16th April 1942

Hampshire was in the stable yard tonight, when I came in with some hay, and made some remarks about food in general. He said he could not eat the new brown bread – it “gave him the belly ache”. Nothing but “good old white bread” for him. It is most strange how the English have always considered civilisation by the whiteness of the bread – ie – they look down on French, Germans, and other Europeans because their bread is dark.

Saw some London coalcarts in St. Botolph’s station tonight, which on enquiry I find belong to Hake. Intend to try to buy for the Committee.

The Government had announced on 6th April 1942 that under food rationing regulations, no more white bread was to be baked and the Food Ministry ruled that only the wholemeal National loaf would be available in shops, cafes and restaurants. The Ministry warned that the sweet and nutty taste of the new bread might take some getting used to!

2 comments:

Robin King said...

This entry aroused quite a few disparate thoughts- funny how the mind is activated!
First the question of the English superiority complex as shown in the question of the colour and texture of bread: how astonished I was, on my first visit to "the Continent" as a schoolboy in the early '50s, to discover how excellent German "black bread" really was. Secondly the sadness in my (recent) discovery that the evocative name of St. Botolph's station had been "sanitized" to its present form. For me, St. Botolph's meant trips to Brightlingsea - even in the wartime! Ah, the good old days! Without quotation marks, too.

E J Rudsdale said...

Thanks for your comment Robin, Delighted to hear that the blog has reminded you of these memories from your own experiences.
I couldn't agree with you more - St Botolph's station was a far better name for what is now Colchester Town station. I still find myself calling it St Botolph's, however! Old habits die hard! CP