Dig For Victory: How Farmers Saved In WW2 | Wartime Farm | Absolute History

the great British countryside setting for one of the most pivotal battles of the Second World War [Music] attacking British shipping attention to it fell to the farmers to save the country from starvation they were tasked with doubling the amount of food grown in Britain's fields the nation could be starved into surrender [Music] historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter King are turning back the clock working man a farm in Hampshire in the Second World War not a glamorous business this reserved occupation and farming coming up the team faced the conditions of 1941 the continent of Europe have been virtually engulfed by the Nazis Britain stood isolated against Germany with no prospect of victory in sight on the nation's farmers never been so innocent and things go wrong with this machine you can do more damage than by hand milking the third year of the Warsaw government interventions snapped farmers from the bird constant surveillance kind of like the Iron Fist in the velvet Death from here on in there's no tolerance for failure under wartime far [Music] Routh's foraging for wood with fuel in short supply this was a crucial job in the early months of the year actually finding woodland out like this during the war full of dead wood would be rather a windfall nowadays nobody touches all this full and stick they have gotten use for it but here in the war everybody was desperately trying to heat their homes any way they could with coal rationed and all other fuels under Russian as well any extra little bit of stick you can gather made a huge difference even when they're finished burning they're still a really useful resource the ash that's left after it burns contains a really large concentration of potassium which makes a fantastic fertilizer so as soon as I finished burning the wood I should be collecting all the ash from underneath the pot spreading it on the garden fantastic free fertilizer right that's that fungal yeah for wartime farmers day-to-day life isn't just about their own survival the relations ability to feed itself rested on their shoulders and in 1941 suddenly creased just before the outbreak of the government had passed an emergency every aspects of farming to administer it every counting at a war Agricultural Executive Committee known as the war act they would dictate the way the land was fouled now with Britain isolated and the nation's food supply in more peril than ever the gloves came off letlet live Arif historian Brian short as studying the war axe my hello see you hello good to see you hello they come to keep an eye on us in the battle to feed Britain it was crucial to know exactly how much food was being produced so in 1941 the government launched the National farm survey the most thorough survey of British farming ever undertaken and it had a sting in the tail one of the most contentious questions of all was how good was your farming okay and this graded you as an a B or C farmer and if your grade C watch out C rated farmers could face the ultimate sanction my order of the war AG they might well come in take over part of the farm without agreement they could force it oh yeah absolutely no agreement necessary or they could actually asked the farmer to leave his farm altogether they could take over the farm else as well and the farmer farmer just didn't have a leg to stand on I mean he was there for the purposes of winning the war something like two thousand seven hundred farmers are going to be turned off their farms during this war and something like ten thousand farms are going to be affected by bits of their farms being taken over by the war eggs to avoid this fate it was crucial for farmers to impress the war AG inspector we have a field plowed or just desperate to put another crop in is there anything he said yes well one of the things that I think it'd be really good that is needed a great deal I know is flax direct during this war so that's the four textile production it's for textiles yes flax was grown for its fibres which were used to make fabric such as parachute webbing but Britain's farmers had little experience of growing it before the war flax had been imported often from Russia with these supplies cut off British farmers were expected to make up the shortfall you'd be doing the nation a real favor by putting flights in this area so if we were to grow flax we might get a little bit closer to that precious right you'd be yes you you would please the ministry why right we should show you the rest of the farm that'll be very good idea indeed it's just down the lane will they give you a cup of tea no no nope no tea please I'm above corruption okay when it came to the farmyard the war axe number one priority was milk production for a population fell on rations milk was a vital source of fat protein calcium and vitamin C it was known as nature's most complete food manna Farms dairy herd are expecting calves in a few weeks once they're born the cows will stop producing milk come and have a look after you thank you so it's only a small milking parlor but we have got milking machine very good so with our cows about to calf you'd be looking for us to get the maximum amount of milk out there their mothers yes absolutely very very important the war eggs like to portray themselves as a farmer's friend but it's