This film, together with several more of a similar nature, were made by John Howarth of Sheriff Hutton, and donated by his nephew, Robert Howarth, a film archivist and producer based in Huddersfield, who has deposited a sizeable collection of films with the YFA. John Howarth was at first an accountant in insurance before he took over his father-in-law’s farm at Sheriff Hutton in 1952. He made a number of family films from the 1940s to the 1960s, now deposited with the YFA.  This film is very...

This film, together with several more of a similar nature, were made by John Howarth of Sheriff Hutton, and donated by his nephew, Robert Howarth, a film archivist and producer based in Huddersfield, who has deposited a sizeable collection of films with the YFA. John Howarth was at first an accountant in insurance before he took over his father-in-law’s farm at Sheriff Hutton in 1952. He made a number of family films from the 1940s to the 1960s, now deposited with the YFA.  This film is very similar to the one made in 1956, given the same title, which can also be see on YFA Online. In fact we cannot be absolutely sure about the dates, although the flood in the later film allows us to date it 1956, and the machinery appears to be newer also in the later film. Nevertheless, some of the people seen in both films show continuity, as does the land rover.  For more on John Howarth, the farm and on Sherrif Hutton, see the Context for the later film, Sheriff Hutton Agricultural Scenes (1956).

This is a fascinating film for the way it shows farming machinery and practices at work just after the war, and then how this is beginning to change in the 1950s. It shows just how labour intensive harvesting was at that time, and also how farms in this area carry out mixed farming. In this latter regard it is worth watching alongside the latter film which shows the planting of other, root, crops. It was a 400 acre farm with some 330 Ayrshire cattle (especially good for cream and butter). The farm would also have hens, pigs and chickens. It employed six men full time and four part time – although this may have changed over the course of the ten years or so of filming.  The colour film dates from 1952 when John Howarth took over the farm from his father-in-law who bought it in 1940.

Sheriff Hutton is located in the Vale of York, a large area of relatively flat land lying between the Wolds and the Howardian Hills to the east and the Pennines to the west. The farm is not far from the Howardian Hills, and this mixture of flat land and hills, ideal for both diary and crop farming, can be seen in the film. The Vale was formed by the Devensian ice sheet as it moved in a south easterly direction as the ice melted at the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. It left behind sand, gravel and clay, which, mixed with aeons of vegetable decay, produceda fertile arable topsoil to go with the equitable climate – vineyards were common in medieval times. As the Vale is the main passageway from the south to the north it became important for the Roman occupying army, and has a rich history, through the Viking invaders, the Norman ‘harrying of the north’ and the English Civil War. 

Another interesting aspect of the film are the prisoners of war that worked here during the Second World War, and who can seen in the film as they remained for a while after it. There were two German ex prisoners of war, Fritz and Gerhardt, and one Italian. They had come from the Eden POW Camp, Camp 83. It was one of 16 prisoner of war camps in Yorkshire, the others being: Gilling Camp, Richmond; Doncaster; Lodge Moor; Sandbeds, Brayton, Selby; Skipton; Huddersfield; Storwood Camp, Melbourne; Post Hill Camp, Farnley, Leeds; Racecourse camp, Ripon; Potters Hill, High Green, Sheffield; High Hall, Bishop Burton; Welton Camp, Brough; Butterwick (two); and one at the Military Hospital, Naeburn. There were 163 POW camps in Britain in total (for a full list see References).

Britain had over 190,000 POWs confined in German, Italian and Japanese camps during World War II. When POWs started to arrive here they needed to be housed, and in early 1942 army personnel arrived at Malton to establish a temporary camp, which at first received about 250 Italian prisoners captured in North Africa. These were then made to build a permanent camp of 45 huts: 18 barrack huts with the rest including workshops, kitchens, mess halls, recreation halls, laundry, a hospital and even one for ablutions. The barrack huts had 64 inmates each in double beds. It was surrounded by barbed wire fences and a no-go area.  It wasn’t a great life, with boredom, loneliness and sickness, and no doubt worrying about what was happening to their loved ones back home.


