The war had been over for more than eight years but there was still food rationing at Christmas time back in 1953…although in Germany it had ended in 1950.
People had to mend and make do…re-building their lives after the Second World War with all the heartache and destruction it had brought.
Imagine shopping with ration books as people did between did between 1939 and 1954 when meat and other food rationing finally came to an end.
In 1995 Maureen Hornagold of Thorpe St Andrew gave me a copy of The Stork Wartime Cookery Book saying: “I can remember the mock almond paste. It was very good but not a patch on the Christmas present given to every child in our family one year – a small tin of condensed milk!”
“Every time a tin was emptied in the normal way we immediately had a long argument over whose turn it was to scrape it – to have a whole tin was riches indeed,” added Maureen.
The introduction to the famous book said: “In these chapters you will find what you can do if an air-raid warning interrupts cooking, nourishing sandwiches for A.R.P workers, cakes made without currants and puddings made without sugar.
“You will find suggestions for feeding families grown suddenly large, and for catering for families grown temporarily small. Even the grass-widower will find some things that are useful for him to know.”
There is a chapter on how to use every scrap of food in the house, and how to make appetizing dishes, too, with these scraps.
This was a very different Norwich and Norfolk to the one we know today. Hundreds of people had been killed, thousands injured and lost their homes.
Residential streets had been blown to pieces and many of the survivors were left with just the clothes they stood up in.
The homeless formed queues outside City Hall in Norwich. Thousands of emergency ration cards had to be issued. The welfare vans worked day and night to offer drinks and food.
And the City of London sent a unit with staff to establish a relief centre which could look after a hundred people and issue clothing and other essentials.
Those still in their homes and fortunate enough to have a garden grew fruit and vegetables and kept chickens and rabbits for eggs and meat.
Charities were set up across the city and county, the YMCA did wonderful work along with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Women’s Voluntary Service, all those who operated mobile canteens and MAGNA – the Mutual Aid Good Neighbours’ Association – run by the amazing Ruth Hardy.
The GI’s from America also did much to help the people of Norfolk, especially the children.
A message in our papers from the Norwich Sheriff in 1943 called on the youth to demand that the “Councils of the World” took steps which would eliminate the possibility of war in the future.
The war ended in 1945. Rationing on sweets and chocolate ended in February 1953, cream and eggs followed, and then meat rationing came to an end in the summer of 1954.
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