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Message 2 - Rationing

Posted on: 06 June 2003 by Margaret Hooker

Hello Mark

Born in 1947 I am too young to remember much about rationing but I do remember my Mum and Nan going with the books. Some things didn't come off rationing until I was maybe 4 or 5, I think sweets and sugar were in the later ones.
We had a pony and trap instead of a car and living in Thornton Heath, Surrey a favorite 'outing' was to Derby Day at Epsom. Well, the day petrol came off ration was Derby Day 1950 or at least that week and we were picked out on Pathe News!!
We were featured in our pony and trap and the reporter in his unmistakable 'Pathe News' voice said something like "Surely these people don't know that petrol is off ration!"
I have a video with this on it - one of these year videos that were on the go for a while.
I really think we could ALL do with a bit of rationing these days - people would be healthier and there wouldn't be so much obesity which; in a lot of cases (I think) is down to pure gluttony - not need!!
On a personal note I would really benefit if chocolate was rationed!!

Come on all of you - share some real memories - I am really looking forward to reading them!

Message 3 - Rationing

Posted on: 06 June 2003 by Margaret Hooker

duplicate message

Message 4 - Rationing

Posted on: 10 June 2003 by Montague Trout

My Father's recollections. Shine On Harvey Moon!

"Rationing, as you may know gradually ended and finally ended in 1952/53 so being approx. 13 years old I am aware of the coupon books issued - as seen in museums or on 'Dad's Army'. Your Nan like all the shoppers did their best with the little they could get and the limited available in the shops.

Sweets must have come off rationing earlier as I can remember being able to have a Mars bar when quite young. There were horse meat shops to help out with the meat rationing as far as I can remember. My uncle Ted was billeted (lived) with a family in Antwerp during the war and continued the friendship after. In 1947, my mother, my sister Frances and I (aged 7/8) went to Antwerp for a holiday, three weeks. During the three weeks I saw and tasted sweets I had never seen before, bananas that were not available, brown soft sugar never seen before. They didn't suffer rationing. Dietians have commented that the wartime diet was very good as it gave everybody a balanced healthy diet. Sugar was difficult to get as it was also on ration. Considering the Belgians surrendered and were occupied for most of the war they seemed to revive much quicker. They did put up with a lot of abuse during the German occupation. Perhaps they did not have to buy there weapons etc from the U.S.A.

I was given a toy army lorry to bring home with me. On the bottom 'Made In Great Britain'. I am never sure whether G.B. won the war or not."

Message 5 - Rationing

Posted on: 12 June 2003 by haydnj1s

I remember the first sugar mouse I ever saw, up to that time, in Wales at least, my mother used to make her own treacle toffee and sweets with rations obtained from the Black market. (she was eventually caught, but let off because the jp was a customer of hers) At the time she ran a cafe in Llandulas North Wales so we had extra supplies for that as well, also we used to have treats that doctors would frown upon nowadays, Dripping Butties and Sugar butties. The only shortages that seemed to affect us kids was clothing, I spent most of the summers in bare feet, to keep the boots for winter and fireworks, we'd heard about these but would only been able to indoor types which didn't do a lot except create smoke and ash. Luckily, we lived across the road from a quarry so knew how a banger should sound like. My father as a blaster and would sometimes set off blasting caps for us as a treat after a successful blast. Also he would let us help setting the charges, where was health and safety then.Generally, rationing didn't really affect us as kids, except that you wouldn't see any cars for days on end, the roads were safe and the police and the local AA were on small motor bikes or push bikes.
In general it was the gossip of the women in the shops when we were dragged there that mentioned things like bananas and fruit, the first banana I saw was rationed off in the local grocers in 1949 and raise about 拢1 for the local memorial fund. The quarry managers wife bought it and gave it to the local cottage hospital in Colwyn Bay.

Message 6 - Rationing

Posted on: 14 June 2003 by Alan Vickers

Hi - I cannot remember too much about what Ration Books were like but I seem to recall that they were about 12 cms square with a number of pages printed on fairly poor quality paper. The covers of the books were coloured according to the category. A friend of mine still has her book but I believe that this will be for the period after the war as rationing continued for a number of years afterwards.

