Historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn face
up to the challenges of the biggest revolution ever seen in the history of the
British countryside as they turn Manor Farm back to how it was run in the
Second World War. When Britain entered the war, two-thirds of all Britain’s
food was imported - and now it was under threat from a Nazi blockade. To save
Britain from starvation, the nation’s farmers were tasked with doubling food
production in what Churchill called ’the frontline of freedom’. This meant
ploughing up 6.5 million acres of unused land - a combined area bigger than
the whole of Wales. Due to audio problems with the last upload of this release
, i have re-done it from the DVD , SO THIS IS A NEW UPLOAD
分集介绍
Part 1
In this first episode, the farmers find themselves in a new location, a new
time period and with a new team member. There is a new farmhouse to modernise,
strict new rules to abide by and air raid precautions to contend with. The
team begin by reclaiming badlands to grow new crops. Peter works with a
blacksmith to design a special ‘mole plough’ to help drain the waterlogged
clay fields. Ruth and Alex get to grips with a troublesome wartime tractor -
and must plough through the night to get the wheat crop sown in time. On top
of farmers’ herculean efforts to double food production, their detailed
knowledge of the landscape also made them ideal recruits for one of the war’s
most secret organisations - the ‘Auxiliary Units’, a British resistance force
trained to use guerrilla tactics against German invasion.
Part 2
The team tackle the conditions faced by British farmers in 1940, when the full
impact of rationing took hold and which also saw Britain face the onslaught of
Nazi bombing in the Blitz. Ruth finds out how about the impact rationing had
in the kitchen as food became strictly limited - and also explores the
temptations of the black market. Alex and Peter are confronted with vastly
reduced supplies of feed for the animals, so attempt a method encouraged by
the government: making “silage”. This involves not only finding alternatives
sources of feed to store for winter, but also creating a container to store
them in. And for this they find out how the Women’s Land Army could be of
help. Along they way, they also discover how racial prejudice reared its ugly
head during Land Girl recruitment - only to be overcome by the actions of a
local farmer. Ruth goes on a canning drive - gathering fruit to preserve and
donate to the war effort - with the local Women’s Institute.
Part 3
The Blitz resulted in one of the biggest mass movements of people in British
history as three million city dwellers fled to the countryside. To make
outbuildings habitable as refugee shelters, Alex and Peter resort to the age-
old craft of making tiles by hand - which means camping out for two days and
nights in freezing cold to tend the tile-making kiln. They are visited by a
94-year-old conscientious objector who was conscripted as a farm labourer
because he refused to fight on religious grounds. Ruth gets involved in the
work of the Royal Observer Corps, who often enlisted farmers in the work of
spotting enemy planes. Alex and Peter also learn how to set up ‘decoy fires’
to lure German bombers off target, a project known as Operation Starfish. With
December approaching, the team look forward to celebrating Christmas
1940-style. People were understandably eager to put the horrors of war behind
them - if only for a day - but this was the first Christmas under rationing
and compromises had to be made. Alex looks at government solutions to the
national ’toy shortage’, whilst Peter discovers that soap had become the
nation’s favourite Christmas gift. With turkeys few and far between, Ruth
cooks up an alternative - known as ‘mock turkey’ or ‘murkey’ - made from
apples, onion and a dash of sausage meat, with a pair of parsnips for legs
Part 4
The team discovers that Wartime Farmers could lose everything - their home and
their land - if the government did not think they were productive enough. Over
2,000 farmers deemed ’not good enough’ were thrown off their farms during the
war. Ruth, Peter and Alex face a World War Two-style government inspection,
meeting an expert who tells them to grow and to get their milking operation up
and running. In the process they confront the wave of mechanisation that
government regulation brought to wartime farming, grappling with a new tractor
and getting to grips with a milking machine. Yet they are dealt a bitter blow
with the loss of a prime dairy cow. Peter also launches a rabbit-breeding
concern and they take in the latest release from the Ministry of Information,
who made films urging farmers to use the very latest techniques in the fields.
The team also discovers the chilling story of a local farmer who lost his life
in a dramatic shoot-out with the police after the authorities tried to remove
him from his farm for failing to meet his required targets With their hard
work completed the inspector returns to judge the state of the farm and award
them their all-important official ‘grade’ - determining whether their efforts
have been a success or a failure.
