Those Years Of Setting Up House On Dockets (27 February 1976)

In July, 1948, the local butchers’ association issued a poster.  This stated that “owing to the recent reduction in the fresh meat ration and the lack of publicity from official quarters in regard thereto,” they felt it necessary themselves to announce to the public that:

“The total ration per adult book per week is:  fresh meat 10d worth; corned meat 2d worth, or 1¾oz.

“The present manufacturing allowance to general butchers of 2½ per cent roughly equals one farthing’s worth of meat per adult book per week.  Thus, for a family of four adults your butcher is permitted to make one sausage weighing 2oz, or about ½oz per head.

“These are the facts.  This is a weekly meat ration.  Please do not ask your butcher to do the impossible.”

I came across this item the other day while looking through some old notes of mine.  And it set me thinking.  In particular, it made me wonder how much truth there is in such remarks as “Not since the early 1930s have we had it so bad,” which we hear nowadays.

If my contemporaries will pause to look back, I think they will agree with me that “late 1940’s” should be substituted for “early 1930’s,” in all respects except that of unemployment.

We are apt to forget that for the first four or five years after the war, rationing was more severe than it had been during the war itself.  You could not go shopping for essentials with money alone.  You had to present the required number of coupons, units, points and dockets as well.  And when your supply of those ran out you had to wait to the next period, weekly, monthly, or longer according to the commodity concerned, before you could have any more.

There had been no bread rationing during the war.  True, the wartime bread was of a colour whereby the same loaf could be dubbed either white or brown.  But actual bread rationing was not introduced until about August 1946 – one year after the cessation of hostilities.

There were extra bread units for manual workers.  There was also the curious feature that units not spent on bread ranked for points for other foods.  Thus, most of the surplus units were in the hands of housewives with large families, especially families including two or three manual workers.  They spent their surplus units on Grade A salmon and other treasures for which there had been no demand previously because of their high points rating.

On the other hand, couples where the husband was a sedentary worker sometimes had to spend on bread not only their bread units but also points needed for other items.

Some of you may also remember the affair of the cakes.  In May, 1948, housewives complained to the Bletchley Food Control Committee that hardly any cakes were to be found in the shops, though there seemed to be plenty available in surrounding towns.  An explanation offered was that quotas were based on 1939 figures.  At that time most local housewives made their own cakes.  Comparatively few were baked locally; the rest were imported.  But now housewives could not make their own, owing to sugar, fats and other ingredients being on the ration.  The committee asked the Ministry of Food for an increased allowance.  They received the “tart” reply that Bletchley wasn’t the only town that thought it didn’t have enough cakes.  Fortunately, the Bletchley Chamber of Trade was formed about that time and scored an immediate success with the population by getting round the cakes difficulty by its own “special means.”

My notes for those years contain many other items, each of which tells its own story, about the conditions.  Such as:

January, 1946.  General Blount tells Newport Pagnell Rural Council some old people in villages have not tasted fish since 1939.

September, 1946.  Owing to bread rationing, no cakes for tea at the WI.

November, 1946.  Woburn Sands vicar appeals to congregation for clothing coupons to buy new cassocks.

November, 1946:  “Load shedding” at electricity works renders town clocks useless.

Winter, 1946-47.  No fires in station waiting rooms.  Carriages likewise unheated.

February, 1947.  Trader fined £50 for selling satin at above maximum price and without coupons.

July, 1948.  Farmer fined £3 for using petrol for a purpose other than that for which his coupons were issued.  (He had motored three miles to the Bridge Hotel, Fenny for a drink.)

July, 1948.  Extra cheese for railmen who work eight hours or more without access to a canteen.

January, 1949.  Sweets derationed.  Kids wild with joy.

My own most vivid recollection of those years is of trying to set up house on dockets.  Remember the special “utility” furniture?  Remember having to curtain windows bit by bit as coupons became available?

Remember those sales of second-hand furniture in Bletchley Market Field?  My wife and I took part in all that.  Odd items were also passed on from our families.  Though there have since been two removals, the effect still shows.  Apart from the four utility dining chairs, there is hardly an item of woodwork in the house that matches any other item.  But I will say this for the-then much derided utility furniture:  it has lasted better than a modern three-piece bought seven or eight years ago is lasting.  Only the pre-war stuff can beat it.

What made those years of hard, all-round rationing bearable?  Three things.:

1. Having survived the perils or the six-year war, we were all quite sure that any future peace-time crisis would be trivial by comparison.
2. We had become used to regimentation.
3. Generally speaking, rich and poor were still in the same boat.  And, as never before, there was a distinct prospect of the principle of fair shares continuing under the umbrella of a caring society.