Children's Harvest Camps | Wartime Farm EP6 | Absolute History

the great British countryside setting for one of the most pivotal battles of the Second World War Churchill called it the frontline of freedom it was fought by the farmers of Britain when war broke out the Nazis attacked British shipping attempting to cut our food imports [Music] the government would return to farmers to double homegrown food production the plow really had become a weapon of war if they failed the nation could be starved into surrender now archeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and historian Ruth Goodman are turning back the clock working man a farm in Hampshire as it would have been during the Second World War [Music] by 1943 Britain was a breaking point in the first few months of the year there were record losses at sea depleting imports more than ever although the German army had been defeated and Stalingrad ultimate victory was not yet in sight after four years of war Britain's farmers were exhausted so the team resort to new sources of labour scavenge crops from every scrap of wasteland and find innovative ways to clothe themselves as resources are stretched to the limit on the wartime farm [Music] 19:43 saw imports of food slump to the lowest level of the war and the government feared a crisis [Music] victory in El Alamein created access to supplies of petrol to help the continuing offensive but with more ships given over to military use there were fewer to bring food to Britain at home the government demanded that an extra 1 million tons of cereals be produced but arable land was becoming tired from years of consecutive use there's a large excess of straw on the farm a byproduct of all their cereal crops being grown roots using this to make a fertilizer of course if we had a surplus of barley straw which you'd use that for animal feed but wait straw really isn't much use so all this spare straw I'm just adding to the dung heap to help it rot down if I didn't have any done at all it wouldn't rot and we'd have to add ammonia or lime or something like that to sort of speed it up with a little bit of dung mix it all together eventually you get something spreadable on the fields and with harvest approaching I think we perhaps paying a little bit more attention to the doughnut than we were before we know that as soon as that crop is in we've got to get this lot back out on the fields to fertilize and to start that cycle of production all over again Alexson peta have also found a use for the spare straw the harvest is on the horizon but malla farm has a significant rodent problem before the war rats cost British farmers an estimated 25 million pounds a year in damage eating crops and destroying buildings and so the boys are determined to stamp them out before the precious wheat is brought in they're going to need a little help now we've got a rat catcher in residence she's coming down for a week or so serving our farms and all the other farms in the area so we have very chivalrously Peter haven't we decided to give up our room we have billeting was at an all-time high with land girl numbers reaching a peak of almost 90,000 so farmers needed to create accommodation wherever and with whatever they could one of the things we put a surplus of on the farm at the moment is straw so all of this stuff is just knocking around the farm we're going to use to build ourselves a little straw bale house to sleep in for the next week or so then you keep counting the bales Henry all right so I think your door here just running down to the path yeah do i yep straw buildings were not uncommon during the war we're also used to house tools or even livestock by old straw is absolutely superb for using there's a construction material because you've got really good sturdy blocks here you know he's all locking in beautifully and it's main benefit really is that it's just so fantastic insulation you know there's no doubt about it this is gonna keep the wind and the way out of this sheltered area it's gonna pop them into here [Music] he's big enough I think it's gonna be absolutely fine Peter it's slightly long enough now yeah get down there plenty of room there oh oh we're missing something Peter I can see the sky Alex well if we put a roof on it which we have to a couple of beds picture king fits our table hold on from the home by 1943 there was a real concern that stamina was running out Britain's farmers had already been asked to give everything and now they were being asked to give even walk people had endured four years of war they had watched everything get worse and worse and harder and harder rationing had started out reasonably okay and got tighter and tighter clothes rationing food rationing petrol rationing everything rationing and while the early days of the war there was perhaps a sense of adrenaline with the Blitz and so forth by 1943 people had been slogging for so long I think for many people there was such as an exhaustion a weariness oh oh god will it ever be over so we we've got our walls up but there's been a slight change of plan we were halfway through the roof when we thought actually we're doing ourselves a disservice if we don't include as an extra architectural feature a window which I've managed to salvage that looks really good so a proper look for the cosmetics that's good it looks made-to-measure excellent right let's get this roof on well Peter builds the roofs wooden frame Alex turns his mind to the best material for wartime thatching I'm just hand pulling nettles here because it's gonna be one of the plants that we use for our thatch perfect time of year to pull them as well because they've got all their energy in the plants and the plants very strong and the root is weak so when you give it a tug what happens just comes away at the root every time he throw that up Alex oh I get a constant share of mud coming down on me the thing with nettles is they can sting but if you get stuck into them show him who's boss tend not to hurt as much now I'm using what's called a GAD to secure the thatch to the roof a GAD is a thin strip of wood the nettles rest on the battens of the roof and the guard lies on top of them pinning them into place you know in the early 20th century there were still Thatcher's who were very much using this style of thatch so it wouldn't be entirely alien to Second World War farmers turning into a sort of semi-permanent building isn't it it's yet this thing could last a very very long time with the house complete the boys can move in is very very cozy attics Henry [Music] that is extremely comfortable it's summer on the farm and there's an important job for the boys making hay the team have dairy cows to feed imports of cattle feed will load but milk production remained a priority the government's soy is vital for the nation's health and at least 1.3 billion gallons were required in 1943 before the war the cows would have been fed through the winter on hay but Britain's acreage of meadowland would be hugely reduced I suppose all the pasture and it's been turned over to arable but still grass around I mean this is a prime example a churchyard well this is a great hay crop isn't it in desperation farmers had begun turning to every spare scrap of land to find grass to make hay from verges to orchards and now church arts it's a tricky piece of land it's not flat there's gravestones everywhere ya gonna have to think of some way of taking it down only that's just where there hasn't been outside recently I know it's not I mean to be honest this is just still a bit too wet to cut now so we're gonna have to leave this to a couple of days and just hope we get some some Sun and some wind yep and then come back but Henry's upset about something let's go and find out what it's probably the pigeons and the rats while the team wait to bring in the hey Alex wants to deal with manna Farms rodent problem with the wheat harvest only a few months away this is a major threat to their essential crop during the war it was estimated that rat damage to foodstuffs cost Britain 60 million pounds a year more than twice pre-war levels destroying over 2 million tons of food this represented hundreds of cargo ships worth of imports was a huge blow to the war effort [Music] and so members of the women's Land Army were trained as specialists rat catchers by County committees and moved from farm to farm and coordinated assaults professional pest control agent Angela Chettle has arrived on the farm to help Alex tackle the rat problem oh we have got a bit of an infestation here wrong way look at this I mean if you have a rummage you don't need to look far do you oh look there's definite rap dropping common rat yeah definitely and obviously you've got a food source as well yeah supply and everything they need right okay shelter food everything water so what we've got to do here then Angelo's we've got to turn this into an anti rat so well first of all look where the obviously access him which is here they've nord in here yep rats half the noir because their teeth they never stop growing it's not cuz they like to know they have to right yeah just keep going cause some it's damage to buildings angela has spotted yet more evidence of the problem look out doc is here look see so this is this is their feet then just running up and down these Bulls and the bellies is touching all on it look you see how it's couldn't call it smearing that's what we call it the smearing is worsened by the fact that rats urinate continuously on their surroundings but that is telling us where the rats are coming from exactly Alex and Angela are going to lay some bait boxes probably get one of the tubes underneath the shed yep the bait box consists of a tube which the rat can crawl down and a glass jar full of food at the end so what we're doing here then is we're pre-baiting we're getting the rats familiar with this place as a feeding place yes and then we sweep in replace all of the food with poison and we'd get them in a good clean here definitely it's gonna take a while because rats you near phobic they don't like new objects at all one pair of rats can produce almost 900 offspring a year capable of consuming 9 tons of wheat well now we need some big bricks to weight down because we've got the chickens I don't we're roaming around the yard here well that's superb so they're the kind of baiting stations that I need to be setting up now once they are taking the grain oats acacia then filling it up with poison death excellent Alexson Peter need to take advantage of the clear weather to get going with the crucial task of making hay peter has found an alan site the mechanical scythe specifically designed to tackle unusual terrain its motto wherever a man can walk an Alan Pincott invented in the 1930s a new model appeared in 1943 and farmers could lease them from the Ministry of Agriculture the main thing Peter is not to hit any of the headstones good luck [Applause] [Music] the Ellen side cuts the grass using a large tooth cutting blade which slides back and forth against the knife bed to give a scissor like action this is the box basically this thing is in charge it calls to forward cutting to get a successful hay crop requires dry conditions so keeping an eye on the weather was essential but this posed a problem for wartime farmers the government banned weather forecasts for fear they could provide critical information to enemy bombers for five years the British public were not officially informed if it was going to rain or shine we're gonna