In fact Britain wanted to bring over more Italian POWs in 1942 but there weren’t enough camps for them. ‘Good conduct’ Italian POWs could live in with famers’ families – although they were forbidden from fraternising with British women, which was strictly enforced, though many women were, unsurprisingly, wooed by the young Italians (see Gardiner). The not so trustworthy were bussed in at the beginning of the day and returned to the camps in the evening. When Italy unconditionally surrendered in September 1943 the rules were relaxed for Italian POWs – whose numbers actually increased after this date, not surprisingly since many Italians arrived in Britain after the war for work (see Winder).

However, they didn’t just do nothing; although the 1929 Geneva Convention forbade officers from working. As for the rest, they worked inside and outside the camps: at one point 169,000 POWs were working in agriculture positions and 22,000 employed in construction. They were also employed in many other occupations – though the Convention forbade military work, some Italians complained that they were doing this (see Gardiner). They were paid for this at the same rate as British soldiers – another stipulation of the Geneva Convention – which meant that they received a larger food ration than British civilians, and which led to protests and strikes by British workers.  There were also classes, and Eden Camp, like many others, had drama societies and orchestras performing regularly, often in nearby villages. The Italian POWs were replaced by Germans from 1944 to 1948, a total of 1,200 inmates (one source puts the last German prisoner of war leaving the camp in early 1949).  Also in 1944 the camp was used as a base for Polish forces preparing for the invasion of Europe.


After the prisoners left the camp it was used for storage before being abandoned and becoming overgrown. Then, between 1950 and 1955, the camp was used for agricultural holidays where guests paid for board and lodgings to work on local farms. School children also stayed there during school holidays to learn more about the countryside and agriculture.  In 1952 it was used as a Ministry of Agriculture depot, and in 1955 the site was returned to Fitzwilliam Estates who leased it to Headley Wise and Sons (owners of Malton Minerals). The huts were used for drying and storing grain and rearing pheasants on grain. Then during the 1970s the huts were subleased to various individuals who used them as car workshops and spray paint shops. During the 1970s the huts were subleased to various individuals who used them as car workshops and spray paint shops. Eventually it was bought by local business man Stan Johnson in 1986 who originally wanted to build a crisp manufacturing factory there, but was persuaded by three Italian ex-Eden Camp POWs otherwise, and it was made into a museum, opening in 1987.  The Eden Camp Museum is fascinating place with 35 huts, each dealing with a different war theme (see References). 


The work done on the local farms was under the control of the War Agricultural Officer. Being quite close to Malton it is hardly surprising to see POWs still working on this farm.  In the film it might not be easy to identify the POWs, in the black and white part, although a couple of younger workers seem to have different headwear: note the two sat on the back of the trailer in the beginning of the film (an older farmworker, later on, seems to do something resembling a Nazi salute, although this is doubtless something else entirely). Why they were still here after they were free to return home is uncertain, though Gardiner reports that, “Farmers were invariably delighted with their new workforce” (p. 536).  It may be that they had no choice, as, contrary to the Geneva Convention, Britain detained German POWs until well after the war was over.  In 1946 there was still more than 400,000 German POWs here, and they made up to a fifth of all farm work in Britain.  In fact Britain was actively recruiting workers from abroad, and 118,000 German POWs arriving from the US were set to work in agriculture; Windsor claims, “They were, in effect, in chain gangs.” (Windsor, p. 330)

So, workers from Europe enjoying the British weather by working here on farms, is hardly a new phenomenon – although, if one goes back far enough, this is where most of us trace our ancestors, before there was any such thing as ‘Europe’ or nation states. One wonders whether the desire to be working here is any stronger now than it was then.


 

References

 


Juliet Gardner, Wartime: Britain 1939-1945, Headline, London, 2004.

Robert Winder, Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, Abacus, London, 2004.


Eden Camp Museum

Nick Walton, Revisiting "Britain's Finest Hour" at Eden Camp

Eden Camp Museum at Absolute Astronomy Online Encyclopedia

Location of POW Camps in Great Britain