During the Second World War, Ceredigion appeared to be far removed from the conflict because of its quiet, rural location. However, seeing as WWII was a total war with widespread impacts, the local population and rural economy were considerably marked by its effects. Food production in and around Aberystwyth played an important role in the war, as there were plentiful farms in the area that provided a considerable output of milk, eggs and meat. People became involved with local food production and geared up to help the war effort; even soldiers who were based locally for training helped on the farms during harvests due to the shortage of workers. Evacuees who had been sent to Aberystwyth often helped on the farms alongside local children to help alleviate crop damage caused by pests, and local schools taught practical gardening skills to young boys using the school allotments. Although Aberystwyth was lucky to not be bombed by the German air force, the Chief Constable in the area did report a few accounts of explosives being dropped near local farms, often causing damage to precious crops. Alongside the important role of farming in the area, Aberystwyth was also involved in the nationwide campaign known as ‘Dig for Victory’.
Dig for Victory was a government campaign to help combat potential food shortages that might occur during the war. The campaign played an integral role in Britain’s victory, as without additional food being grown locally, Britain may have been forced to surrender due to the German U-boat offensive that stopped vital food imports from reaching the shore. The public were encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables in their backyards, even those living in cities without an abundance of garden space. Local councils were granted permission by the government to convert parks, playing fields and unoccupied land into allotments, and it became a statutory offence to trespass in such areas. Many of the new growers had little to no experience and needed some extra help and advice on how to harvest and store their own produce, so the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries launched an educational movement in the form of advice leaflets, monthly guides and short films which were played before films at the cinema, All of these provided valuable knowledge about how and when to grow a variety of different crops. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for Wales was based in Aberystwyth, and from this office issues of land usage were dealt with both locally and on a national scale. A selection of Dig for Victory educational leaflets, in both Welsh and English, are currently available in the Ceredigion Archives, who acquired them from 17 Eastgate Street, which I believe was the old location of the Ministry.
Figure 1 is an example of one of the sources found in Aberystwyth from the Dig for Victory campaign. It shows Leaflet 2 of the campaign titled Wynwyn - Cennin - Shallots - Garlleg, (Onions - Leeks - Shallots - Garlic). The leaflet provides an example of the advice the government supplied to the public during the war, and in this case the four-page long leaflet advised how best to grow and store a variety of root vegetables. These were important ingredients in wartime meals because they added flavour to meals that could otherwise be bland, as well as providing vital nutrients. The leaflet includes information about different varieties of onions, which types store the best and how to grow them for storage. It also provided information about manuring, raising the plants, autumn-sown varieties, cultivation, weeding, fertiliser, harvesting and storing and non-keeping kinds, and details about other types of root vegetables mentioned. This source was found in the local area in Welsh, but there are also English versions available online which demonstrates that these leaflets would have been widely circulated, around both Wales and England.
 |
| Dig for Victory Leaflet 2 |
Leaflet 23 of the Dig for Victory campaign, below, is called Making the Most of a Small Plot, which was printed in colour and showed an illustrated plan for a vegetable plot on the reverse. The plan demonstrated how to grow vegetables for summer and winter, explaining that every “able-bodied household that has a garden or can get an allotment must grow them” in order to stay healthy during the war. They urge the public to do their “bit” no matter the size of their gardens and ask them to enquire about earlier leaflets that were published entitled How To Dig and How To Sow Seeds if they required more assistance. The leaflet shows the address of the location where more leaflets could be acquired as being in Lancashire despite the leaflet being found in Aberystwyth, which provides some evidence to my earlier statement that the same leaflets were circulated across the UK. We can also assume that gardens in Aberystwyth may have been more spacious than those in cities due to its rural location, so people may have been able to grow more than this small plot plan allows.
 |
| Dig for Victory leaflet 23 |
Leaflet 22 of the campaign, shown below, focuses on How to Grow Small Fruits, which includes blackcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, blackberries and loganberries. It gives details about how best to grow the different varieties, as well as the nutrients and vitamins can be gained by eating them. It further provides information about how to save space when planting small fruits if you have a smaller allotment, or how to grow fruit bushes if you have more space available. It also advised the public to seek out local advice when growing fruits, because the ideal growing conditions for fruit differs across the UK. This is complimented by the source shown in Figure 6, which notes possible lectures given by local fruit experts in Aberystwyth.
 | ||
| Dig for Victory leaflet 22 |
There were multiple other leaflets that advised on fruit growing; Leaflet 18 was called Better Fruit: Disease Control in Private Gardens and aimed at improving fruit yields through a programme of pest and disease control. The leaflet was six pages long, and provided advice about pruning, spraying, specific care of the different fruit types, banding, insect pests, injurious fungi, the main types of spraying apparatus for smaller gardens and the use of pest control washes like lime sulphur spray and derris. The Dig For Victory campaign published many more leaflets involving fruit which were not found with the leaflets shown here, which include Jam and Jelly Making (Leaflet 10) and Bottling and Canning Fruit and Vegetables (Leaflet 11). Whilst these leaflets were not found locally, it is safe to assume that they would have also been circulated.
