Admin/biog history
Administrative History
At the outbreak of war in 1939, the government offered farmers a grant of 2 for every acre of grassland they ploughed up before 31 March 1940 in a campaign to bring 1,500,000 more acres under the plough for the 1940 harvest. This was intended to increase the country's self-sufficiency and free up merchant shipping so that it could be used in the war effort. In Bedfordshire, the scheme was administered by the County Council's War Agricultural Committee. The grant was paid to the farmer as soon as this Committee could certify that the land was efficiently ploughed.
The method of administration was set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. In September 1939, the Ministry instructed the County War Agricultural Committee to record the condition and rental value of grassland ploughed up, but by October the Ministry had produced a standard form on which details were to be recorded so that there would be uniformity across the country. As inspections and recording had already begun, the Ministry advised that there was no need to re-inspect purely to add information to the form, this could be done as inspections became necessary for other reasons. It suggested the Committee should briefly describe the present condition of the grassland, for example, 'good', 'indifferent', 'worn out', and give an estimate of the rental value in shillings per acre. No record of temporary leys was required but a record was to be made of tenant's pasture, that is, land put to grass by the tenant for which compensation would normally be paid by the landlord. If figures could not be given, a description such as 'good permanent ley' or 'moderate' would be considered useful enough.
The forms filled in by the Committee for the Ministry have not survived, but many of the accompanying maps have. These were draft, working maps, and information about crops and the condition of grassland was added over a period of months and, as the war progressed, years; the recording continued until 1947. Based on the information on these maps, Orders were made for certain fields to be ploughed for certain harvests, and the occupier of the land was notified. A second set of maps was then drawn up to record fields which had been ploughed by Order: some of these maps have also survived.
The County War Agricultural Committee based its method of survey and, apparently, some of the information on a similar exercise carried out in early 1917 [see WW1/AC/OP for Orders, etc.], when W.H.H.Peacock of Bedford, surveyors and estate agents, were commissioned to survey the North Bedfordshire parishes. The Peacock papers mention another survey in 1916 [see PK 8/1/8 "Report on Interviews"].
For the 1939 survey, the Committee divided the county into two areas and set up an Ampthill District Sub-Committee and a North Beds Sub-Committee. Each Sub-Committee used a different surveying company, and each surveying company used a different technique to record the information about land use, thus creating two totally distinct sets of maps.
Mid and South Bedfordshire Maps
Scope and Content
The working maps
The Ampthill District Sub-Committee of the County Council's War Agricultural Committee contracted the surveyors Swaffield and Son of Ampthill to undertake the survey. These surveyors cut Ordnance Survey 6" sheets into parish maps, mounted them on card and numbered them 1 to 129. Some were stamped "Bedfordshire War Agricultural Executive Committee" and some also had "Swaffield & Son" written on them. The parishes were then grouped into geographical districts. Each district was given a number and allocated to a surveyor, and on some maps the surveyor's name and the district number are given. Only districts 3,4,5,6,7,8 and 12 have survived, allocated to Messrs Long, Garton, Brown, Humphreys, H.Gates, Hartop and J.C.H. Robinson respectively.
These seven surviving districts comprise 65 parish maps for all south, west and mid Bedfordshire parishes as far east as Haynes and Stondon, plus Astwick in the east.
These were working plans and may have been used in the field; in some cases, a new plan was started where the information became too complicated to show on one plan. The maps vary in detail but most include scribbled but informative pencil notes such as 'oats', 'wheat', 'grass', 'arable' and 'mole', plus acreages, some farmers' names, some field names and the rental value of grassland. Some of the maps also show earlier dates, for instance, "grass since 1874". The years 1901 and 1918 occur frequently, as if surveys had been carried out in those years and the information transferred to these 1939-1947 maps.
Fields are coloured according to a scheme but the key to the scheme has not survived. Four colours of tint generally correspond with four letters of the alphabet: red fields are labelled A1, A2, etc.; yellow B1,B2, etc.; blue C1,C2, etc.; brown D1, D2, etc.. The brown 'D' fields seem to relate to Orders to plough grassland (see Eversholt: "No order - Substitute A3 & A1 Steppingley"), but they do not correlate with the maps drawn up to record Orders made (see below). Large areas are tinted green but not numbered and there is also a variety of coloured hatching and edging.
The Order maps
The Committee then produced another set of Ordnance Survey 6" parish maps mounted on board, coloured the fields which had been ploughed by Order, and added the acreage, a reference number (presumably referring to the Ministry's form, now lost) and sometimes the farmer's name. A key was added to each map showing arable land, the harvests between 1939 and 1947 for which the grassland had been ploughed, ditches cleaned out and fields mole drained and reseeded. 37 of these parish Order maps have survived, occasionally two on one board, covering the east and mid Beds parishes as far west as Steppingley. 13 maps overlap with the surviving working maps described above. These Order maps are not numbered and have no stamp or signature. The map for Clophill has, on its reverse, a plan of Highlands Farm, Campton.
Please note that the present parish of Stewartby then formed part of Wootton and Kempston Rural parishes; the present parish of Brogborough then formed part of Husborne Crawley and Ridgmont; and no map exists for Linslade as this was not part of Bedfordshire until 1965.
For details of land use in Aspley Guise, Eversholt, Flitwick, Harlington, Ridgmont, Steppingley, Tingrith, Toddington, Westoning and Woburn in 1917, see WW1/AC/RE 3/1.
All maps were drafted and used from 1939 to 1947
Order maps: - key showing fields ploughed, ditches cleared, fields drained and reseeded for each harvest
- unnumbered
Working maps: - acreages given
- no key
- numbered
1 = Stamped "Bedfordshire War Agricultural Executive Committee"
2 = Includes field names
3 = Includes farmers' names
4 = Includes crops
To see a map: quote parish and reference WW2 AC/3/+ number, e.g. Arlesey WW2 AC/3/3
List of old and new parish map reference numbers - Mid-and South Bedfordshire