kind of like the iron fist in the velvet glove it might be a nice suits but he's a hard man [Laughter] Brian will return in a few weeks to allocate the team an aid B or C grade before then they must get the milking parlor up and running and so the flags Alex wants to harness up-to-date technology to get the crop into the field so far the team have been using a food suit the most popular tractor of the war but fortunately heartis there were other machines being developed in the 40s alex has come to meet Rollie Phillips an expert in early tractors who's got hold of a knife more Alex oh yeah right and how you do know okay yes very well and look forward to seeing what the field marshal can do yes far easy to start with Phil Marshall and the Fortin stand that you love so much the shoulder doesn't hurt the field marshal was more economical to run and more powerful than some ammonia tractors best of all there was a shortcut to starting it the other way tatius start this Marshalls even a shotgun cartridge right okay show me then show me how this works so I can get I can get rid of this handle it no need I could actually slow this in the river could I be ready to happy there's no shot in the cartridge but there is black powder to cause an explosion that will start the engine I say yes there's your firing pin there's a firing pin there yeah we're not gonna use that yet okay then here we need to put a wick so the wick is very similar to blotting paper you need to vole get up and cause blotting paper doesn't burn baby faculty it just smolders right okay so this is effectively providing the ignition for the fuel yeah whilst this is providing them the mentor the push of the actual piston Dale now you see it's not burning very fast that goes into the hole at the fonts and now all you got to do now yeah do the hammer hit the firing pin okay all down to you all down to me so this is my basic this is my ignition key it correct yes okay here we go then I've got another cartridge we can use it you said they start first time it does over time but this time it does okay okay here we go thank you new tractor should make something the flax straightforward [Music] but meeting the waraxe of the requirement reduction is proving more of a challenge so this is Sarah is it yeah this is the one who's been giving us the problems Peter and stock woman debbie Underwood are keeping a close eye on the cows you look at the end of that teats can you see she's missing the bottom half of it yeah I know what we think has happened is one of the other cows have trodden on the teats and have literally just cut through the end of it which is extremely painful you can see it's not very nice at all and we've got a problem with the other teats as well the tip of it has gone black so she's got an infection in there despite the best modern medical care Sarah's injury will not heal the only option is to keep her comfortable and wait for her calf to be born obviously she's gonna have to be cold because we can't use her for milking anymore yeah but I suppose it's a fact of life than it is if you've got livestock you've got dead stuck at me it's a very true saying that one very very true yeah but a nice big baby in there somewhere hmm with the nation in desperate need of milk losing a good dairy cow would have been a disaster for any wartime farmer the teams remaining cows will now have to provide enough milk to meet the wargs expectations [Music] but their level of production will be dependent on the quality and quantity of food date should be interesting Peter I'm looking forward to seeing what's happened here what is a complete experiment isn't it feed for dairy cows was in very short supply before the war they ate imported feet and also grazed on fields but with imports cut off and fields being plowed up to grow crops through humans farmers had to find alternatives the government urged them to make silage and a few months ago Alex and Peter did just that the moments come to see if their efforts have paid off Peter and I are both very very nervous about this because we've never made silage before and in fact actually during the war many farmers had never even entertained the idea of making silage silage is a method of preserving green crops at their most nutritious a bit like pickling it's usually made with grass but wartime farmers had to be imaginative what's gonna be interesting because this isn't if traditional silage this isn't just straight cross there's no no no this is a real cocktail of Nettles grasses in a wartime situation if this hannahb worked and we'd have put all of our eggs in one basket so to speak could spell disaster for a farm that's trying to Rio de we heard to bring a dairy herd off the boys made the container a silo from scraps of metal found on the farm Alex someone during construction yeah and it may want to be me yeah has actually put that nuts facing in oh we managed to have it locked ourselves out of our own silo here look hopefully this silage will hold hopefully then my sonís can just hold the nut tighten up on the other side this doesn't bode well Peter really does it ooh it's coming we eat brilliant well done Peter okay there was plenty of information to help farmers spot silage problems early this is the test here Peter it's called silage how to make and feed it okay on the back of this we've got a foot correction table where I'm not saying we've