I believe that rationing did see that people got a reasonably fair share but inevitably there was unfairness and a black market resulted in all areas.

Petrol was only available for essential services.

I can remember the dried eggs but cannot recall very much about them - there was nothing to compare it with as real eggs were very scarce. Spam did not have very much taste and it was still around some years after the war - I remember that when I started work in 1949, and for some years afterwards, you could buy a 'spam sandwich' at the canteen.

I can remember that at one stage you were only allowed a 2 ounce bar of chocolate.

There was a lot of 'digging for victory', and areas of grass land were dup up or ploughed so as to grow vegetables.

There were no bananas to buy in the shops.

Alan Vickers.

Message 7 - Rationing

Posted on: 14 June 2003 by Alan Vickers

I remember that there was a shortage of fruit and at one time my mother bought a quantity of English grown 'Bramley' apples. These were wrapped in newspaper and put into boxes which were stored under the bed and after a few weeks we started to eat the apples. In the autumn we went out into the hedgerows and picked blackberries. These were used to make jam, often used with apples.

It was after the war in about 1946 or 1947 that I was first able to buy ice cream.

My wife recalls that when she started work in 1950 in a grocer's shop, one of her jobs was to take a keg of butter and make it into small pats of 2, 4, 6, or 8 ounces for sale to customers. Butter was still in short supply and this was the shop-owner's method of trying to see that customers got fair treatment by seeing that they only got 2 ounces per person per person. The same may have applied also to Lard.

Message 8 - Rationing

Posted on: 11 September 2003 by labernum

I remember the recipes that were handed from neighbour to neighbour. How to make that wartime margarine taste like butter, how to make salad dressing (with condensed milk and vinegar..blehhh), how to make an eggless butterless spongecake (!).

One egg per person per week, unless you were fortunate enough to be able to keep a hen or two..then your ration book coupons could be used to buy the occasional coarse grain to feed them.

Few people had pets, I believe it was against the law to feed an animal food that could be eaten by humans. Pig bins on the street corner so that any peelings/scraps could be fed to pigs. They smelled on a hot day.

Bread and milk delivered by horse and cart..being sent out with a bucket to pick up the manure to put onto the rhubarb. Very humiliating when your friends were watching.

First banana around 1947. Rationing still in existence in 1953 when I had to buy tea and sugar for the office.

Message 2 - Sweets

Posted on: 18 June 2003 by Alan Vickers

What I do remember is that sweets and chocolate were in very short supply. They were all rationed and the quantities that you were allowed were changed from time to time. At one stage I recall that you were allowed one 2 ounce bar of chocolate or its equivalent in sweets per month.

I recall my mother at one time making toffee in a tray and sometimes making mint sweets. However some of the ingredients, eg butter and sugar, were rationed and so this could only be done at the expense of other cooking.

Alan Vickers.

Message 3 - Sweets

Posted on: 27 June 2003 by Gwen Stone

I remember Dolly Mixtures ,Chocolate Chewing nuts. and whipped cream walnuts,that my Father bought my Mother when possible, but my Brother Ken williams told me I had to throw one over my shoulder for the Fairies ( I was three yrs younger and very gullable) I never understood why he had to go back for something!
Gwen stone

Message 2 - rationing

Posted on: 05 July 2003 by Betty Mac(nee Kealy)

Rationing only applied to poor people. If you had enough money you could buy anything you wanted, at inflated price. Mostly the food was very boring. My Mother was an excellent manager and creative with what there was. My Father dug up our flower gardens and grew vegetables and his own tobbacco. He also had an allotment and we had all the soft fruits plus the inevitable rhubarb.My Mother salted runner beans and bottled tomatoes and I still cannot waste any kind of food.

Message 3 - rationing

Posted on: 13 July 2003 by Barney's Bucksaws

My Great Auntie Jennie lived in England and corresponded with my Mother in Canada all through the war, and long afterward. I have several of her letters, carefully preserved for whatever reason. Here's a quote from one written in 1942:

"So you are commencing rations. We get very little without now, even children's sweets & the allowance for each is 2 ounces per week, & only children can have oranges, allowanced & nothing for adults ever since the war. Bananas & lemons also. We do not complain, but some people must find it very hard. We have one shillings worth of meat a week each, so big ovens are not necessary now, however there is too much of this to write about. If only the war would end. Most automobiles are off the road. No one must use one unless for very special reasons to be applied for. Of course all drapery stuff & clothing rationed."

