Dig for Victory! New histories of wartime gardening in Britain

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 38, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 294-305

  Ginn, Franklin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Austerity; Britain; Dig for Victory; Domestic; Gardening; Home Front

Indexed keywords

CLASS; FOOD PRODUCTION; GENDER RELATIONS; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE;

UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 84863097206     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: 10958614     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhg.2012.02.001     Document Type: Article

References (135)

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51. Originally titled The Domestic Food Producer's Council, the AGC included representatives from the Women's Institute, the Allotment's Society, the Royal Horticultural Society, Ministry of Food, the Board of Education, Society of Friend's Allotments, Institute of Parks, National Council of Social Service, Townswomen's Guilds, HorticulturalEducation Associations, County Council Associations, Urban District Council Association and more. Most of the practical work issuing guidance and information, funding, fielding questions and providing information was devolved to a small Finance and General Purposes Committee, which met 8e10 times a year (see TNA MAF 43/43, 1941e1949)
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53. Re-organisation of the Home Intelligence Division, TNA INF 1/101, . The role of Mass Observation was controversial in many quarters: Churchill believed he could get all the information he needed on public morale by reading the papers; newspapers accused the government of 'snooping'; and many within the MOI disputed therelevance of 'hearsay' and subjective opinion (I. McLaine, Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War II, London, 1979). As Highmore notes, 'Continually weaving between a truly surreal anthropology at home, and the more banal and often oppressive practices of market research and governmental census, Mass Observation sticks out as an awkward moment in the study of everyday culture' (B. Highmore (Ed.), The Everyday Life Reader, London, 2002, 146)20021940e1945
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56. R. Moore-Colyer, Back to basics: Rolf Gardiner, H. J. Massingham and 'a kinship in husbandry', Rural History 12 (2001) 85e108.
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61. M. Reed, Fight the future! How the contemporary organic campaigns have arisen from their composting of the past, Sociologia Ruralis 41 (2001) 131e145
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64. J. Murdoch and N. Ward, Governmentality and territoriality e the statistical manufacture of Britain's 'national farm', Political Geography 16 (1997) 307e324.
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69. Horticultural advisory council, allotment and gardens sub-committee minutes, TNA MAF 43/63, 31 July 1939, 2.
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71. Wartime Social Survey No.20, Dig for Victory: A Study of the Impact of the Campaign to Encourage Vegetable Growing in Gardens and Allotments for the Ministry of Agriculture (hereafter WSS, 1942), TNA RG 23/26, 1942, 51. The Dig for Victory survey included a questionnaire to 3000 gardeners and allotment holders (1300 allotmenteers, 1300 gardeners, 400 both) and interviews with a smaller sample. WSS, 1942 (note 54).1942
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74. C. Middleton, War Time Allotments, London, 1940, 12.
75. WSS, 1942 (note 54)1942.
76. WSS, 1942 (note 54)the phrase 'orderly cropping' appears regularly in AGC minutes and Ministerial speeches, TNA MAF 43/41. 1942
77. WSS, 1942 (note 54), 56Question to Hudson, Minister of Agriculture, on surplus food, AGC minutes of meetings and papers, TNA MAF 43/52 1 , 1940e1941, .
78. Question to Hudson, Minister of Agriculture, on surplus food, AGC minutes of meetings and papers, TNA MAF 43/52, 1940e1941, 1.
79. Letter from Dutton to Mares, TNA MAF 38/172, 1942.
80. Briefing on backyard poultry, TNA MAF 43/48, 1941, 1.
81. Miss Talbot, Garden owners and food production paper twelve, AGC minutes of meetings and papers, TNA MAF 43/52, 1940.
82. Minutes of joint sub-committee of the publicity advisory committee and the domestic food producer's council, TNA MAF 43/50, 5 September 1940.
83. AGC minutes, TNA MAF 43/50, 19 September 1942.
84. Extract from minute sheet, AGC minutes of meetings and papers, TNA MAF 43/52, WTA 1010, 5 August 1940.
85. WSS, 1942 (note 54)Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Agricultural Statistics, 1939e1944: England and Wales, London 2 , 51 1948
86. M. HigonnetBehind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars, New Haven, 1987.
87. Gubar, This is my rifle, this is my gun (note 32).
88. S. Constantine, Amateur gardening and popular recreation in the 19th and 20th centuries, Journal of Social History 14 (1981) 387e406.
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93. A.J. Macself, The Women's Treasury for Home and Garden, London: Amateur Gardening Offices, 1936.
94. Mr Hudson launches third dig for victory campaign: appeals to women to dig, Agriculture briefs and speeches, TNA MAF 45/9, 29 September 1941.
95. 'Dig for Victory', Ministry of Information, 7 minutes, 1942.
96. Cinema attendance stayed high during the war, particularly among lower income groups, averaging between 19 and 30 million visits per week. During WWII the Ministry of Information commissioned over 1887 films; this included 87 short films giving gardening advice (see H.Waley, British documentaries and the war effort, The Public Opinion Quarterly 6 (1942) 604e609
97. Higonnet, Behind the Lines (note 71), 5
98. Crouch and Parker, Digging up utopia (note 10), on the contemporary re-figuration of this poster.
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108. WSS, 1942 (note 54)1942, 20.
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