Slow but sure – the countryside is drawn into the war

The effect of war on the rural economy did not really kick in until late 1915 early 1916.  There were some physical manifestations such as the appropriation of village halls as drill halls or recruiting stations. Naturally there were volunteers but not on anything like the scale in urban areas. From the state’s point of view the numbers of volunteers available in the towns made their recruitment and training easier and cheaper. Quite apart from the economics social conditions played their part. Life may have been tough for farm labourers and the itinerant workers but it was secure and vested in generational stability. Some itinerant labourers volunteered but the numbers were not sufficient to upset the rhythm of rural life. For those working in the factories there was no such security. They were the descendants of the diaspora of the industrial revolution. Living on meagre wages in crowded and unsanitary housing the patriotic act of enlisting was tinged with the excitement of release from the trap of poverty.

As the war ground on circumstances changed. First the need to feed a huge standing army meant the application of industrial methods to the processing and distribution of agricultural products. Second, skilled men lost from the abattoirs and markets, were replaced by farmers and their labourers. A skilled abattoir man could earn far more for much less effort than the daily grind of farm work. Third the blockade of shipping routes was beginning to bite. Finally came conscription, announced in 1915 and enacted in January 1916 for single men, and more deeply (married men 18-41) in May 1916.

Astonishing as it may seem, in August 1914 British farmers provided only enough food for 125 days, the rest had to be imported. The declaration of war at the beginning of August coincided with the harvest. A timely reminder that food security had to be addressed.

Thus there was immediate pressure, which increased through 1916-1918, to grow more food. Marginal land was taken into cultivation, farmers were more likely to gain exemption from conscription, and the itinerant population disappeared (this itinerant workforce did not recover post-war). More and more women worked on the land in what were previously male jobs.

At the same time as this was happening advances in the mechanisation of warfare was being translated into industrial and agricultural equipment. The growth of large-scale agribusiness, particularly arable, was only possible with the advent of tractors and harvesters. The landscape we have today especially in the east of the country was shaped by the events of war. At the start of the war the horse was the motive power on the land. The million or so that were killed in the conflict were never replaced.

On a local level the cost of the failing economy leading into war, and then its debts, fuelled the auctions of local estates such as the Onslow estate at Oxenhall (1913) and the Beauchamp lands and farms at Kempley & Dymock, and Redmarley D’Abitôt (1919). In the same vein the men who did not return (see Dymock remembers) left behind a changed social order. We see those men being replaced by machines and the ancient rhythm of agriculture changed to the noise of the machine.

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John O'Keefe

Appendix

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