB and it's I mean

it is quite healthy food the fittest

we've ever been as a nation so they say

so they say so they say but also the

things we can't relate to in terms of uh

it's so rare in our lives that we ever

see a food shortage in this country

really gives you an Insight doesn't it

it's not just a shortage of one thing

it's a shortage right across the board

of everything every single

thing Pop I think so before they R Us

into the washing up here

from the need for women to fill new

roles in the

workplace to the necessity for communal

eating the great hardships experienced

in 1942 and the way Britain sought to

overcome them would have an impact

stretching far beyond the years of

[Music]

war next time the team creat a new kind

of emergency accommodation that is

extremely comfortable get extra help on

the farm don't just pick the top now we

got the whole

PL and raise morale with a dance you

can't find a dancer dancing that's not

smiling it's just

impossible to find out how Britain fed

itself during the second world war order

the open University's free wartime Farm

booklet call 0845 36

6257 or go to

bbc.co.uk timef farm and follow the

links to the open

[Music]

University a bumpy start but gareth's

got high hopes for his workplace choir

at Manchester Airport next over on BBC 4

now his story told through the people

who knew him well Norman Wisdom

remembered whilst over on BBC One

thrilling new drama hunted is getting

underway

n

[Music]