Resources Search Results - full record

Title INTERVIEW WITH JOHN STANBRIDGE - FARMING DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Description John farmed St Agnells farm in partnership with his father - SG Stanbridge and son.

When I left school I went straight into farming and that caused all sorts of problems. Everyone said I was a fool. It was a waste because I'd got *matric. When the war came along none of my friends held it against me that I was in a reserved occupation but their mothers did. Their little boys had gone away and I hadn't. ** Arthur Gilkes was a sergeant major in the guards and I told him what was happening. He said, "Forget about it. This country's done if we haven't got food." That was seconded. We had a Welsh school teacher billeted on us. She had a Welsh husband who used to come and visit her and he said the same thing only this country's lost without food AND coal.

We had 2 Land Girls working for us after 2 years, Phylis Grifiths and Pat Adderley. Very, very good they were. What I could never understand - you can picture the old-fashioned, grumpy farm labourers - and they got on so well together. I put it down to the girls had got enough sense that when the old boys offered advice that's what they were doing, not finding fault with them and in the end they became quite proud of each other. The girls did all the dirty jobs because they were the less physical jobs. These old boys, (the farm labourers) if they could help them, they would.

When the war started it was immediately directed that in all houses with private gardens and gardeners, and there were a number of large houses with gardens in those days, the gardeners had to do 4 days' work on farms. It was the worst labour we had. They thought they were superior to us country bumpkins. The next thing they brought in was a compulsory order to grow certain acreage of potatoes but we hadn't got the labour to pick them so the order went out from the government that all schools had to give school boys a fortnight off for potato picking. It was quite alright until one boy threw a potato at another and then it was quite interesting stopping potato fights. "One boy a boy, two boys half a boy and three boys no boy at all". But they were cheerful and happy!

Another thing. They brought in a regulation that army camps in the area had to send a certain percentage of their men to work on the farm. Well, if you had the same two men all week you paid their money to the army but if you had different men each day on their day off they could keep their money which was more popular. One day we had a very cocky PE instructor who tried to impress our land girls with the speed of his work. Our two girls soon had him on his knees. He found out he had muscles on that day that he didn't know he had. We were very proud of our land girls that day.

We also had German prisoners of war. They were absolutely superb. Of course, they'd all been screened so there were no Nazis amongst them and they all came from farming backgrounds. I remember one winter - I was in charge of a hedging gang. They were used to obeying orders; whatever you told them to do they did it and they didn't try to keep the job going on to avoid new tasks. They got on with the job and finished it. There was no trouble between the girls and them. But the thing they missed was children. If anybody came into the fields with children, they played with them. Another thing - I didn't do German at school but I could talk to them. There were so many anglicised words that we could hold conversations. I remember one old boy. He had a big white beard - we used to call him Father Christmas. I had a little argument with him one day and he said, "Let's agree to differ. I only know what Hitler's told me and you only know what Churchill's told you." How can you answer that argument? Mr Healey, one of our farm labourers and our hay and grain rick builder, was a local church warden, and one of the Germans was very religious; they used to work on the ricks together singing hymns, one in English and one in German. When the war finished a lot of them (the German POWs)stayed here and married English girls.

When the war started there was a big searchlight near where we lived. This three acre site was off Holtsmere End Lane. It had machine gun posts, a guard house, kitchens, mess hall, dormitories all surrounding the searchlight. This site was originally manned by the Royal Engineers from the end of July 1939. After about a year the men were replaced by the ATS (women) with the exception of the man who ran the electric dynamo. On nights when they were not looking for German planes, they used to aim the searchlight vertically up. This combined with other units were a kind of signpost system for our bomber planes that were based in Lincolnshire. When the German raids became less frequent it was closed down and the buildings used as a German prisoner hostel.

The Germans were sent to different farms depending on where they were needed. They didn't try to escape though there was no one guarding them on the farm. We used to give them all an extra ration of tea to keep them going and when I was hedging I used to put a bag of potatoes in the estate car and we cooked them in a fire .If you have never tasted potatoes roasted in the fire ashes you have never tasted potatoes. They were smashing. The bloke on the farm next to me was Brocks' firework factory and we used to have some big bonfire nights after the war and cook potatoes in the ashes. Lovely.