got full yet but it says here evil-smelling silage through out now you know what an evil evil spell is give it a sniff tell me if you think it's evil no I would not I would not say that it was evil I would say that smells of grass I think it's good we'll see I mean the peon said the cow stuck into it with great relish then we'll know actually it's not it's not done so bad [Music] I've got the tools you got the power [Music] grubs up girls what is this one have it experimental silage she's interested she is this pose well let's get it in the trough oh there we go look at that Peter look at that Wonder silage there it goes you all have it all you tube to cows isn't it plenty to go around that's it Peter you get it in there that's a no nonsense bit of troughing that isn't it look at that save some room for later darling I think we could very proudly go back to the war egg and say you know we did our job we tried silage and we've made it work yep go spread the word Britain [Music] farmers hoping to impress the War Act made sure they kept up with the latest government advice a popular way of doing so was to watch government fools I think dig in yeah they've grabbed some sandwiches and one such production is showing at the village hall mobile cinemas were sent up and down the country screening films that showcased how farming was helping the fight Spring Offensive was made in 1940 by the Ministry of Information the English countryside its most important crop english countrymen now what will warm into the country 1 what will warm into the live [Music] the Ministry for information was set up one of the beginning of the war to inform people to instruct people to stress the success of the wartime food production campaign and also really to raise people's murad the main character in Spring Offensive is a member of the war AG well done 20 acres yes 20 and 5 or 6 in another field which I might be able to break up later on oscillator start some human get the government grant 64 pounds I'll give you 64 quid to mind your own business and clear off what stress the importance of cooperating with Dvorak from and the consequences have defined them but there's one that beats me that's hopeless and that is profound the only way is to take the farm over more than 2,000 films were produced under the guidance of the Ministry of Information during the war and we have it almost in his telling us like to [Music] crucial element really in a film like this is actually it's all about the mindset and keeping everyone positive and keeping him with everyone sort of moving in the same direction and in that sense though it achieved the objective ensuring that everyone's committed to the war effort where it's certainly done that for me it certainly raised my morale but at the same time it stressed to me that I've got to get out there and get the kind of yields that these people are in September 1939 you asked the countryside to provide you with a safe refuge for your children and security against famine and both these things it has given you know the countryside ask you to do something in return when peace comes don't forget the land and its people again [Music] hopefully we won't get a bad grade for our fault yeah well we've seen how it's supposed to be done [Music] back on the farm the team must get ready for the upcoming war AG inspection they have the Field Marshal tractor that lined up for sowing the flag and for milking they'll also be using a new piece of kit you know Peter okay this is what runs the milking machines yes it is Peter it's another engine I could see a crank handle yeah and it's got your name on it Peter it's a fairly simple piece of kit this what we do is we create a vacuum that runs up through a rubber pal pipe up the backs and then goes in to the milking parlor here okay and then across the top and off of that pipe you can then tap in however many milking machines you may need the demands of wartime production increased the use of milking machines before the conflict only one in five farmers were using them but the wartime shortage of manpower meant labor saving devices were essential by 1945 for the half of Britain's cows the farms cows still haven't carved so the machine can't be used yet but there's some sad news about Sarah the cow who was ill you always knew that Sarah was gonna have to be put down but you haven't got a car from her working yes that's right even though we knew her injury was what you would call terminal through what we were hoping for is that at least we could rescue the calf tragically we came in one morning and found that the calf had been still form which is you know which is very sad she was a very good milk or delicious he was doing well last year she was averaging about 50 points of milk a day Wow and she's only you know she was only a little girl so that was a lot of milk for her that really was but the still is our herd we still have cows on the swamp yeah where our other house are looking really good so hopefully within a very short time we should have at least a few calves on the ground and we'll be able to stop milking again the war will look unfavorably on any farmer who lost their life stop like this and farmers who consistently failed to meet government expectations face deep intimate as local farmer John Curtis witnessed John I've been reading some of the newspapers here from the 1940s and there's a case of