 |
| Dig for Victory leaflet 18 |
Figure 5, below, is not a leaflet from the Dig For Victory campaign, but a booklet named General Information for Village Produce Associations: Allotment Societies and Other Food Production Clubs in Rural Districts. The booklet was published by the County Garden Produce Central Committee, and contained information resources about food production that were specific to rural districts like Aberystwyth. Whilst I could not access the full booklet, the back page shows a list of publications where the public could find tips and tricks for home growing including all of the Dig For Victory leaflets. The list included leaflets entitled Grow for Winter as well as Summer (Leaflet 1), Storing Vegetables for Winter Use (Leaflet 3), Root Vegetables for the Small Grower (Leaflet 6), How to Make a Compost Heap (Leaflet 7), How to Grow Tomatoes (Leaflet 8), Storing Potatoes for Food and Seed (Leaflet 13), Drying - Salting - Pickles - Chutneys (Leaflet 14), How to Sow Seeds (Leaflet 19) and How to Dig (Leaflet 20). This indicates that the leaflets found in Aberystwyth may not be the only leaflets in circulation in the area.
 |
| Figure 5 |
Figure 6, below, contains information that is the most specific to Aberystwyth out of the sources I could find, as it is a letter written on the 20th of May 1943 by the Cardiganshire County Gardens Produce Committee to the Agricultural Office in Aberaeron. After a committee meeting it was decided that they needed to “ask each Association Secretary to send [...] a programme of Demonstrations and Lectures proposed for the Winter and Spring months of 1943-44." The information given at the lectures was then to be published in an advice booklet that could be distributed locally, and it is possible that Figure 7 is the booklet that was created from this letter. The lectures were to be given throughout the year, so that the advice corresponded to the season and growing conditions, and called on a variety of local experts, agriculturalists and farmers for their expert advice. The letter also provides the addresses of the buildings in Aberystwyth where the lecturers could be located, including the Agricultural Buildings on Alexandra Road and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in 17 Eastgate Street. They called for demonstrations and lectures on a variety of topics for the booklet, including the pruning and ringing of fruit trees, spraying lime sulphur, grafting, budding, storage, composting, mat making, bee keeping, general garden cultivation, insects and pests, fungoid diseases, rabbits, poultry, goat keeping, manuring, cropping, herb growing, crop rotation and specialised information about different varieties of fruit and vegetables. The County Committee also offered to pay the travel expenses of the lecturers travelling from locations further away, like Lampeter, Newcastle Emlyn and Aberaeron, which gives us an indication that they were keen for the help.
 |
| Figure 6 |
Figure 7, below is a handbook of references called Home Grown Food: Handbook of information on Home Grown Food for Village Produce Association, Allotment Societies and Clubs. It was published by the Cardiganshire County Garden Produce Committee, and whilst I have not had access to the internal content of the handbook, the back page contains a list of references that the Committee were hoping to obtain through the lectures and demonstrations previously mentioned. For example, the booklet contains information about where to contact the National Allotment Society, Poultry experts, where to find poultry or rabbit wire, information about rabbits, pig keepers council, the British goat society, beekeeping societies and fruit preservation instructions. Furthermore all of the advice, instruction and demonstrations were offered free of charge, and the public were urged to contact the Cardiganshire County Garden Produce Committee if more help was needed.
 |
| Figure 7 |
Blog by Zoe Cashman
Sources:
Primary Sources
“Better Fruit: Disease Control in Private Gardens.” Dig For Victory, Leaflet 18, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, n.d. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
“General information for Village Produce Associations: Allotment Societies and Other Food Production Clubs in Rural Districts.” (County Garden Produce Central Committee under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries), 1942. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
“Home Grown Food: Handbook of information on Home Grown Food for Village Produce Association, Allotment Societies and Clubs”. Cardiganshire County Garden Produce Committee under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (D.R. Evans & Co., The Bridge Press, Lampeter), n.d. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
“How to Grow Small Fruits.” Dig For Victory, Leaflet 22, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, n.d. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
“Making the Most of a Small Plot.” Dig For Victory, Leaflet 23, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, n.d. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
“Wynwyn - Cennin - Shallots – Garlleg.” Dig For Victory, Leaflet 2, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, 17 Eastgate St., Aberystwyth. n.d. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
Printed letter to the Secretary of each Association asking for their "Programme of Demonstrations & Lectures" for the Winter and Spring months of 1943-1944, so that they might produce a booklet. 20 May 1943. https://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/catalogue.php?sched=adx.0404.html&lastsearch=dig%20for%20victory.
Secondary Sources
Davies, Gwyn. “Ceredigion in the Second World War.” Ceredigion Journal of the Ceredigion Antiquarian Society Vol XIII, No. 4 (2000): pp.81-90.
Dig For Victory. “The Home Front in WW2, Growing and Cooking Rationed Food.” [accessed 17/07/21]. https://dig-for-victory.org.uk/.
National Archives. “Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and predecessors: Welsh Department Regional Office: Registered Files.” [accessed 24/07/21]. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10512.
Smith, Daniel. The Spade as Mighty as the Sword: The Story of the Second World War ‘Dig For Victory’ Campaign. London: Aurum Press Ltd, 2013.
The National Library of Wales. Yr Ail Ryfel Byd yng Nghymru. Llandysul: Gomer Press, 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment