How did a hungry island remain fed during a long, wearying conflict?...
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I have thoroughly enjoyed this series, I was hoping to see more of what the Land Army girls were doing as my Mom was one of these young girls. From her stories it sounded like they had a good time whatever they were working at. Ruth Goodman, you are one very interesting lady,if you ever find yourself in BC, I'd be honoured to put the kettle on for you.
Oh why do they do things properly, the flagons were a farce.
1. The pot should have been glazed when just leather hard
2. The pot should have been heated evenly.
3.If intended to be stoneware it should be fired to 1300deg C, I doubt if that ramshackle kiln would have reached that.
4. He arrived at the caves with large flagons under his arm, filled with beer. Was he competing for strongest man
This is an honest effort and informative,but nothing like my recollection of 1944.
As a potter I was interested in the making of the flagons. These are normally salt glazed, but there is one thing that you should not do, that is immerse an unfired pot in glaze, unless you really want to have a handful of wet clay.
I do wish Ruth would not wear a red coat, in the 1940,s it would be de trop to wear red with red hair ,green please. To wear a red coat in those days, especially with that hat, would have branded you as a person of easy virtue.
Calor gas was available in 1936, it was nothing new in 1944. The beer making was too hurried, the hops would have to be boiled in the wort not bunged in at the last moment. What they distilled off from the pine wood was Stockholm tar, used to waterproof coal sacks, it had a distinctive odour. Pine oil is colourless and is used as an antiseptic
Hi
Are there any plans to make the “Wartime Farm” booklet available to download as a PDF document?
Also, I would like to reiterate what a brilliant TV series this was, well done.
I thoroughly enjoyed the series wartime farm,and was really interested in how they made food go further.I would like to try some of the meals that were made, and was wondering if anyone could let me know where i could possibly get the recipes from.
I received my free copy of wartime farm booklet which i found very good ,so thank you for such a rapid response
I have to say thank you to the bbc and open university for a brilliant series.
Its not only been very entertaining but eyeopening and informative.
Also have to give congratulations to the presenters RUTH,ALEX AND PETER
for making the programe good evening viewing,
well done
Hi Keith - many thanks for your kind comment, I'll pass it onto the production team.
Openlearn Moderator
In the use of an electric fence, they missed an important point. A cow let lose in a field of fresh grass will eat about 10-20% and trample the rest into an uneatable mess. Strip gazing with an electric fence will ensure clean grazing. The fences will have to moved down the field to allow the grazed grass to regrow . I see Ruth has learned to tie a Turban, but still no green dress.
I have watched you program several time and would love to order a wartime booklet. Is there a way to have one shipped to America?
Hi Tracy - I'm afraid we are unable to ship outside the UK, a pdf of the booklet will be going up on the page shortly so you will be able to download it.
Many thanks Tracy
OpenLearn Moderator
I am thoroughly enjoying this series. It is arousing many happy memories for me as an 87 year old.
Towards the end of the war when I was in my 'teens I was living with my parents in Kendal in the Lake District and surrounded by many small farms mostly without the machinery necessary to increase their productivity for the war effort. To overcome this the War Agricultural Committee introduced a scheme where-by teenage boys below the age for conscription, were given a short driving course on Fordson tractors. I was accepted for one of these courses and so learned, for the first time, how to drive. I also found (a point referred to in the TV programme) how difficult the Fordson, with its parafin fuelled engine and manual starting handle, was to get started. Many were the blisters on my hand after a day's work. We also had to learn how to reverse, with a large trailer on tow, across the roadside ditch and through a farm gate. I often managed to get the trailer wheels bogged down in the ditch!
At harvest time, each boy was attached to an older and skilled man with a Reaper- Binder and tractor going round farms where the cereal crops were ready for harvesting and the farmer did not have the machinery for harvesting. I believe this was a free service provided by the 'War Ag. Committee to aid the war effort.
I learned a lot from the latest programme, having worked with linseed oil as a Paint Chemist for years, that it was highly flammable, no way. I had a Valor paraffin heater for years and it came with neat can which insured you could not overfill the heater. They were not around in 1944. Yes linen was used to cover fighter fuselages, Hurricanes , not the Spitfires shown. Anyway with TVO available to fuel the Fordson, why not use that. Did they really harvest flax by pulling it out , not cutting with a scythe? Something else , Ruth has red hair and would not be seen dead in red clothes, she would have worn green. The painting was extremely good , who was the artist?
same has every one else on here .i have really enjoyed watching this series of wartime farm ,I have also like many tried to order the booklet but can get no further then the first stage .Get to the postcode part then when it comes to proceed nothing happens .Tried on numerous times but no avail . I work in a school where the children are doing about the war time and i wanted this to take in to help with their project ,i feel that it will be to late for them .Keep up the good work though with the series and hope that there will be some more soon .
Hi Lorraine,
I'm sorry you are having problems ordering the print, can you please let me know what browser and the version you are using and I'll pass it on to the technical team who are investigating these problems.
If you call 0845 366 0257 (local rate) you can leave your details and the booklet will be posted straight out to you.
Again, many apologies and I'm so pleased you are enjoying the series.
OpenLearn Moderator
Have thoroughly enjoyed all the series, and like so many people, I cannot order the booklet. Have got my own little plan going to grow my own, wanted to for a long time, just never got round to doing it! Will be trying out some of the other wonderful recipes, remedies etc, lol...I now appreciate what my dear grandparents and parents went through. Keep up the good work, look forward to the next programme.
Hi Joyce,
So pleased you are enjoying the series and many apologies you are having difficulty ordering the booklet online, have you tried calling the number - 0845 366 0257 (local rate), you just leave your name and address on the answer machine and we will post a copy of the booklet straight out to you.
We are aware of the problems people are having and are trying to work with the relevant department to try to solve the problem as soon as possible.
Apologies again Joyce and I wish you good luck with all you veggie growing – let us know how you get on.
Many thanks.
OpenLearn Moderator
Has this now closed? I tried to order several times today but could not get past request to post it, such a shame because I enjoyed the programme sp much and
Hi Suzanne,
You can still order the booklet by calling 0845 366 0257 (local rate) and leaving your details.
Many thanks and I'm so pleased you are enjoying the series.
OpenLearn Moderator
Like many others have really enjoyed watching the programme.
I'm sure in the current times of austerity, there are many tips we can use
to keep costs down.
I too have found frustration when trying to order the booklet on line on a number of occassions, and eventually trying the telephone number today with it's messaging service.
Didn't leave me with much confidence though. I'll wait the next 28 days and keep my fingers crossed !
Also such a shame that our friends in the Netherlands aren't able to order the booklet.
Surely OU could relax the rules for them !
I live near Wolverhampton close to the wartime home of the Dutch Army, where the town granted 'Freedom of the Town' status to all the old soldiers who were based there. So the town has quite a link to the Netherlands
For once, I feel a certin connection to this series produced by the BBC and OU, and it reflects a lot of what us brits have never seen about this period of WW2. Now I know, and understand how frugle my gran was, and why I always liked sundays helping her cook or prepare the cake mix(umm like the spoon remeber those time fondle), or cut n chop veg. Why both my grandad, and dad, always had two thirds of the garden turned to veg growing, miss those days wandering down the path, just picking the peas, or broad beans from the pod, or pulling up a root veg, peel it eat it, or cook it fresh, or add it into a slow rumbling stew. Now I really want to return the grass back to veg growing, and more, top third of the garden grass surrounded by boxes 3ft high, with certain veg/herbs in, stuff the neighbours, and if anyone in darlington could assist me in returning this garden back to veg growing, well two apple tree's cookers in early season, get sweeter late season, I'd share all.
Mike Willems-Meijer,
Good to hear a comment like yours. And I hope the BBC/OU can produce more.
