SOUTHERN EXMOOR IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR



Southern EXMOOR in the second world war

The Second World War brought enormous change to Exmoor and brought the area out of its relative isolation. Infantry and artillery training turned Exmoor into a noisy battleground, land was ploughed for corn and potatoes, men left the land for the army and Land Army women and prisoners of war arrived to work on local farms, older and younger men joined the Home Guard, and evacuees swelled the population although the holiday trade languished. The pony races formerly held at Hawkridge and Withypool were given up during the war. It was said that the loss of visitors led to ponies being sold and the races ceased.[1]

Southern Exmoor escaped the worst horrors of the Second World War. Casualties among local men who joined up were light but included the son of an Exford man killed in the Great War. The first air casualties in Somerset were five crew of an Anson that crashed on Exmoor in January 1940. That September a Wellington bomber crashed onto a cottage near Simonsbath and in September 1943 a B 17 Flying Fortress also crashed at Simonsbath. There were many other air crashes on the moor and some soldiers died during training accidents.

Exmoor's open moorland lent itself to military training. The 1st Motor Battalion of the Grenadier Guards was based at Winsford in 1942, the Royal Observer Corps had posts at East Anstey and Exford, and there were battalions of the Parachute Regiment at Exford in 1942 and Exmoor in 1945. At Blackpits in Exmoor there was a searchlight position and an anti-aircraft battery and decoy to the north in Culbone woods. There were Royal Artillery ranges on Dunkery Hill, gunnery ranges and tank training at North Hill and Bossington on the coast. The noise of gunfire, shells and mortars must have been a constant background to life on the moor. Antiquity Stars on posts were placed near archaeological sites to prevent them being targeted. One survives at Alderman Barrow near Exford.

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Large numbers of local men joined the Local Defence Volunteers, later the Minehead and 4th Devonshire battalions of the Home Guard. Unusually the Exmoor Company was a cavalry company with platoons at Simonsbath, Exford, Winsford, and Withypool. They had rifle ranges and at Exford a large area for grenade practice east of Stone Farm. A cache of explosives including 56 Molotov Cocktails was uncovered at Exford in 1976. The Brushford platoon of the Dulverton Company was under actor and writer Ronald Pertwee. The company put on entertainments to raise money for the Red Cross.[2]

Civilians endured blackout and rationing, although the self sufficiency of Exmoor people probably helped. The outbreak of war helped to make farming profitable for enterprising farmers like Sir Robert Waley Cohen at Honeymead who found that the war made the estate profitable. The heather moor was ploughed for corn and potatoes and new shippons of concrete blocks and asbestos were built in 1940 to 1941 to house the Friesian cows he bought at Reading to meet the demand for milk. Honeymead farm (916 a.) was one of the few in Exmoor to be A rated in 1941 and supported 94 cattle, 1,123 sheep, 37 pigs and 176 poultry. In 1944 Sir Robert paid fourteen hundred pounds for a bull to improve the dairy herd. [3]

Farm labour increased during the war and women formed up to 20 per cent of the agricultural workforce in several parishes by 1946, sometimes assisted by members of the Land Army and prisoners of war. Between 1936 and 1946 arable production rose by a third in Somerset Exmoor but doubled in Devon, mainly animal fodder. There was a threefold increase in fruit and vegetables, mainly potatoes and cauliflowers, although acreages were small except for potatoes. Although pig production halved, dairy cows and sheep increased by a third. In 1941 there were 6 specialist poultry farms in East and West Anstey and in 1946 the Ansteys with Twitchen and Molland farms had over 15,000 fowls. There were many smallholdings in 1941 such as the 6 ½ a. in Twitchen with two sheep, 50 hens and ½ a. of potatoes. Rough grazing, which had been increasing steadily since the late 19th century, was reduced in the 1940s.[4]

Although tourists disappeared many well to do people from the south east took houses or hotel rooms to escape the Blitz or because their houses were requisitioned. Artist Alfred Munnings and composer Cyril Scott found themselves exiles on Exmoor during the war. One couple had converted a Winsford shop into a guesthouse and teashop when war broke out and found themselves with semi permanent guests. Child and adult evacuees from all over England were brought to Dulverton and several houses were requisitioned including Ashwick and Hollam. The additional population in July 1940 was 856, more than half the pre-war population of the town. Schools such as Dulverton, Simonsbath and Exford had to accommodate evacuees and their teachers. Exford school had to accommodate 100 evacuees and two head teachers. Because the evacuees were unused to much walking, motor transport was arranged to take children to school and this continued after the war.

Many young people enjoyed the war and found life dull afterwards. There were evacuee children to play with and the older girls found boyfriends and husbands among the soldiers. Dulverton had a cinema, dances, concerts, and other entertainment for the evacuees and the troops. Even Simonsbath had a cinema and dances in a hut at Honeymead.[5]

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[1] SRO, Exmoor Oral Archive.

[2] SRO, DD/BS 13; Wilson, J, The Somerset Home Guard (Bath, 2004), 171 to 179.

[3] TNA, MAF 32/133/93; SRO, Exmoor Oral Archive; ibid. A/BAZ 2/9; Henriques, R, Sir Robert Waley-Cohen, 1877—1952 (1966), 297, 298, 377, 392, 402 to 405.

[4] TNA, MAF 32/667/323, 32/682/334; 32/700/342; 32/702/344; MAF 68/3793, 3809, 4161, 4177; below, this chapter.

[5] SRO, D/R/dul 3/1/7, 8; Exmoor Oral Archive.

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