a farmer here in Hampshire shot in an 18 hour farm siege yes he's them he was our neighbor during the war the chat called George ray Walden yes commonly known as ray and did you know him personally yes I did although I was quite young at the time a father used to do his harvesting for him I was a little bit afraid of Ray yeah because he was very formidable really as I understand it from these articles what happened is Ray Walden was required to power roughly half of his farm that is correct as part of the war effort to grow more wheat and but he refused to do so some of the land he couldn't have played up anyway because it was too wet and damp right but they still said he had to play it up and then that was the war I get the time the war AG tried to evict ray Walden but he holed himself up in his farmhouse with a shotgun and fired at police wounding two and sort of things spiraled out of control and it ended up with an 18-hour siege of his house and then he ended up actually getting shot by a police officer yes and then of course eventually he was taken to hospital and it was there that he died and this must have then sent shockwaves through the farming community oh it did it was in all the press you know in the marmaris Union papers through magazines that came eight yes story was there and most of the a by condemning it yes as it shouldn't ever have happened you think you shouldn't have happened I don't think it should at all I mean when I read this story it does fill me with sadness but at the same time there's part of me that thinks there was a kind of greater good here really if we were going to avoid starvation on these islands we you know we had to do this we had to sort of plow up well yes but it's still needing of going that far yeah it really it's been very interesting has made me think a lot more about the the war and what they were doing [Music] [Laughter] throughout 1941 imports declined making everyday items increasingly scarce one shortage in particular caused problems for housewives soap so became scarce because pretty much the major ingredient of soap is fat any sort of happen particularly the edible fats and Britain with all the business going on with you boats out at the Atlantic was really really short of edible fats so any soap you could say you've meant there was more fat for people to eat the fat shortage became so severe that in 1942 so would be rationed but even a year earlier it was hard to come by there were some thrifty ways to make it go further this is a tip I got from a newspaper of the 1940s and basically you use a flannel and then all these cut a little bits of soap they're getting too small to be useful all the sort of little chippy bits or the little tiny soft slivers left at the end of a bar you bum them all into your flannel and you just squeeze it up and pop it in some hot water and basically the soap melts enough to all sort of gel together and become a sort of multicolored made out of many bits solid bar see that even in that few seconds if I can make a good squeeze you'll see it's reformed maybe I look it's all sort of molded into one lump and that's so much easier to use than all the little bits bulbs [Music] in the garden those in the know could find another way to deal with this soap shortage this is soap Wert same sort of sewers nice pretty pink flower on it and just like the name implies so put it's useful as soap it's a sort of soap substitute really the strongest parts happenin is in the root but you can get it in the leaf and the stem as well eking out your so crushing with soap work however probably not very mainstream really restricted to eccentrics like me who happen to know the older ways of doing things the next stage is processing the plant washed and cut up on my soap work nice hot water and start bruising it what I'm trying to do is release the juices in the soap work in particular the one called SAP burnin that's the thing that does the cleaning yeah starting to go a little bit bubbly it's supposed to be one of the gentlest of all the cleaning agents indeed conservators use it when they're dealing with really ancient textiles my soap would be too harsh they use a solution of soapwort or SAP Ihnen to gently soften and lift dirt grease out of things like ancient tapestries and so forth so if is good enough for that good enough for my hair this is the greenest shampoo I think I've ever made it smells very sucky quite a nice fresh smell I mean it doesn't lather up like moderate shampoos do but it mostly feels just cool to just pose right weak I'm ready to rinse it all off and impress the world at the same time though feed for livestock was in short supply there was one animal that thrived in conditions of scarcity rabbits were an excellent quick growing source of meat that rabbit farming was officially encouraged [Music] Peter plans to start a small concern with the help of animal behaviorist and McBride rabbits are extremely good converters of food they are the best of the male mammals that we keep to produce meat they they've evolved to live on low-quality dried foodstuffs but they evolved in southern Spanish Peninsula if you think about games Spain in the summertime it's dry its course it's very low quality food and that's what the rabbits are designed to survive on so in terms of food in meat out they're extremely good rapid converters [Music] [Music] selecting rabbits for