Shropshire Routes to Roots

This leaflet was printed in the Oswestry and Border Counties Advertiser. Open the image:

• Can you see when meat rationing was to be introduced?
• What did you need to do to get your ration?
• Would you have been able to get your meat from any shop?

These pupils from Whittington have dug up half the school playing field. Under the direction of their headmaster these boys are planting potatoes. Their aim was to supply the needs of the school kitchen for the year.

This poster shows the drive by the Government to encourage farmers to plough up as much meadowland as they could spare. This was very successful. British farmers ploughed up an area of pasture about the size of Wales planting it with wheat and potatoes. This was all part of the campaign for Britain to produce as much of her own food as possible.

The Education Department sent out a series of leaflets to schools with ideas about how they could help with the war effort.

Open the image and see what this leaflet is suggesting that children could do to help. Do you think this was a worthwhile occupation?

People were encouraged to be careful and not to waste anything during the war. Materials for making weapons were urgently needed. Salvage drives were arranged and children collected scrap.

These pupils from Bellam House school, Oswestry can be seen collecting old cooking pots and other aluminium. All this scrap will be used by the war effort and recycled to make aeroplanes.

This stand, which was in the Church Street car park in Oswestry, was for the collection of many different sorts of materials for recycling.

• Can you see what was collected, and what it could be used for?

Here are some ideas: Bones could be made into glue. Envelopes recycled to make bullet cartridges. Hot water bottles and hoses into inflatable boats. Even disused parachutes were used to make underwear! Door to door collections of recyclable materials were common during the war.

Every school was asked to instruct children in knitting and mending. These girls from Pontfadog school are knitting for the Armed Forces. Smaller children knitted squares to be made into blankets, while older children seen here were making hats and socks.

Many schools had wartime cookery classes which provided recipies using meagre rations.

Food scraps were never placed in the bin, but were collected and fed to pigs and chickens. These pigs have been fattened for the market. They have been fed entirely on household waste for over a year.