Cheshire
was traditionally an agricultural area known at the beginning of the twentieth
century for its dairy farming: the production of milk, cheese, butter, beef, mutton, and bacon. From a few years before
the First World War the population started to increase, shown in the census of
1911. Expansion was mainly in areas adjacent to Manchester & Liverpool to
the North of the county where industry developed along with the need for large amounts
of suburban housing for the workers. The population of the rural areas remained
static at an average of 0.4 persons per acre. The development of industry
threatened the dominance of agriculture and saw the original social leaders,
mainly landowners, gradually replaced by businessmen and industrialists. The
map below shows the main areas of industry in 1901.
During the
First World War, after January 1917, British farmers were expected to feed the
nation to prevent impending starvation. Ploughing arable land and planting
grain and potatoes was urgently needed, as four times more people could be fed
by growing crops than by grazing cattle. The national threat of starvation was
due to Britain’s 80% reliance on grain from overseas which was being sunk by enemy
submarines. Also, the severe and lengthy winter rotted the potato crop in the
ground; this removed most of the bread and all potatoes from the diet for
several months, felt acutely by the poorer classes, as prices of most food
items soared.
The ability
to feed the population caused great alarm in Cheshire initially. Cheshire War
Agricultural Committee Minutes for January 1917 show a level of panic at being
unable to support government plans to increase home-grown food, as much of the
agricultural labour had been recruited into the army. Being asked by the Board
of Agriculture to identify which land could be ploughed “at once” led committee
members to say “it’s pointless identifying which land should be ploughed if we
don’t have the manpower to do it.” and “It was worse than useless to break up
pasture land while considerable areas of arable land are unable to be properly
cultivated for lack of skilled labour.” Also ploughing machinery was broken
with few skilled mechanics to repair and maintain it. They appealed to the
newly-formed Board of Agriculture for help.
From 23rd
February the army provided 250 soldiers to help farmers, this number increased
to 347 from 2nd March and 450 from 10th March. But due to
the severe, lengthy winter, ploughing could not start until mid-March by which
time bread and potato shortages were felt acutely by the population, so that every
other avenue to help farmers was also explored. On 3rd March the National
Service Director of Agriculture made an urgent appeal for ploughmen, he said
there was only 6 weeks left to plant the spring crops. Newly acquired motor
tractors fitted with acetylene lamps could plough 24-hours a day in 3 8-hour
shifts, 7 days a week. He asked for those who had taken up work in towns to
return to the land for 2 months, particularly identifying policemen as likely
to have ploughing skills due to their previous employment. The Cheshire
Observer said ploughmen were needed “for the immediate national emergency
is of the utmost importance.” From 17th
March when the weather broke ploughing began, below is a picture of one of the
small number of motor tractors loaned to Cheshire by the Board of Agriculture.
Policemen
were also requested to help with the harvest of 1917, but there is no record of
whether they were able to be released on this occasion.
@drmaryfraser
On
23rd March Cheshire’s Executive Committee noted that the Chief
Constable of Cheshire had agreed to release policemen with ploughing
experience. The Chester Chronicle reported that they would be released
at once and the Nantwich Guardian said that around 25 constables had
been identified and 2 or 3 had already been placed on farms. By the end of
March farmers in Cheshire had requested help from 397 skilled men.
Cheshire
County was one of the first to agree to the release of their policemen to
plough the fields in March and April 1917. Their Chief Constable Major (later
Lt. Colonel) Pulteney Malcolm had sufficient
standing that he agreed the release before making a formal proposal to the
Standing Joint Committee. The success of these policemen is seen in the thanks
the Chief Constable received from the Mayor of Chester, published in the local
press.
Around
Britain between 500-600 policemen were released to help to plough and provide assistance
to farmers during the spring of 1917. Some were released again for the harvest.
However, the help of policemen to prevent the nation from starvation has so far
been unrecognised. This project aims to identify the locations and numbers of
policemen released for this vital role in the First World War and in doing so
shows the social conscience of the police.
Bibliography
Fraser,
M. (2019) Policing the Home front: The control of the British population at
war. Abingdon: Routledge.
Harris, B.E.
(Ed.) (1979) A History of the County of Cheshire. Volume II. The
Institute of Historical Research: Oxford University Press.
Lee, M.
(1963) Social Leaders and Public Persons: A study of County Government in
Cheshire since 1888. Oxford: The Clarendon Press
Sylvester, D. & Nulty, G. (1958) The Historical Atlas of
Cheshire. Chester: The Cheshire Community Council
@drmaryfraser