But keep Ruth and Peter, Alex is a weasel out of work. Ruth n Peter, I'd employ...Alex talks good lacks backbone.
Dear o.u.
I haverealy enjoyed WARTIME BRITAIN indead ,all of the farm programmes with this cast and theme.
However,It does smack a little of Propogander.Its as if we are beeing conditioned for whats to come.
Planet approx. 75% overpopulated. Financial markets in apparant collapse,Climate in turmoil,with a vast impact on food production,globaly.We should now be impimenting some of the things that we are showing on "WARTIME FARM"i.e.Enforced use of farm land.
WE wont need hittlers wolf packs to starve us out,all countrys will need all the food they grow,for themselves.
Edwin Frogley. (NO JOKE)
As a Dutchman I watch Wartime Farm every week. After all these years it is still amazing what the British people have done to save their country for a 'hostile take-over' by mister Hitler. If the Britains had not done this on their own soil and had been taken-over, then it would have taken ages to liberate Europe.
I have been to Westerbork last August, a camp to which most of the Dutch Jews where brought together before being transported further to the death camps like Auschwitz and Sobibor, and it is still amazing to walk there on soil where so many suffered so much not knowing where they were brought to. Every free human should visit places like this to feel the reason that so many people fought, either on a farm in Britain or on the battle field that does not matter, against the German forces.
We in the Netherlands do not have quality programs like Wartime Farm and we watch a lot of BBC programs here. I came to the website to order a booklet, but this seems to be impossible for people from the continent. However I will still follow this interesting program!
Nigtevecht, The Netherlands
I have tried ordering the booklet through the OU website but cant get past the postcode/submit page. I have left my postal address on the 0845 number but am not confident that the message was successfull as no confirmation was given. Its a shame it takes such a long time to be delivered.....no other business would survive with such a poor website and such long delivery times!
Hi Rosie,
I've passed on your name to the warehouse to check that your details have been recorded successfully.
Many thanks and I hope you are enjoying the series.
OpenLearn Moderator
I ordered my free Wartime Farm booklet on September 6th, it still has not arrived yet. Do I need to re-order or is there still time for it to come?
I love the series, it is most excellent.
I am enjoying the comments on here too from people with similar interests to mine, we should set up a forum and have a chat!
Hi Melissa,
Apologies for the fact you haven't received your booklet yet, we have had a huge number of people ordering and so it may take a little longer for it to reach you.
I'm so pleased you are enjoying the series and I'll pass on your comments to the production team. The Wartime Farm pages don't disappear when the series finishes and we welcome all types of discussion so please feel free to stick around and comment/discuss as much as you'd like, we've had some lovely, interesting comments already.
Many thanks Melissa
OpenLearn Moderator
Hi there and thank you very much for your very nice reply. I am happy to wait for my Wartime Farm booklet, I understand how busy it must have been with so many people ordering it. I had just wanted to double check about it as I didn't want to miss out!
Yes I am thoroughly enjoying the series, I absolutely love anything to do with World War Two and have lots of books on the subject so this series has come at a very good time for me, as I am in the middle of learning all about this period in our history.
I will certainly stick around this discussion board, there seems to be some very interesting people on here so I will look forward to future comments with everyone.
Thank you once again.
Regards, Melissa.
I quite agree with Judith, the OU website is rubbish. I tried to order a copy of the Wartime Farm Booklet but couldn't get beyond the 'PROCEED' button after I'd entered my postcode. Still, the reply to Judith's comments gave me the answer - I've ordered it by phone. Let's hope the organisation behind the telephone calls is not as bad as the one for the website. Such a shame, because the programme is a joy, and the presenters splendid.
I am thoroughly enjoying the war time farm series. As a child I remember rationing coming to an end, and have found this programme a pleasure to watch and remember the times depicted. I am already looking forward to seeing it repeated!
I am thoroughly enjoying the war time farm series. As a child I remember rationing coming to an end, and have found this programme a pleasure to watch and remember the times depicted. I am already looking forward to seeing it repeated!
A mole wrench to take off the nuts on the silage container, come off it, a box spanner would have been used, there were no Mole wrenches in 1941.
Please get that cowsmaid to tuck in the ends of her scarf and give your actors a short training in how to use a hammer, they are pathetic.
As for using a shot gun cartridge to start a tractor, what do think were the Kaufman starters used on Spitfires.
My Mother stocked up on soap and stored it in our airing cupboard until it was rock hard, it lasted the war, when used with the rationed soap.
By the way a variety of flax was grown the produce Linseed oil(linen seed?) during the war, used to make paints needed for lorries etc
Hi Norman,
We have passed your comments onto the BBC production team for Wartime Farm.
Many thanks for your observations.
OpenLearn Moderator
The tile making was hilarious, a whole set of rough tiles were made, dried? and fired at 900?. At the end, four drunken men were nearly killed by the still blowing up, if they were not poisoned by the methanol in the first cut. The firing finished , the kiln cooled and out come a whole batch of perfectly finished smooth tiles, obviously machine made and purchased previously. These tiles were vitrified and completely waterproof. As a potter I know that a firing temp of 900 would be too low and you would end up with porous. biscuit. The less said about the hooch the better, drinking raw alcohol on a freezing night would either poison them or give them hypothermia. By the way the holes are for nails to hold the tiles in place, I saw no nails
At the dance who was the soldier dressed in postwar battledress , not an officer and with shoulder flashes , in 1940?
At Christmas there would be 2 castrated cock chickens, capons, not a lot of rubbish sausage meat.
All the brains in the Open University cannot construct a website to work. If my website was as poor as this I'd have no customers they'd give up and go else where, 3 attepmts ot sign in before I could leave a comment! I would love to order the free booklet, but the gender button is broken and you cannot order without it. Very, very poor technology, just because we are interested in the second world war we don't need technology from the same era. Have you got colussus there?
Dear Judith,
Sorry that you've had difficulties ordering the Wartime Farm booklet. When you go into the ordering page you only need to give the information that has an asterisk by it, gender, age, telephone number etc are not needed to order the Wartime Farm booklet. The form is used by different departments within the OU and so the information required differs depending on what you are requesting.
If you would rather telephone and order the booklet please call this number - 0845 366 0257 (local rate) and leave your postal details.
Many thanks Judith and I hope you enjoy the booklet.
OpenLearn Moderator
A well made programme, and although a farmers son and historically minded there was the odd nugget like operation 'starfish' I had never heard of before. It is informative and enjoyable.
BUT
Please could you actors be taught how to use hand tools correctly - it really jars on those of us who grew up using them. There is also too much use of machinery - it would have been a very very well equipped farm in the 1940's indeed to have been this mechanised - on most farms muck spreading, hedge cutting, planting and weeding etc were still being done by hand. I grew up in the fifties and even then only ploughing, reaping/combining, harrowing and haymaking were mechanised - most of the rest was still done the hard way. I can still show you how if you want!
Also why are the tractors too late for period? The Fordson standard is correct, but the Fordson E27n major and the Field Marshall were introduced in 1945. Most of the rest of the equipment is correct for period.
However, these are niggles, sent for information purposes. Keep up the good work!
Well done to all involved in bringing such a fantastic programme,,,,keep up the good work. You inspire and delight so many of us,let alone provide an education in everything we watch that the OU teams produce.
As a schoolchild I used to go out with the rest of my class in autumn to gather rose-hips, just as we saw in last week's programme
Those silly cardboard gas-mask cases always got in the way, the black cylindrical ones were much better
The rose-hips were taken to a central depot in the town for processing.
The syrup was given to expectant mothers and youg children.
Well done! to the team I always enjoy the programmes they produce
Alan Sargeant
Ruth's effort to make rosehip syrup, by boiling the hips in water, I am afraid would have destroyed most of the Vitamin C in the syrup. We actually get most of our vitamin C from potatoes ,chips are best, mash the lowest content. I am sure the incessant colds we had was due to low Vit C intake
Congratulations with the beautiful new television programme!