breeding is a delicate process at the beginnings with sexing these are rabbits in the front and stay me to notice boys mushrooms or girls ah okay there we go let's get you up sorry oh no this is a boy he's got a very nice pair of testicles here mm mm hey Lodge so we have here a very nice young man you only need one boy but you do need more than one girl quite wrigley Lina ah another boy little boy well rabbit number three hopefully this isn't a boy Hey not a testicle in sight [Applause] there are two more female rabbits to choose from oops now off the two just based on size are we going for this one anyway if you can read large with large or even likely to get larger offspring and a bigger litter and as the ultimate aim of this is to provide as much meat as possible yeah then obviously you're going for that not for looks or don't do pretty features at the cottage wood stove a visitor [Music] lonely day today haven't come to help do the laundry I've got a surprise for you come with me historian Karen Sayer studies 1940s household technology oh so excited face washing machine washing just like an effort with huge numbers of women working full-time for the war effort labor saving devices at home were invaluable washing machines were hard to come by with many factories converted to make munitions but Karen's found a pre-war machine for Ruth to use it's still not a powered washing machine no it's woman power it is actually it's manhole turning the high labor yeah we're you're fortunate is in connection with the heating of the water this machine was designed to heat water using gas power I think the gas Inlet is down there you could get electrically heated machines as well but it is all about the heating the water because it's saving so much work but the palm doesn't have a gas connection so the water must be heated separately and then brought to the machines here we go poppet in don't we don't watch my blouse shirts my apron over the state of that I got such a mess this washing machines tough enough to actually handle it in a world really really works so moment of truth right go I do Tate agitated I read that effort it said three minutes to do your whip sorry yes three minutes it'll be weekly washing [Music] although washing machines were first marketed in the late 18th century it would be the 1960s before they became common in British homes well I suppose the next development on from this would have been the twin turbine it which job would have been a powered agitator but that wasn't to happen for a long time it was stood in or three minutes right so don't be ok well it smells good and long as some doesn't it does smells very wholesome is that your right foots looking a lot better it is in there it is you see ya shifted it okay easy quite lighters bit I love washing machines I think of them as they as a implementer of women's lib here Peter and Anne are ready to start breeding their rabbits suppose the first thing we need them to do is actually the sun's come out flee the buck is put in first so that he can establish the run as his territory I think he's enjoying himself it's at the moment now if they don't mate at this attempt does that mean that it's never gonna happen no it could mean she's just not ready yet because they do have a cycle and he might spray her with your in which in rabbit language means that he fancies her don't try to take and we'll just see how they get on no there you go that was pretty fun I was pretty quick for that clearly we've got her at the right time yeah looks they're certainly living up to the stereotype they are and that's it over and done with the whole thing is quite fast now we've got some nice grooming behavior that him Chang no affection so affection excellent looks really hopeful for baby rabbits not to put a damper on it but how long until those babies are ready to be butchered really it the weight you want them I guess you know three to four months you can have an animal that's a goodly size Peter hopes his frugal new enterprise will please the war AG inspector but his main concern will be how well the team have done with flax they've been ordered to grow to produce textiles for the war effort alex is getting ready to sew the field but he's worried about pest control any resulting loss of crops would invite the discipline of the war AG hid Jews and the rooks and the crows got to do something about them and I know they don't particularly save a flax seed but at the same time I don't want to find is we get the little shoot coming out and it's like a beacon to the crows and the rooks they'll see that shoot and they'll know that the bottom of that shoots a nice sweet little seed and I don't want to lose any of this flax crop I want to keep the ministry for agriculture as happy as I can so I'm going to find some kind of way of scaring the birds out of this field and I'm not going to go for the old-fashioned scarecrow this time at the start of the war 1 million tons of food will be lost of pests [Music] dooty it's almost like a war on pest as much as a war on anything else so desperate for every last little bit coming out of the fields yeah you can't afford to let half of it be taken you know if we're gonna go for that AE category then we should at least be seen to be doing something yeah think about the bird problem [Music] you see in this little advertisement bang and then and it's like a firecracker going up yes enter yes so those bang and pushes the corrugated iron up and it slaps back and that's what happens that rabbits flee in terror noise you know this go from there Alex has ordered in explosives identical to the wartime ones that's gunpowder isn't it wrapped up in paper stuck into a bit of string now we just got a hope there's enough power and each one of these to blow open yeah [Music] head for the Spade Ruth the bird scary will be tested in a nearby field thing is is it in any deep inner [Music] so moment of truth Bruce but I reckon a child just got one of those whole thing's has got last a day yeah so it's gonna be quite some time I should think before we get oh so who's a good bag moved the fuse is lit it is presumably little work it's woken bang again it'd be nice if they did flap around a bit more but it scared me the Second World War saw farmers all over Britain battling to reduce bests the bird scarer should help the team make a good impression on the war ACK in June 1941 the course of the war was transformed when Germany invaded [Applause] conflict on the Russian front was bad news for British farmers shipping to send munitions to the Soviet Union leaving even fewer vessels available to bring food to brick the waraxe now ordered farmers to redouble their efforts to increase the nation's homegrown [Music] milk remained a vital part of this campaign the farms cows but last have their cars the wartime need to get maximum yields and keep the herd healthy greatly increased vet served Farms veterinarian Abigail woods has come to advise Alex and Peter yeah I guess yeah but in the 1930s farmers having money they would only call vets as an absolute last resort you know something was on its last legs it's about to die now 1940s vets are on farms essentially to deal with those sorts of diseases that weren't thought a big deal off before because they didn't kill cows so diseases like mastitis infertility they're not dramatic diseases but they have a major impact on milk production right and you know 1941 this nation needs all the milk you can possibly get [Music] mastitis an infection of the muder is easily caused by using the milking machine incorrectly milking proper the next thing is just to get a little squirt of milk out of each teat out of each one each one just a little bit don't get it all over the floor make sure it goes into that mug so the reason we're doing this yes from the appearance that milk you can pick up the early signs of mastitis so any nasty little clots flecks in the milk or smells a bit for me so turn it on there we go so you can hear that's coming through now so if you put your summer muck you should be able to feel the vacuum that's just sort of pulsating that's right use put a straight vacuum on that and they didn't pulse it would damage the tapes dry okay pulsing gives it a chance to recover attaching the vacuum cups is a tricky task what you're filming for the end first that's it no it's not looks like you're winning the battle there but that's not war there we go and will that just will that just hold itself on yeah that will yeah I don't have to stay here no Sun up about three or four minutes now but you go to everything just right because if something goes wrong with this machine you can do more damage that way yeah than by hand milk okay do you know how much is it's sucking out a ratio right sort of it's quite quickly yeah and it's about forty to sixty pulses a minute that is the frequency which a calf stocks right it's also the frequency that a cow's heart rhythm hmmm yeah okay so she looks like she's done right farmers were under pressure to send the milk they produced into the rationing system keeping only a small amount for themselves most were prohibited from turning it into butter or cheese at home these foods were now produced in centralized factories so the government could keep a close eye on what was being made but if any milk went sour before it left the farm farmers could get special dispensation to use the milks turned it off luckily not a disaster cheese after all is just off milk that's all it is all you've got to do is separate the curds from the whey and all I'm gonna do is strain it agricultural work has really felt the need for cheese they'd always been big cheese eaters you know taking a lump of bread and cheese out into the field is the easiest way of dealing with lunch miles away from the farmhouse is only gonna need a sprinkle of salt and a dusting of chives and I've got cottage cheese that we can have on the sandwiches with the water inspector due to revisit the farm soon the boys must now get on with sewing the flax the Flex doesn't mean wider than that it's not nearly and I've certainly got a winner for it as well Alex and PETA have enlisted help from one maybe flax farmers in free Simonetta so what I've done over for long a bit of flax just to show you what what we're hoping you're going to achieve the end product yes what's so special about it behind the back you'll see the fibres of flax fibers for making ropes canvas tenting fire hoses it's got whole load of uses we have bought you two bags of flex you do have a seat real yes yep and we have filled he's so good flax was such a rarely grown crop in pre-1940s Britain that virtually no machinery was set up to deal with it peas oats barley wit no flatten facts Cossacks will go there and see how it goes [Music] this