One amusing thing that happened with Brocks was that they used to make mortar flares for the army. These had to be thrown into the air up to fifteen hundred feet before they lit up. They were suspended on SILK parachutes for five minutes. The land girls chased after the falling parachutes, regardless of the job they were doing; I was told that they were used to make underwear. I also had to join the chase as my mother and sister wanted their share.

Another regulation they brought in. We've always been pioneers on the farm and very well equipped. All farms had a yearly examination set by the War Agricultural Committee. You were classed in 3 grades, A, B and C. If you were C they thought you were no good at all and took your farm away and either farmed it themselves or gave it to a neighbouring farmer. B - You were not doing a bad job but you had to take advice. If they thought you were perfect, you were A which I'm pleased to say we were. On top of that there was a sort of semi-distinction for those they thought were doing very good and you were the subject of a visit. They used to visit on Sunday and pointed out what you were doing right and what you were doing wrong if they could find it.

The government told us what to grow. They concentrated on wheat and potatoes which meant all the general little farms had to plough up all their land to grow wheat.

During the 1940 Battle of Britain sheep had to be evacuated because they and their shepherds were in danger. They came from the Romney Marches and the Battle of Britain was being fought over their heads. All the farmers round here had to feed them until their time was up.

There was another hazard that we had to keep our eyes open for. This was when the RAF were practising low flying. It was called 'hedge hopping', and it really was! On one occasion I was cultivating a field with a hill on the side of a valley (Agnells Hill); I was at the top of the hill when a Spitfire flew through the valley. I saw the TOP surface of his wings.

* Matric - this refers to matriculation, the equivalent of GCSE exams today.
**Arthur Gilkes - He had been Head boy two years before I left. He had worked for Nat West Bank before the war. He was amongst the first British troops that freed Guernsey in 1945. He married a local girl and became a Bank manager in Guernsey.

Interview by Lynda Abbott and Fay Breed
December 2011

Keywords Farming; St Agnells farm; Land Army; German POWs; searchlight; battle of Britain

Collection Home Front

Place Hemel Hempstead

Year 1939-1945

Conflict World War Two

File type html

Record ID number 211

Return to the search results?

Can you add any more information to this resource?