Part 5
The Wartime Farm team tackles the conditions faced by British farmers in 1942,
when Hitler’s U-boats continued to attack British ships, slashing imports and
inflicting massive shortages on the country. Ruth finds out how Britain coped
with shortages of the wood vital for the war effort in the building of
aircraft, ships and rifles, as well as pit props for crucial coal mining. With
her daughter Eve, she travels to the New Forest and discovers how women known
as ‘Lumber Jills’ were drafted in to fell trees in the Women’s Timber Corps.
Also in this episode, the boys revert to a Victorian solution to the shortage
of animal feed - using traditional horsepower to operate a root slicer -
whilst Ruth sets up an Emergency Feeding Centre. Subsidized by the government
to provide cheap food off ration for air raid victims, these ‘British
Restaurants’, as Churchill dubbed them, quickly caught on. Eating out had
traditionally been the preserve of the upper class and most ordinary people
had never eaten in public before - many even felt embarrassed at the prospect.
The ‘British Restaurants’, envisaged as a short-term response to food
shortages, made a lasting change to the nation - introducing the concept of
high street dining for the masses.
Part 6
The Wartime Farm team tackle the conditions faced by British farmers in 1943,
when food imports slumped to their lowest level during the war. The government
feared a crisis and after four long years at war, Britain’s farmers were
challenged with somehow increasing food production yet again. There were
renewed shortages of animal feed so Alex and Peter resort to producing a hay
crop from grass in the church yard and use some clever 1940s technology to get
the job done. With tasks mounting up on the farm, the team turn to a popular
source of additional wartime labour - children. Children’s harvest camps were
set up by the Ministry of Agriculture to release kids from school during
periods of urgent need on farms, and over 70,000 pupils took part, paid six
pence an hour to avoid accusations of exploitation. Ruth enlists eager child
labour to collect herbs that were desperately needed by the pharmaceutical
industry to make medicines during the war. But once the job’s done, she has to
feed them. Ruth discovers the methods women used to look good despite the
restrictions of rationing. After making a new dress from old flour sacks, she
gets a makeover from a pair of wartime hair and beauty experts. While Peter is
getting to grips with a vintage hay baling machine, Ruth and Alex attend a
party at the village hall, where they experience a new dance phenomenon
brought to Britain by African-American GIs, the jive.
Part 7
The team face the farming conditions of 1944, when Britain had been at war for
five long years and the fields surrounding Manor Farm filled up with thousands
of troops as the Allies assembled the largest naval task force in history for
the D-Day landings. Farmers did their bit by growing vast amounts of flax,
which was used to make parachute webbing, fighter aircraft fuselages, tents
and ropes, with production in Britain increasing from 1,000 acres to 60,000.
But the wettest summer for a century has devastated the crop at Manor Farm,
and if Alex and Peter are to save it they must take drastic action. The war
brought farmers face to face with the military as never before, and artist Leo
Stevenson follows in the footsteps of the war artists commissioned by the
government to capture the wartime landscape on canvas. As D-Day drew ever
closer, 3.5 million troops packed into southern England. Foreign troops formed
close bonds with the locals, drinking together and playing games. The team
recreate a baseball game that the Americans played here in 1944 and conclude
that the villages of Britain had never been so vibrant.
Part 8
The team face the conditions of 1945 and prepare to tackle the most crucial
event of their farming year: harvesting the wheat crop. They grapple with
weeds, one of the wettest summers in memory and wartime machinery to bring the
crop home, but take a giant leap into the modern era with the arrival of a
1940s combined harvester. As ever, on the wartime farm the goalposts are
constantly moving. The team discover that as the conflict drew to a close, the
need for home-grown food became greater than ever. Exploring countryside
memories of VE Day, they discover how pressure on farmers increased throughout
the final dramatic year of conflict. Victory in Europe meant that Britain had
to share the responsibility for feeding populations across the war-torn
continent whose food supplies had been devastated. On top of that, as soon as
the war ended, American aid stopped. The financial cost of war left Britain
bankrupt and struggling to afford imports, leading to a burden on farmers that
remained long after the war finished. Rationing lasted well into the 1950s. As
a fitting send off, the team celebrate the harvest with a ‘Holiday at Home’ -
inspired by a government scheme to encourage exhausted workers to make the
most of time off without travelling anywhere. Alex has a surprise up his
sleeve to make the party go with a bang, as the team prepare to leave the
Wartime Farm.