have to use the old haymakers art of rushing out here and we see the storm clouds looming and cocking the hay up we're gonna be fighting our own mini battle here in the churchyard but I have to say if we do get this pay in and provide an extra bit of nutrition to some of the livestock on the farm [Music] [Music] it's summer on the farm and the team's preparation for the harvest months are going well this was especially important in the crisis year of 1943 but increasing productivity was vital and the rat problem is being tackled oh we're definitely taken that looks almost all gone time for sent for isn't then I did wonder where that basket the dairy cows are helping Ruth's dung heap to grow [Music] Alex and Peter are weeding the wheat field this will let a little bit more light in at this critical period of growth and that light obviously is going to do the wheat a lot of favors but the jobs are mounting up and it's clear they could use some help in 1942 there was a huge shortage of manpower on farms and by 1943 the minister of agriculture anticipated that an extra 20,000 workers would be needed if Britain was to feed itself how many children have we got twenty thirty something like that the Ministry of Labour proposed that children be released from school to help farmers of the most critical times of the year these children would form harvest camps living in tents and working on the land by day the team have applied for a camp to come and assist on the farm it's one thing isn't it to work outdoors all day if you know you're going home to a nice hot buff at the end of it yeah but to have to do that and be living under canvas it's a whole new whole different thing some people might call it character building when you read like kids accounts of what it was like no there was obviously sort of two sorts of farmers locally those who supported the kids in the harvest camps and those are didn't right and what type of farmers do you think we are then Peter I think the fact that we're stood here in the rain erecting tents for these children rather and making them do themselves we're the type they're gonna look after give them a good time I'm hope you get the best out there normally recruits were required to be over 14 but in special circumstances younger children could also take part [Music] Oh almost 70,000 children worked in harvest camps in 1943 without them producing food to feed the nation it would have been almost impossible how did we go looks about 2000 you come from harvest camp one of the jobs the harvest camps were involved in was new to farmers and collecting herbs for the pharmaceutical industry at the start of the war 90% of medicines were derived from plants mainly sourced abroad with imports cut off him and drugs urgently needed pharmaceutical companies turn to phone grown herbs plant in conjunction with Kew Gardens the government drew up a list of essential plants needed for drug production and paid the British public to collect them this was an ideal job for children medical herbalist Linda Harold has come to lend her expertise so this was like a commercial thing we're not talking about herbalism nope we're talking about mainstream medicine yeah pharmaceutical companies using these things as their raw materials and producing synthesized drugs from them that is it so when you see pictures of people in the war time with the aspirin the little white pill which was the main painkiller as a day it's not synthesized that you know collecting vast quantities of meadowsweet and white willow bark to make aspirin absolutely today the children are looking for goose grass you've got grass cleavers that was used very much for treating infections it's very good it treats the works on the lymphatic system and obviously at that time there was you know lots more you know people real lots more infections but that's really really brilliant yeah and you've got loads of it I'm really pleased to see loads and loads it was so important during this time they picked so many herbs they really it was incredible what they actually achieved by 1944 the children of Britain were collecting up to 4,000 tons of plants a year the hay has been drying in the churchyard the pizza is also making use of the harvest camp children to help him gather it up now watch what's your point we've had a really good spell of weather but I feel that the rains coming on and we've got to get this hay because otherwise it will ruin it'll go black in the ground so the idea is to build up into piles in the figure the piles as possible with a very small surface area it just means that when the rain comes it will basically run off and it will affect very very little hay we've roped in a bit of help and well it's mayhem to avoid exploitation the Ministry of Agriculture introduced a minimum wage of six pence an hour for Under 16's we've got nine kids here they're all very very enthusiastic they've all been armed with a pitchfork each pitchfork has at least two spikes all kids have at the moment at least two eyes and catering for the children was often done by the farmer's wife today Ruth is doing the cooking government advice was quite determined that despite the difficult conditions despite the shortness of rations that the children should be well fed that they should be getting a nutritious balanced diets but doing that or next nothing is not easy the sorts of rations that were available to those out in attempt feeding children day in day out to hot meals and packed lunches were very thin local people were encouraged to donate supplies of foods such as fruit vegetables and rabbits to the camps but these were far from abundant [Music] the government issued a number of leaflets an attempt to help people who had to do this it was all sorts of advice from