She was living with her daughter in Maidenhead at this point as her big house in London had been damaged, and she was trying to get it repaired, with materials for that rationed as well. She says it was 3 hours to get to London, and with automobile use limited. It must have been hard on Old Auntie!

Message 2 - British Restarants

Posted on: 13 July 2003 by Les Alexander

We had a British Restaurant in my home town of Seaham in Co. Durham. I had a meal there from time to time and they were good and wholesome but nothing fancy. I think 6d for a dinner 3d for a pudding.

One of the problems faced by the Management was that some people felt that the cutlery in the restaurant was better than what they had at home and considerable quanties of knives, forks and spoons went A.W.L. The Seaham Food Central Committee had to provide staff just to see that there were no 'eating irons' taken home.

This restaurant was also used for fund raising events such as bring and buy, whist competitions etc.

Les Alexander

Message 3 - British Restarants

Posted on: 15 July 2003 by Mark E

Hi Les and Katie

Just a quick query really - is there anything significant in that you both called restaurants 'British Restaurants'? Was this a particular chain of restaurants, or a patriotic term adopted for the duration?

Just curious...

Many thanks, Mark

Message 4 - British Restarants

Posted on: 15 July 2003 by Researcher 230380

Katie here Mark I'm afraid I don't know why the feeding stations were called British Restaurants. Patriotic name maybe , they were my husband tells me run by local councils, so no doubt there will be answers somewhere in the council offices archives, or someone on the web site may know,and give us the answer?

Message 5 - British Restarants

Posted on: 15 July 2003 by Researcher 230380

Katie here Mark I'm afraid I don't know why the feeding stations were called British Restaurants. Patriotic name maybe , they were my husband tells me run by local councils, so no doubt there will be answers somewhere in the council offices archives, or someone on the web site may know,and give us the answer?

Message 6 - British Restarants

Posted on: 16 July 2003 by Les Alexander

No, Mark, the British Restaurants came into being as a government scheme and could easily have been called National Restaurants, rather like the name National Coal Board. The restaurants were overseen by Local Food Committees under the umbrella of the Ministry of Food. The idea was that the people could have a good quality and wholesome meal without having to give up coupons from the ration book. If by chance you had used up most of your coupons for a particular week then you could still have food available in the British Restaurant.

These restaurants were not run on commercial lines and, indeed, though they were clean and well run the appearance of the interior was much like a works canteen. In the case of the restaurant in my home town of Seaham, local allotment holders often supplied surplus vegetables and during the annual shows all of the produce was donated to the British Restaurant after the show.

All food waste from the restaurant was handed over to the local council pig smallholding. This smallholding was manned by a couple of council workers and volunteers who had an interest in the work. They also had a rabbit breeding programme in order to supplement the meat supply. So, you see then, there was really nothing wasted in those days.

Les Alexander 16/07/03

Message 7 - British Restarants

Posted on: 16 July 2003 by Mark E

Thanks Both

I'd never heard of them before, very interesting. I suppose if I had thought about it, I'd have figured out it would be a good thing to do.

Thanks again, I've learned something today :-)

Message 8 - British Restarants

Posted on: 01 August 2003 by Researcher 236967

My father, along with hundreds of others in Rugby, did 'essential work' at the BTH. At lunchtime, some people would cycle into town, up the steep hill, to eat in the British Restaurant.
It was here that my father, to his great pleasure, had an anchovy one day! 'They must have captured an Italian boat' he used to say. He also had garlic there, something unknown to my stodge-cooking mother!

