“Reputations, Registrations & Rationing” (Shopping from both sides of the counter)
February 2002 Meeting Report
Guest Speaker - Sue Clayton
The February meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society commenced with a minutes’ silence in remembrance of the Society’s Secretary Beryl Mellor who, sadly died in January. Beryl had been the Secretary for the Society since it was founded. Her sudden death came, as a great shock to all who knew her and her passing will leave a void both in peoples’ hearts and in the running of the Society.
Tonight’s guest speaker was Sue Clayton and the manner of her delivery was both enthusiastic and informed. Sue is blessed with that gift for public speaking, which makes their delivery of the subject both interesting and absorbing. Her obvious, deep knowledge of the subject and her ability to communicate that knowledge to the audience made the presentation highly entertaining.
Before the war shops fell into four main categories; 1: Multiples, such as Home and Colonial and Liptons; 2: Co-operatives, of which there were 23 separate societies with 160 branches in Notts; 3: Independents, such as corner shops, of which there were around 5000 in Notts; and 4: market traders and hawkers. Women tended to be the principal shoppers and it was women who would be most affected by the coming changes. On the retail side the bulk of the shopkeepers and assistants tended to be men and that element of the retail trade would soon face dramatic changes too.
Prior to the war Britain was self- sufficient in only two vital foodstuffs; namely milk and potatoes. Everything else needed to be imported and the memory of the menace posed by U-boats in the Great War made the Government only too aware of how difficult it would be to secure those supplies. During 1936 as a future war with Germany became more of a probability than a possibility so the Government began to make provisional plans for the rationing and supply of food to the population in general. The audience were told how much of what occurred in the Second World War in respect of rationing had been learnt from experiences obtained during the First World War, (though many mistakes were repeated too).
As the likelihood of an impending war began to obtrude on the nation in general so people began to take steps to offset the effects of any likely shortages that would necessarily occur. The stockpiling and hoarding of food were the logical outcome of these fears. Initially the Government tried to dissuade people from hoarding food but soon changed their policy to a recommendation that people should have adequate supplies for a fortnight stockpiled in their shelters.
The Ministry of Food was established, with Lord Woolton at its head, to oversee food distribution throughout the whole of the country. The Ministry, in theory, owned all the food in the country and, in practice, was responsible for its supply and distribution. By October 1938 the Ministry had all the Ration Books printed and ready in the event of war being declared. During the summer of 1939 each and every Local Authority established committees to organise the policies, which the Ministry of Food laid down. All food retailers needed to apply for licences to sell food. This was called Registration. To obtain Registration a shopkeeper needed to supply at least twenty-five customers. This had two major consequences, firstly shopkeepers began to tout for customers, and secondly, in less populated, rural areas it was difficult to find that number of people anyway
. At the outset of the war retailers needed a separate licence for each type of food that they sold, this caused some confusions. For example, the Netherfield Co-operative Society applied for, and was granted, a licence to sell meat. However, meat did not include bacon, which was the subject of a separate licence. Thus, when they applied for a supply of bacon they were denied any because they didn’t have the requisite licence. Their customers were less than impressed when they couldn’t obtain their usual supply of bacon there!
After Registration came rationing, with rationing came shortages, with shortages came queues, and with queues came problems. The war had not been in progress too long before problems began to manifest themselves. Many shops still retained their pre-war opening times. Thus they closed at lunch times, still had half-day closing and, in winter, closed early because of the black-out. Problems arose as a result of many women replacing male jobs on the Home Front as a result of male conscription into the Armed Forces. These women workers in a great many cases were still housewives and mothers with families to take care of. Often lunchtimes were the only opportunity that they had to do their shopping and finding a great many shops closed forced them to make unsatisfactory alternative arrangements. The most inconvenient of these was when women started taking days off work to do their shopping and vital war-work suffered as a consequence.
As the war progressed the structuring of registration and rationing was refined to meet the changing demands of the ongoing situation. Again, as the war progressed so more and more items became rationed. At no time however did the system fail. Though there were some very close calls the system never failed to deliver to everyone what their allowance was. By today’s standards that allowance was meagre but, nutritionally, it was very healthy and wholesome, if somewhat boring. By the end of rationing the health of the nation in general was the best that it had ever been. Perversely, as the war ended so rationing got worse. This was as a result of the strain placed on the allies to feed large parts of war-ravaged Europe. It was at this time that the public in general became less and less enamoured of rationing. It was one thing to suffer shortages as a necessary part of the war effort but when the war ended people expected things to get better, not worse. In fact there were more things on the ration after the war than there were during the war. Bread was a case in point, during the war it was never rationed but it went onto the ration in 1946. Rationing did not end finally on all items until 1954.