from how to set up your field kitchen to how to store the food outdoors in these sorts of conditions through to recipes and menu planning they even advised how thick to slice the bread for the sandwiches so this recipe is a salmon loaf and this comes from one of government leaflets carried meal snacks and sandwiches the amounts here are either a small recipe for four or scaled up for a hundred people at a time Ruth has made a white sauce which she adds to the mashed potatoes before stirring in some tinned salmon fresh fish was in real short supply during the war I mean if you think about it pretty much everybody had made their livings on the sea before the war got called up one way or another either into the Merchant Navy or into the Royal Navy in a large number case and huge amounts of British waters were out of bounds to those few fishermen who were left so tinned salmon coming in from Canada was one of the very few forms of fish available to most people in wartime Britain tinned salmon was so popular in Britain that we became the biggest market for both US and Canadian exports Christ all mixed in now this gets steamed this just sits on top of that and stews or boils whichever you want to call it in a sort of bam Marie for an hour and a half with all the challenges faced in 1943 help provided by child labor was vital to farmers [Applause] how's the door stepping off children often worked an eight-hour day so dinner was well-earned right - then take yourselves a sandwich we'll come and get you some hot chocolate make sure hungry don't be all this hard work out in the cold [Music] sandwich so what we like you like them nice and filling aren't they keep you going herbs were not the only medicinal product to be found on farms honey could be used to dress wounds due to its antiseptic properties and helped reduce scarring it's still used in medicine today but it was also an excellent sugar substitute by 1943 the rationing system was really starting to bite and open morale was suffering people were having to do without all of the foodstuffs they really enjoyed before the war the top of that list was sugar said it to boost morale here on our wartime farms I'm gonna see if I can't get myself a few jars of honey by the end of the summer alex is looking for a special type of bramble which grows up through bushes creating a long stem I've got a very old-fashioned way of making honey and this brand log was gonna help me in that process alex is also making use of the surplus straw on the farm to create a skip a traditional basket beehive to stitch it together he'll be using the bramble it needs to be carefully split open and the insides removed to form a strip which is both flexible and strong the bramble stem is threaded through the holes in a wooden ring to create a cage for the straw to sit in okay so the idea is is that it's going to thread in here and there we go that's the start we're getting to the end of the wooden wheel so we're gonna have to start now stitching into the straw and into the previous bind a hollowed-out man sharpened turkey bone who helps thread the cane through the straw he will keep adding layers until the basket is complete [Music] Ruth is processing the herbs she picked with the harvest camp pharmaceutical companies would pay good money for the herbs handy supplement to the farms income but only if the plants were properly dried and packaged to preserve their active ingredients up to 80% of the herbs weight is lost ear and dry that's how much water you need to drive off and of course to do that effectively the air needs to get all the way around the herbs you don't want anywhere where you know things against each other and moisture can get trapped because if you do Russell set in and that includes turning things regularly another day or two and they'll be ready to be packed up the ideal temperature for drying herbs is around 35 degrees Celsius on a damp day like today then this comes into play the stove which is just turning out a little gentle here don't too much I don't want to cook anything in here just want you to maintain warm air flow through the whole space this sheds beautifully ventilated so the air in here which can get us all this moisture comes off the herbs the damp is driven up by the heat and can make its way out so the first things I do when I get them back is to sort of go through the herbs and pick them clean because the Tama surgical companies will only buy top-quality this is sage of course pharmaceutical companies would only pay five pence a pound for dried sage I've got a lot of it so it's worth my doing foxglove however that was much more lucrative all the seed that I'm drying out now that retails for seven and six a pound hurts a heck of a lot more than five pence and even the leaves were one shilling and thruppence foxglove was so valuable because of its ability to lower blood pressure but it must be handled with care as it's extremely poisonous and when I finished here the last job I will have to do as I leave the shed will be to block up all the windows to keep the light out because sunlight UV light helps to decay the essential ingredients in the plants so they don't normally need it warm I also need it dark Alex's skip is complete during the war a colony of honeybees could be purchased for around 3 pounds but beekeeping expert Mike Holloway has brought one along for free hello Mike hello Alex I apologize for my lack of mobility I'll turn my ankle over oh dear oh but thanks ever so much for coming down great to see you Andrew now first things first obviously is to skip inspection so tell me what you think of that you can be honest I don't mind oh I think you've done a proper job there Alex unlike with a wooden hive containing removable frames Alex won't be