If so please complete this form and we will be in touch

Change text size -

Title	INTERVIEW WITH JOHN STANBRIDGE - FARMING DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Description	John farmed St Agnells farm in partnership with his father - SG Stanbridge and son. When I left school I went straight into farming and that caused all sorts of problems. Everyone said I was a fool. It was a waste because I'd got matric. When the war came along none of my friends held it against me that I was in a reserved occupation but their mothers did. Their little boys had gone away and I hadn't. * Arthur Gilkes was a sergeant major in the guards and I told him what was happening. He said, "Forget about it. This country's done if we haven't got food." That was seconded. We had a Welsh school teacher billeted on us. She had a Welsh husband who used to come and visit her and he said the same thing only this country's lost without food AND coal. We had 2 Land Girls working for us after 2 years, Phylis Grifiths and Pat Adderley. Very, very good they were. What I could never understand - you can picture the old-fashioned, grumpy farm labourers - and they got on so well together. I put it down to the girls had got enough sense that when the old boys offered advice that's what they were doing, not finding fault with them and in the end they became quite proud of each other. The girls did all the dirty jobs because they were the less physical jobs. These old boys, (the farm labourers) if they could help them, they would. When the war started it was immediately directed that in all houses with private gardens and gardeners, and there were a number of large houses with gardens in those days, the gardeners had to do 4 days' work on farms. It was the worst labour we had. They thought they were superior to us country bumpkins. The next thing they brought in was a compulsory order to grow certain acreage of potatoes but we hadn't got the labour to pick them so the order went out from the government that all schools had to give school boys a fortnight off for potato picking. It was quite alright until one boy threw a potato at another and then it was quite interesting stopping potato fights. "One boy a boy, two boys half a boy and three boys no boy at all". But they were cheerful and happy! Another thing. They brought in a regulation that army camps in the area had to send a certain percentage of their men to work on the farm. Well, if you had the same two men all week you paid their money to the army but if you had different men each day on their day off they could keep their money which was more popular. One day we had a very cocky PE instructor who tried to impress our land girls with the speed of his work. Our two girls soon had him on his knees. He found out he had muscles on that day that he didn't know he had. We were very proud of our land girls that day. We also had German prisoners of war. They were absolutely superb. Of course, they'd all been screened so there were no Nazis amongst them and they all came from farming backgrounds. I remember one winter - I was in charge of a hedging gang. They were used to obeying orders; whatever you told them to do they did it and they didn't try to keep the job going on to avoid new tasks. They got on with the job and finished it. There was no trouble between the girls and them. But the thing they missed was children. If anybody came into the fields with children, they played with them. Another thing - I didn't do German at school but I could talk to them. There were so many anglicised words that we could hold conversations. I remember one old boy. He had a big white beard - we used to call him Father Christmas. I had a little argument with him one day and he said, "Let's agree to differ. I only know what Hitler's told me and you only know what Churchill's told you." How can you answer that argument? Mr Healey, one of our farm labourers and our hay and grain rick builder, was a local church warden, and one of the Germans was very religious; they used to work on the ricks together singing hymns, one in English and one in German. When the war finished a lot of them (the German POWs)stayed here and married English girls. When the war started there was a big searchlight near where we lived. This three acre site was off Holtsmere End Lane. It had machine gun posts, a guard house, kitchens, mess hall, dormitories all surrounding the searchlight. This site was originally manned by the Royal Engineers from the end of July 1939. After about a year the men were replaced by the ATS (women) with the exception of the man who ran the electric dynamo. On nights when they were not looking for German planes, they used to aim the searchlight vertically up. This combined with other units were a kind of signpost system for our bomber planes that were based in Lincolnshire. When the German raids became less frequent it was closed down and the buildings used as a German prisoner hostel. The Germans were sent to different farms depending on where they were needed. They didn't try to escape though there was no one guarding them on the farm. We used to give them all an extra ration of tea to keep them going and when I was hedging I used to put a bag of potatoes in the estate car and we cooked them in a fire .If you have never tasted potatoes roasted in the fire ashes you have never tasted potatoes. They were smashing. The bloke on the farm next to me was Brocks' firework factory and we used to have some big bonfire nights after the war and cook potatoes in the ashes. Lovely. One amusing thing that happened with Brocks was that they used to make mortar flares for the army. These had to be thrown into the air up to fifteen hundred feet before they lit up. They were suspended on SILK parachutes for five minutes. The land girls chased after the falling parachutes, regardless of the job they were doing; I was told that they were used to make underwear. I also had to join the chase as my mother and sister wanted their share. Another regulation they brought in. We've always been pioneers on the farm and very well equipped. All farms had a yearly examination set by the War Agricultural Committee. You were classed in 3 grades, A, B and C. If you were C they thought you were no good at all and took your farm away and either farmed it themselves or gave it to a neighbouring farmer. B - You were not doing a bad job but you had to take advice. If they thought you were perfect, you were A which I'm pleased to say we were. On top of that there was a sort of semi-distinction for those they thought were doing very good and you were the subject of a visit. They used to visit on Sunday and pointed out what you were doing right and what you were doing wrong if they could find it. The government told us what to grow. They concentrated on wheat and potatoes which meant all the general little farms had to plough up all their land to grow wheat. During the 1940 Battle of Britain sheep had to be evacuated because they and their shepherds were in danger. They came from the Romney Marches and the Battle of Britain was being fought over their heads. All the farmers round here had to feed them until their time was up. There was another hazard that we had to keep our eyes open for. This was when the RAF were practising low flying. It was called 'hedge hopping', and it really was! On one occasion I was cultivating a field with a hill on the side of a valley (Agnells Hill); I was at the top of the hill when a Spitfire flew through the valley. I saw the TOP surface of his wings. * Matric - this refers to matriculation, the equivalent of GCSE exams today. **Arthur Gilkes - He had been Head boy two years before I left. He had worked for Nat West Bank before the war. He was amongst the first British troops that freed Guernsey in 1945. He married a local girl and became a Bank manager in Guernsey. Interview by Lynda Abbott and Fay Breed December 2011
Keywords	Farming; St Agnells farm; Land Army; German POWs; searchlight; battle of Britain
Collection	Home Front
Place	Hemel Hempstead
Year	1939-1945
Conflict	World War Two
File type	html
Record ID number	211