Bargain At The Bridge - a tale of war-time, farming food-production, recounted by Noel Jones

Description

In 1942, the tide was yet to turn for a Britain at war. Time of national-emergency touched every aspect of civil & community life. Especially for the Jones brothers and their modest agricultural machinery works in Rhosesmor, North Wales. Keeping abreast of repair-work and small-scale production of harvesting equipment was an everyday challenge.

Hard--pressed farm machinery, much needed for food production, was breaking-down and wearing-out. Whilst official allocation of resources of money, materials and manpower was driven by the immediate demands of the military, supplies to anyone outside the armaments industry were considered a low priority. Workshop items such as bearings, drill-bits and welding rods were almost impossible to obtain.

The brothers were aware that the spares they needed might sometimes be begged, traded or scavenged from small workshops over the border on Merseyside and beyond. But getting these past the security checks on the bridge across the Dee at Queensferry, would present its own challenge.

But wasn't harvesting the crops of North Wales -and consequent feeding of the population- a legitimate part of the national war-effort?
And, like many in rural Wales, didn't the Jones's have a "domestic" supply of fresh pork, chickens and eggs in their back-yard?

With enemy U-boats hunting mercilessly in the Atlantic, sinking vast tonnage of ships bound for Britain with food, the needs of a hungry population demanded drastic action! And so the creative talents of the Jones enterprise was brought to bear to engineer a solution. A bargain at the bridge.

Producer: John Butler
Assistant: Ennis Hall

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BfCM6yfFfM (link opens in new window)