Message 9 - British Restarants

Posted on: 01 August 2003 by Les Alexander

If I am allowed to stretch the topic referred to by Researcher 236976 - my dad lived in Rugby but worked at the aircraft factory at Coventry making Wellington bombers throughout the war. Afterwards he worked at BTH for some time then at the Rootes car factory. He lived in Long Lawford though I do not know if he ever took any meals at the British Restaurant in Rugby
Les Alexander
1 August,'03

Message 10 - British Restarants

Posted on: 01 August 2003 by Les Alexander

If I am allowed to stretch the topic referred to by Researcher 236976 - my dad lived in Rugby but worked at the aircraft factory at Coventry making Wellington bombers throughout the war. Afterwards he worked at BTH for some time then at the Rootes car factory. He lived in Long Lawford though I do not know if he ever took any meals at the British Restaurant in Rugby
Les Alexander
1 August,'03

Message 11 - British Restarants

Posted on: 01 August 2003 by Mark E

I'm sure I'm being daft - BTH??? What does that stand for?!

Message 12 - British Restarants

Posted on: 02 August 2003 by Les Alexander

BTH stands for British, Thompson, Huston Ltd.; I'm not quite sure if the last name is spelt correctly. I think that they were manufacturers of electrical windings for motors.Are they still in business, Researcher 236976? I know the hill you mention going into Rugby, up past the cement factory, yes? My brother lives near Rugby but I live in the North East of England.
Les Alexander
2 August, '03

Message 13 - British Restarants

Posted on: 04 August 2003 by Mark E

Ah, right. Thanks Les

Message 14 - British Restaurants

Posted on: 14 August 2003 by Researcher 236967

Hello Les

British Thompson Houston became GEC under Weinstock (I think). They made turbines mainly, and were hit by only one minor bomb during WW2. It shrank to just about nothing in the late 60s. It's a waste land now, full of industrial estates selling rubbish. The BTH War Memorial is still there, though.

In my father's time at the BTH (he ground gears), everyone in Rugby worked there at one time or another. 7.30 am till 5.30 pm. for those in the factory.

Wrong hill! BTH was at the bottom of the Murray Road hill, going down under the railway tunnel. The one you mention is the Lawford Road hill, going out towards Coventry. There's only one way out of Rugby that doesn't involve a hill!

Rugby was once full of cyclists. Not now. They get run over by cars.

Message 15 - British Restarants

Posted on: 25 August 2003 by Alan Vickers

The story of how the British Restaurants came into being is told at the website for the North East Diary, 1939-45 at www.swinhope.myby.co.uk/NE-Diary/Bck/BSeq_03.html and there is a note of the first British Restauraunt being opened in Newcastle upon Tyne, together with its menu, on the same website at www.swinhope.myby.co.uk/NE-Diary/Inc/ISeq_24.html

I can remember a British Restaurant at Houghton-le-Spring, only a few miles from that at Seaham mentioned by Les Alexander.

Alan Vickers.

Message 16 - British Restarants

Posted on: 19 September 2003 by Frank Mee Researcher 241911

Leaving school at 16 and starting an apprencticeship one of the things the Boss insisted on was that all us boys ate at the Alma Street British Restuarant in Stockton. His idea was growing lads needed a good square meal at lunch time. For a couple of coppers we got Dinner and Sweet, the lady's behind the bar being very heavy handed when we fresh faced lads arrived each day. It was the last few months of the war but I can remember that restuarant still going strong for a long time after the war finished and you did not need afternoon snacks after one of their puddings and custard. It was a much apreciated Government run cookhouse that set us up for the Army later, we had got used to the food, I loved them.
Frank Mee

Message 2 - Not a Bad War Foodwise

Posted on: 19 September 2003 by labernum

Good grief.. you sure ate well! We had neither the coupons for food or the money for black market items.

Never saw any fat people then and obesity was unheard of.

Message 3 - Not a Bad War Foodwise

Posted on: 19 September 2003 by Frank Mee Researcher 241911

Hi Laburnum,
What I was saying is we had plenty where many had nothing, anyone on basic rations was in for a thin time. It did not mean we stuffed our guts only that we did not suffer.
We never needed money for black market and i never saw any one paying for food, we swapped around, there were people who would rather have bacon or ham instead of butter or sugar so we exchanged. A lot of it was down to my Fathers hard work in the garden and looking after the animals as well as doing his normal job plus Firewatching at night.
You could say that I as a kid at the time was pampered but others worked dammed hard for my comfort it did not come that easy. Always look in the background before leaping in is the way to go.
frank.