Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history.
Series 11
Programme 3
3 May 2005
Wartime potato-picking
Making History listener Pamela Furness was moved to Forfar during the Second World War. She was astonished to find that all the children had a month off in the autumn to go potato-picking for the war effort. Pamela contacted the programme to find out how widespread this practice was.
Making History consulted Richard Moore-Colyer, Professor of Agrarian History at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. He explained that one of the biggest challenges facing Churchill from the outset of war was how to feed everyone. Almost 2 million acres of grassland were turned over to arable production, but with young men fighting and many more people involved in construction or the armaments industry, there were very few people left to carry out the harvest. Therefore, volunteers were recruited to work on farms and schoolchildren played a major part in this. Indeed there were Harvest Camps for schoolchildren right through hostilities. Children were allowed to take up to 20 half-days off from their school work and they received payment.
Professor Moore-Colyer and the Making History team would like to hear more about the Harvest Camps and other wartime agricultural activities involving schoolchildren.
The Lollards of Amersham
Making History listener Tom Weale contacted the programme to find out more about an event marked by a memorial in the town. The event was the burning of seven local people at the stake, all Lollards - 16th-century religious dissenters.
Ayrshire embroidery
Making History listener Joyce Potter contacted the programme to tell of a piece of embroidery which has been handed down through the family since it was made in the 1840s. It was made in the Ayrshire town of Irvine and is a fine example of something known as Ayrshire embroidery. Joyce wanted to know more about the industry.
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to: Making History BBC Radio 4 PO Box 3096 Brighton BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald. 