able to inspect the bees progress but as it's made from surplus materials the skip is a good cheap and disposable wartime alternative now the other thing I've made as well as a sort of top compartment because my understanding of this is that we can get the current Queen and the brood in here and her young in here but we can deprive her access to this top area and do what the workers can still get in there and produce comb and honey what we all have to do is put a grill across there which is which space is in large enough for workers to get through yep too small for the Queen to go through great ok mike has already prepared a straw and nettle shelter for the scab talk me through the process now you've brought a colony here it was a swarm that we picked up yesterday yep and I've actually got the Queen we've got her in ER oh boy a little cage here she's in there then indeed she is old school haircut is that one of your hair curlers like I wish well we just put this on to make sure we don't get any little yep roundly you don't want to sting to the face and we'll make sure the Queen goes into your scape yeah all the other bees will follow Mike's swarm contains around 10,000 bees he introduces a few into Alex's skip before placing it in the shelter put that down for a moment you don't want them all coming out the top dewy so I'll put this on it's all done that should keep them interested in there so just shake those out onto that when bees are swarming their honey stomachs are full making it difficult for them to sting in the hands of experts they're safe to work with which is why Alex and Mike aren't wearing gloves bees naturally tend to crawl upwards so the sheet is placed at a gradient now we're hoping that they find that entrance yeah the Queen is released near the edge of the scab proper right there she goes and the bees will follow her scent inside it's almost as if someone's put a call out and they're all of a sudden they are racing up that sheet to get into that skit that's amazing like isn't it fascinating wonderful to watch it's like water running uphill wasn't it it's to notice there are some bees that have got their tails in the air like that one there yeah yeah all around the periphery of the slope they are actually Fanning an attractant fair amount right which is bringing down these these that are flying to go into the SCAP and join the Queen it is a happy sound doesn't it that you can hear these bee this is a happy sound yes yes indeed in May 1943 the British people received a much-needed morale boost RAF squadron number six one seven better known as the Dambusters had destroyed two major German dams and there was a surge of public interest in RAF bombers in desperate need of funds the government seized on this enthusiasm by launching the wings for victory fundraising scheme a scheme encourage people to do yet more for the war effort by saving money in government bonds it's quite a difficult moment isn't it hmm you know this sort of been on the defensive for so long been seeing ourselves as the victims here and then suddenly we we get in a point where no no we're gonna become the aggressors and at the end of the day the Germans have been pouring bobs on British cities but how did British people feel about then doing the very same to two German women and children it's always this dynamic what any form of aggression isn't it the winds for victory scheme relied on local fundraising drives well I obviously don't think we should set about raising funds to buy bonds to bomb people but I do think we should have some kind of party to reflect some of these fundraising activities the team are organizing a wings for victory fundraising dance even with a war on women still wanted to look good and Ruth is after a new dress at the outbreak of war Britain was one of the leading textile manufacturers in the world but it relied on raw materials from abroad and these soon became scarce clothes rationing started in 1941 and the Board of Trade introduced a scheme of utility fashion where the government regulated the cloth price quality and even style of the clothes being produced many women started creating their own clothes when Ruth wants to make a new dress and she's found a novel source of fabric we've all heard of parishes they'll dress it well that's not the only source of fabric that people turn to this is quite an ingenious one look I got a flower sack they have to be made of cloth one way or another the manufacturers had cottoned on that if they made it in an attractive sort of material people would live their brand rather than somebody else's brand so you get this sort of thing it's amazing isn't it this is a flower sack so the whole of this room advertised nice stuff here can just peel straight off I think it's only held on with flour and water paste there's a little bit here it says to remove paper band soaked in water they knew that's what people were going to do so this is my cunning plan from this on a dress couple flour sacks [Music] Alexes bees will take some weeks to start producing honey he wants to prepare some as a thank you to the children from the harvest camp so mike has lent him a comb from one of his hives these cells on this frame are used by the worker bees to store surplus honey and what they do is they then cap it over with wax so they can come back to it and feed throughout the winter to extract the honey the comb is scraped out of the frame and I think those little kids and our dance are just gonna be so grateful for this stuff they're gonna love it the next step is to pound the comb breaking down the wax and honey work out this well I think that is now pounded enough certainly a lot finer grain than this stuff here so that is now ready to go into the muslin sheet so I just lay the