Farming talk at History Society

On Thursday evening the Audlem and District History Society was entertained and enlightened by the interesting talk given by Bill Pearson who is well qualified in agriculture and food to talk on 'Food and farming in South Cheshire around WW1'.

The evening started with a film of advertising, rather like those you would have seen in the cinema, Lyons Maid ice cream, Ice Poles 3d. That brought back some memories!

Bill's talk was well illustrated and he guided us through the photos, graphs and cuttings from newspapers of the day, with humour and knowledge.

We started before the WW1 to look at what farming was like in Cheshire then. Farming in Cheshire has always been mixed, but cows and pigs were kept near railway stations as they had to be walked to market or station. It was also easier to get their products to market – 30,000 tons of Cheshire Cheese were transported on cheese trains in1913.

One of the main changes during WW1 was a lot of the horses were brought and transported to the front and most did not come back. The hunt was stopped which meant the fox population was not kept under control. Some small farmer's were asking for compensation from the hunt for loss of stock.

'Your Country Needs You!'

A lot of farm labourers joined the army, and as the country wasn't importing as much food, so production needed to be kept up. In a lot of cases women stepped into the breach, sometimes called ' Plough women'.

Prisoners of War were also used and cleaned out ditches. Post-war, men did not come back to work on the land in great numbers. There were some holdings for ex-servicemen in Cheshire. Processes had to become more mechanised, there was a drop in the numbers of animals kept and the type of cereals grown.

Thank you Bill Pearson, for such an interesting and informative talk. I now feel I know more about the history of this lovely county. Keep up the good work.

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