see drill needs to be calibrated so the correct amount of scene will be solely the soil you want to spin the wheel ten times ten complete revolution [Music] - three quarters ten that's almost perfectly on just under eight ounces eight ounces yeah so it's probably a little bit higher if we just go down a setting be pretty close with that we want to get this row you really want to get a good good good even crop so compete with itself makes yourself grow tall and straight hopefully keeps the weeds down let's take the time than Peter and get this right remember we're looking for that eye rating after hanging for just an hour the sour milk is transformed into cheese is ready to eat [Music] do your hands starting it your space Peter this is the ignition key you certainly won't lose that we you started this before haven't you yes yes yeah experience no so naked flame diesel shotgun cartridge okay let's get that tighten up okay here we go don't miss [Music] which is flex [Music] just under the course of the world especially Buddhist factories across the country turned the crop into textiles [Applause] well it's been around 100 days very very quickly [Music] so knees oh thank you very much of my own horses it's because cheese lifesaver all right hmm better than wasting it hmm you're gonna get it done to those thing yeah yeah we're gonna get this in today yes right save that for later let's get this baby started up again to make sure they get all the field extra help [Applause] [Music] [Applause] local farmer Robert Sampson has brought his horses to Harrow the ground breaking up and leveling out the sword to embed the Seas whoa I didn't ask anybody to move Sania come here they said looking dazed little man not shy is there so what are they these are pretty expressions yellow caught a compact powerful horse capable of all farm work and you could trot him to town if he wanted come on keep going Percheron sir originally came from France I began to appear on British farms in the early 20th century just after the first world war the British Army were looking for a heavy artillery horse that was capable of fast movement because war was mechanized and they were never needed but they went all of the farms because the farms where they came from and of course a site like this with where the tractor and horses working in the same field at the same time it's really typical site of World War two yes [Music] despite the influx of tractors working horses made a huge contribution to real-time [Music] but the Second World War we fight them [Music] the forces of British Forbes twice middle-earth trenches I have an absolute bag of clothes lucky boy hi Jamie my nose - horses [Music] looking good Oh heads you ever write oh she and what I think we've all earned ourselves a beer back it's not the most economically designed seat is it do you know the best thing about a tractor look I can't hear you complain [Music] well I think we'll get these down us and then I'll get back to the yard and get that bird scare and get it out here as soon as possible because I don't want to lose any of this crop I want to keep the man from the ministry happy yeah he'll be pleased we pleased I'm sure Cheers that is to a flat squat [Music] the war wagon Specter is about to return to judge how well the team have carried out his instructions just in time the rabbits are started nesting meaning their babies should be born soon [Music] to make sure they have all the information to hand [Music] [Music] with everything in place they're ready for the long-anticipated return expert [Music] and that was the bird scary yes very effective yeah well I'd like to think so but flax was one of the crops that you said yes would put us in the Ministry of Agriculture's good books yes absolutely all the are all the time I got my eye on that that gray day you have a hopeful yes meanwhile the cows are coming to milk and we're getting about two gallons a day off each one yeah that would have been very good we have branched out into a rabbit concerned we've started off with two but they are multiplying as we speak it's amazing at how fast that presents well that's good that's good any any meat for the pot helps so Brian we now get to the burning issue of the grade the category that you would like to assign to our farm yes well of course it's not just this field it's thought that one has to take account of the whole farming operations yeah but I would have thought that given what you've done you're are working to at least 60% of productivity on a farm like this okay so that's a B okay all right okay there are some there are some more outs who actually used B pluses and P minuses I think you might be edging any wetter guys either got biscuit with it as well if you give us a central role in British agriculture continued throughout the second world becoming more and more demanding it was a grueling challenge but one from which the nation's farmers were not flesh you

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 199,389

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, wartime farm, blackout restrictions, world war two, britain at war, british history, dunkirk, britain during world war, living in britain, ruth goodman, alex langlands, peter ginn, living in a farm, historic farm, absolute history

Id: Y21bkHQhFt4

Length: 57min 51sec (3471 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2020