No . 134 The Trusty Servant the cultivation was done by tractor and was undertaken by the County War Agricultural Committee .’ In due course the school ’ s crops settled down to a pattern on a total of 11 acres allowing for some crop rotation , with Lucas setting out the season ’ s plan each February . The kitchen gardens in which many of the boarding houses were able to grow food further extended the school ’ s ability to feed itself .
The quality of land set to farming was mixed , with Lucas commenting that of the 11 acres , only 4 would be of considered of commercial value . Particularly poor were the playing fields , especially Lavender Meads . To improve the soil quality and the yields , ‘ dung ’ Lucas declares , ‘ is necessary .’ The solution was the School Pig Club , launched in late 1940 . A piggery was created , despite wartime cement shortages , in the stables of 68 Kingsgate Street and an initial dozen pigs were installed . 60 men volunteered for the club , which involved collecting and processing swill from the houses ( the pigs also ate waste from the vegetable and potato harvest ) and presumably the reverse with the resulting fertilizer . The novelty soon wore off with the hot summer weather of 1941 and the expansion of their charges , so ‘ there were few regrets when , after an exciting steeplechase around the vegetable garden , the tumbril finally rolled away down Kingsgate Street .’
Agricultural accounts were published for four years , but it is hard to tell from the record whether money was actually generated for the school or if this was just a way of balancing the costs using pre-war farm prices as a guide . Certainly some pigs were sold . Through a combination of timing and Ministry requirement , only the harvest camps of 1941 ate Kingsgate Street bacon . Eight pigs were supplied to the Ministry of Food .
If bacon was a by-product , the pigs had a marked effect on cultivation . The 1943 harvest was prolific . 5 tons of early potatoes were lifted and eaten in Cloister Time and a further 25 tons of maincrop were lifted , of which 15 tons were eaten during Short Half . This amateur dietician estimates that the entire school would consume a ton of potatoes in about a week . In the same bumper year , Sleepers Hill produced 1 ½ tons of onions and over a ton of peas and broad beans . The Kenny ’ s house plot alone provided 2000 lettuces and between 2 and 3 tons of Savoy cabbage . The College plot beside Logie yielded a heavy crop of tomatoes and marrows . In the piggery , 14 Large Whites arrived during Short Half 1942 and averaged 140 lbs each by the end of Common Time . Bacon and hams from six were distributed at the beginning of Cloister Time , while again , ‘ eight were supplied to the Ministry of Food in accordance with regulations .’
The accounts , published in The Wykehamist , give an insight into Eric Lucas ’ s attention to detail . It seems astonishing that alongside the modest Agricultural Reports there were any ‘ normal ’ activities but , with the exception of those two weeks at the end of Cloister Time 1940 , when ‘ cricket was practically abandoned ’ during the digging of KP , all the regular sporting and cultural activities continued to be reported by The Wykehamist .
Agriculture Accounts 1943
Almost every man in the school would have been involved in agriculture . Apart from the collective farming on Palmer every house was allocated its plot and house agriculture prizes from 1944 onwards maintained enthusiasm . Nor should Common Room be forgotten . Aside from Eric Lucas , the harvest camps were led by dons and came under the direction of Eric Emmet and others . AP Whitaker ( Co Ro , 42-69 ) joined Lucas to administer the scheme and every summer the dons had to fill in for the absent boys when weeding or harvesting were required . No doubt their rewards were in kind .
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the enterprise is how , having been such an integral part of the school for five years , it was so suddenly dropped .
Spencer Leeson , who in his report to the Warden and Fellows in 1944 hoped to preserve new tasks such as farming ‘ when the war is over ’, simply states in 1945 : ‘ The area under cultivation has been reduced from 11 to 7 acres and our pig-keeping operations have come to an end .’ In his final report ( he retired in 1946 ) he makes no further mention of agriculture . Similarly The Wykehamist , which had recorded annually the efforts of the school , dries up before the war ended . There is short reference to two summer camps in 1945 .
For Wykehamists at the school during the war , planting and harvesting food must have become second nature but there is little or no corporate memory of it . I certainly never heard it mentioned by my father ( Coll , 41-46 ) who would have witnessed both the rise and rapid de-escalation of farming . For the rest of us is this simply a lesson in ingenuity pioneered by an ingenious organisation , or perhaps a taste of the future ? I leave it to the reader to decide .
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