sheet over this bowl now the theory is that the honey is that much finer grained than the wax so it will pull through the weave of this muslin sheet and already actually you can see we've got some coming through during the war the price of honey was regulated and it could only be sold for around two shillings and sixpence per pound about four pounds in today's money I think we've got the right temperature in the room to do this of course I'd love to have been sat outside doing this capturing the last few rays of sunshine but I would have had every bee in the county breathing down my neck not only is our house bomb-proof it's also be proof as the war progressed and the pressure on imports became even greater clothes rationing in every title in 1941 a year's worth of coupons would have purchased a whole new outfit by 1943 the clothing allowance had almost halved as a way of getting round the shortages women formed communal sewing pools Ruth's enlisted the help of gene haynes who turned her flour sack into a new dress for the fundraising dance oh that's not bad is it that's quite a reasonable skirt with but we hadn't got enough fabric to cut the skirt in all one piece so we've had to do a bit of a symmetrical lines on it and we've got it into making a virtue of a necessity really yeah there isn't enough material to go you know cutting away as we want to do so we really have to cut tight minimizing fabric waste was of vital importance and there were strict government rules dictating the number of pockets scenes and even buttons garments could have bosses fashion was really dictated by this need for clever cutting event using the minimum of fabric it was all very very cleverly put together there were darts there were gathered collars were detachable because you could have one blouse three collars three outfits sewing pools increased in popularity throughout the war they not only provided the equipment for dress making but also some much-needed expertise the youngsters and particularly the young Tony's coming out into the countryside they just hadn't picked up those skills in quite the same way so it was a way of sort of learning as well as sharing equipments right and making dudes what you could get while Ruth prepares for the fundraising dance Peter has urgent work to do with the hey it's been drying in the church art and now he must bring it in before the rain comes [Music] is going to take advantage of a baling machine something that increased in use during the war thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture's scheme of lending equipment and experienced operators to pharmacy mr. Mane's how you about but we've brought you some hay and you've put a bailar yeah so this is sort of failure that would have gone round different firms on contract what from the Warwick all right here farmer Maurice Evans still uses his Massey Harris 701 baler today it was one of the first machines that could be moved around a field collecting haze it went as well as being used as a static baler so these spikes here picking up the hay taking in here and it's going up into the order can't even get the lid open oh wow okay right I wasn't expecting that so the haze coming up into here the Archimedes screw the auger is pushing it this way and into that hay box I obviously the the bale comes out there I tell you yeah then Nettie pushes it down into the chamber sorry what is this this is an otter and not sir yeah it's like something out of a science fiction yeah I mean this is really is farming being dragged into the modern world yeah I mean a farmer during the Second World War you know previously there was Rick's where they used to put it in Rex yeah and then it got to the stage where they can sell to hey but they had to correct loosen and be all up the roads and everything else so they need you so neat and they'd hire a bailer and take a loose hay out the wreck yeah and bail it up and then put on trailer in the Visia this might look like a lot of hay but it isn't not after this machine's finish with it it's going to reduce this down to maybe six bales tops so it just emphasizes how much easier it must have made it to someone farming during that period in the war to be able to transport the how to be able to gauge exactly how much they had and of course to be able to sell any surplus this is looking pretty good fact that it's hay bale that's a really good hay bale actually that's one of the best tables I've ever seen my hay bale hay I've cut in the churchyard and failed up that it's awesome beauty products were abundant in Britain during the 1930s but the outbreak of war meant many of the raw ingredients were no longer available though makeup wasn't rationed cosmetics companies were only making a quarter of pre-war amounts but for women it was important to still look their best with a dress finished and hair washed Ruth and her daughter Eve have called upon the services of historic makeup specialists Sharon and Gloria to help them get ready for the wings for victory dance having a bit of a look in all the women's magazines and there's enormous number of articles about hair and makeup aren't their beauty tightens the belt it's our patriotic duty to cut down a bit on cosmetics but you can still stay lovely but it is a huge issue of morale now when we're coming to wartime that's still trying to look good and look your best yeah is a sense of actually being defiant you know you would be letting the side down if you let yourself go a little bit further in their vain Gloria in the absence of factory made products women employed homemade methods to enhance their looks including using sugar water to set their hair some ladies whose beer but when we spoke to our great aren't about it she said if there was any beer around we