Friday 19 November 2010

A very British Farm and Food in the City, part 1

For those of you outside the UK a quick look at British farms.
Farms in Britain are built from different materials, but in general farms in the southwest, Wales and the north are stone. You see more brick building in the Midlands and southeast.
A farm should have the following; Farmhouse, barn, stables (all farms still used horses in the 1930’s), pig sty, hen house, 1 or 2 sheds. Then depending on the type you can add a 1 or 2 more barns, cowshed and milking parlour. There would be a kitchen garden and maybe an orchard.
To give you some idea of how strong they are, the cottage in Somerset where I grew up had walls 3 feet thick at the base and 18 inches thick at the top. The windows were 2 or 3 feet square. It also had its own spring water coming out of a tap in the back kitchen ( utility room). As you can see a tough nut to crack if defended.
Like people in the towns, country people began to prepare. Building places to hide food and weapons, as well as valuables.
In the towns men started to plan. Not soldiers or revolutionaries, but town and city planners. Men in small, dark offices who’s job it is to plan for the emergencies that may never happen.
Among their plans were how to feed the people. Where would their food, coal, and electricity come from. Their looked at where could food be grown. football pitches, parks and other green areas were all being looked at.
The people in the towns had always grown some vegetables or kept some chickens or pigeons in their back gardens.
As things got worse everyone began to prepare, finding space to grow more or putting in rabbit hutches. Anything to make life easier in the coming months.

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