11 / 28
11
Buckden Roundabout
January 2020
Rationing
Rationing – 80 years on
The Second World War officially started after Nazi Germany
invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. In January 1940, the
British government introduced food rationing. 80 years on, we
take a look at this unusual challenge which faced British house-
holds for more than a decade.
Buckden resident, Ella Pentelow, who lived in Huntingdonshire
at the time filled us in with her experience. She lived at Home
Farm, Buckworth as a child and later at Catworth School House
and went to Huntingdon Grammar School. We are also grateful
to Ella for lending us the ration books in the photos.
Before the Second
World War started
Britain imported
about 55 million
tons of food a year
from other coun-
tries. After war was
declared the British
government had to
cut down on the
amount of food it
brought in from
abroad as German
submarines started
attacking British
supply ships. There
was a worry that
this would lead
to shortages of
food supplies in the shops so the British government decided
to introduce a system of rationing.
Ella says she just about remembers the start of food rationing
but better remembers its ending when she was at college in
London. She recalls bombs being dropped on the edge of Buck-
worth by returning
British planes that
had to release their
undropped bombs
before they could
land. The windows
of the school house
shattered – Ella’s
mother was horri-
fied when Ella was
running around in
the broken glass
without her slip-
pers. Ella didn’t
particularly notice
a difference when
rationing was intro-
duced, perhaps
because they lived
on a farm produc-
ing some food stuffs.
Rationing was designed to ensure fair shares for all at a time of
national shortage. It
made sure that peo-
ple got an equal
amount of food eve-
ry week. The gov-
ernment was wor-
ried that as food
became scarcer,
prices would rise
and poorer people
might not be able to
afford to eat. There
was also a danger
that some people
might hoard food,
leaving none for
others.
The Ministry of Food
was responsible for
overseeing rationing. Every man, woman and child was given a
ration book with coupons. These were required before ra-
tioned goods could be purchased. Ella remembers that people
had to redeem coupons at specified shops and that ration
books came from the Food Office run by the District Office in
Huntingdon.
Basic foodstuffs such as sugar, meat, fats, bacon and cheese
were directly rationed by an allowance of coupons. There were
no supermarkets, so people had to visit several different shops
to buy meat, vegetables, bread and other goods. When people
wanted to buy some food, the items they bought were crossed
off in their ration book by the shopkeeper.
Ella tells us people had to carry their sugar ration in a tin in
London – Ella gave up sugar at this time as she always forgot
her tin.
A number of other items, such as tinned goods, dried fruit,
cereals and biscuits, were rationed using a points system. The
number of points allocated changed according to availability
and consumer demand.
Priority allowances of milk and eggs were given to those most
in need, including children and expectant mothers.
As shortages increased, long queues became commonplace.
People could reach the front of a long queue, only to find out
that the item they had been waiting for had just run out.
Growing up on a farm, Ella saw rationing from the farmer’s
point of view as well as the consumer’s. A central office collect-
ed food from the farm. Once, when the eggs were collected
from the farm while no one was at home, they collected a ‘pot
egg’ and paid for it. This was a fake egg, used to encourage
hens to lay and nobody would be able to eat it.
As the war went on, Ella tells us more and more land was in-
corporated into food production but it didn’t affect the family
farm. They grew wheat and barley, kept cattle (for meat and
dairy) and hens.
A food ration book from near the beginning of rationing (’40)
Fuel ration coupons for domestic and agricultural vehicles
A food ration book from the end of rationing (’52 – ’53)