would have drunken beauty was seen as such a morale booster that the Minister of Labour made skilled hairdressers exempt from conscription almost all hairstyles in the forties required the hair to be curled taking inspiration from the Hollywood movie stars of the day so the finger wave technique is to use your comb and fingers to push the hair into flat s-shaped waves and when the hair has dried it does create a beautiful wave Ruth's hair style requires flat pin curls at the front which will add definition and larger barrel curls at the back for volume you're really weird like this yes in the making [Music] female munitions workers also had a special allowance of high-end makeup to wear in the factories raising their spirits as they laboured in often grimy conditions for a period that was very austere it's still very glamorous so a creme Rouge just to give a bit of a flush you get and then starting to use mascara x' they came in a little block there and a brush and you'd mix it with water or a bit of spit and brush it on and this was something which started off as a little pack of product for men to use on their beards and mustaches so from from men's vanity came a product which women could use [Music] isn't that fantastic wait do you get the lippy Oh hey bailing is going well but to maximize efficiency it's vital that Peter gets it finished while he still has access to the baler well when I said that we get six bales out of this load I don't actually think we get 6 bales but we have they probably get three times this amount on the trailer so that means you can use less fuel in your tractor it's just so beneficial having these bales but we've got hay all over this farm we need to get it in we need to get it bailed so I'm gonna get another load it's kind of take me into evening so I don't think I'm going to make this dance life America had entered the war in December 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbor from 1942 US troops poured into Britain including more than a hundred and thirty thousand African American servicemen they brought with them a new phenomenon the jive [Music] occasions like this provided an escape from the forgery of everyday life as well as raising money for the government swings for victory national saviors [Music] whoa gently scrub huh the new dress turn out well duh sorry big hard-working farm girl [Music] great target Americans are in turn [Music] [Music] [Applause] Joseph Sewell is an expert in German swing dancing to exer stance you you can't you don't you can't find a dancer dancing that's not smiling Vibram officially called the dance that we're doing is called Lindy Hop african-american dance when you had the black GIS come across and brought the real deal or anything that's when it really started impacting village walls up and down the country I guess the white dance would have probably been some a little bit more subdued once the gr has got out then start chucking the ladies around in a blowy with socks up but it would have made everyone feel good that was watching there is one thing here that wouldn't really have happened during the war and that's black and white G eyes being in the same dance the Americans brought with them not only their dancing but they also brought their social attitudes and their segregation that we weren't used to here yes the white guys would not tolerate being the same building as a black Geo's african-american troops frequently came over in advance of the white teams and had established themselves all of the communities when white gi's arrived tried to impose segregation British people to do it absolutely ladies get ready for the time of your life the Lindy Hop was developed by mixing established dancers like the breakaway and the Charleston becoming popular at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem this new style spread like wildfire [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] tuck into that tell me what you think the children from the harvest camp have also come along to the jive and have had some bread and honey as a farewell treat because one of the main reasons for these sorts of events in the first place was to raise money for the war effort wasn't there when national savings certificates a system whereby ordinary people instead of putting their money in the bank gave it to the government nearly four million pounds of their prices which you know when you think of what that means today it's just vast how would we have done it without the savings and we're a British people they made it possible for us to win [Music] hopefully while we're all here beetle finish bailing that high that's a must-do job yeah and the children haven't they been an enormous help you know just unload you know it's been great to have them around and I sort of feel like we've generally sort of boosted morale here on the farm yeah but of course it's all to play for in the next couple of months you know it's make-or-break season we've gotta be in a wartime harvest and it's not gonna be easy despite another year of hardship at home farmers efforts in the fields would not go unrewarded 1943 which see britain's biggest acreage of crops not just in the second world war but in the history of the country [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 164,306

Keywords: Absolute History, British WW2 history, WWII history, World War II, crop destruction, farm life during war, historical education, historical exploration, historical farming, historical farming practices, historical farming techniques, history education, rat catcher, rats in wartime, wartime Britain, wartime challenges, wartime farm, wartime history, wartime stories

Id: sFTK_jdymVg

Length: 56min 1sec (3361 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020