I have a great intrest in WWII and British culture, and have enjoyed the first episode of Wartime farm.
But my question is: Can I get the booklet also in the Netherlands?
Have you tried to download the printable resources online. It is available as an alternative to having the book mailed out to uk residents. www.bbc.co.uk/wartime farm then follow links as if to request book and it will give that option.
Karl
Hi Fabian,
I'm afraid we're unable to send the booklet overseas, sorry.
So pleased you are enjoying the series, I'll pass your comment onto the OU team.
Many thanks
OpenLearn Moderator
That is a pity, thank you anyway for helping me out. And if you have time, thank the British wartime generation (veterans and civilians) for me. Because of their sacrifice and liberating my fatherland and the rest of Europe. In the cemetery of my town there are four British bomber crewmen who crashed a few hundred meters from my home due to German anti-aircraft artillery. Every 4th of may(remembrance day"Dodenherdenking")I visit them so they too are remembered. The youngest is 18, a year older than me, the oldest is around the 30.
May they not be forgotten
Thank you, and keep up the good work in making us not forget the struggle.
Fabian
Holland
My wife was in fits over the tying of the turbans. The ends have to be tucked in, not left dangling. A woollen scarf makes a better turban. Please teach the young man how to swing a sledge hammer. The mole digger was pathetic, or was it meant to be, it needed a triangle to stiffen it. To break down clay, they used to lime the field, but time being short, they could have used Gypsum. These programmes are very good but they lack authenticity , has no one asked someone who was alive at the time. Both my wife and I experienced wartime living and we curl up embarrassed, when they make a boner.
British agriculture went through a complete transformation and the food they produced made us fit and healthy, talk about 5 a day, we had no problem.
I enjoyed watching the Wartime Farm programme but would be very interested in hearing more firsthand. Have either of you ever thought of putting your memories onto paper? My father was a farmer during the war in Norfolk but sadly died many years ago. He did tell us lots of stories as children but much has now been forgotten. It is a time in history that I'm especially interested in and would value any information I can find that is firsthand.
Hoping to hear from you.
Daphne
Please send me your email address to normannicolson@hotmail.com and I will send you a copy
My wife was in fits over the tying of the turbans. The ends have to be tucked in, not left dangling. A woollen scarf makes a better turban. Please teach the young man how to swing a sledge hammer. The mole digger was pathetic, or was it meant to be, it needed a triangle to stiffen it. To break down clay, they used to lime the field, but time being short, they could have used Gypsum. These programmes are very good but they lack authenticity , has no one asked someone who was alive at the time. Both my wife and I experienced wartime living and we curl up embarrassed, when they make a boner.
British agriculture went through a complete transformation and the food they produced made us fit and healthy, talk about 5 a day, we had no problem.
First and foremost I wish to congratulate the BBC and The Open University for collaborating on the new BBC2 series Wartime Farm in which attempts are made to recreate the agricultural activities of WW2. It will undoubtedly go some way to demonstrating the extraordinary efforts and determination which both civilians and farmers displayed in their indispensible role in the War Effort.
Whilst this series focuses on recreating a Hampshire farm, for those who are interested, there is an authentic account of the actual events of the time in Hampshire which was recorded by my aunt, Anne McEntegart. I compiled a book, The Milk Lady at New Park Farm, which focuses primarily on her detailed Wartime diary as she worked alongside the land girls in Brockenhurst, Hampshire. The diary describes in detail the farming practices which she had to undertake during her time on the farm.
The book has been reviewed by the NFU Magazine and praises the diary as being a “treasure as it tells it just as it was” as it records “a vanished world”. The diary is complemented by artwork by Evelyn Dunbar who, famously, was the only salaried British female artist commissioned during World War Two to depict the work undertaken by the land girls.
For those interested, the book is available at (Commercial websites removed by OpenLearn Moderator 03.09.12)
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