Tanks & Tablecloths

Utility furniture

2011-04-05T14:31:00.008+01:00

Courtesy of Design Council/DHRC, University of Brighton

While trawling the interweb in search of some cheap, dour period pieces for my own home, I came across Utility Furniture, issued by permit in WW2 to those most deserving. Designed by luminaries of the time, such as Gordon Russell, the furniture served to utilise scarce resources in the most effective way, whilst also bringing 'good design' to the masses. However, the designs became ever associated in the public mind with wartime austerity and the Utility programme was abandoned in 1952, as the consumer boom began in earnest.

Image from http:www.home-front.org.uk

'Cheeses' logo, stamped on all fabrics and furniture, designed by Reginald Shipp. Molto Italian Futurist.

Read more:
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_rise_of_consumerism/01.ST.05/?scene=4
http://www.home-front.org.uk/rationing/furniture.asp

Pip, Squeak & Wilfred: Herbert SAMMONS

2009-08-22T19:05:00.006+01:00

These are my Great-grandad's medals, now looked after by my Nan and Grandad. He served in the Navy onboard HMS Chester.

Pip, Squeak & Wilfred: MASTERTON

2009-08-11T14:06:00.002+01:00

Inactive

2009-08-05T22:56:00.003+01:00

From The British People at War, published by Odhams Press Ltd., date unknown (approx. 1943).

Salvage. Rag. Bone. Waste.

2009-08-05T19:25:00.002+01:00

With the restriction of imported goods during the Second World War, old and decaying industries were resurrected. What had previously been considered waste was reconditioned to fill demand. The above rather lovely info-graphic shows the salvaging of waste material into textiles for blankets and clothing. From The British People at War, published by Odhams Press Ltd., date unknown.

Rescue

2009-08-05T16:10:00.004+01:00

The Civil Defence Manual of Basic Training, His Majesty's Stationary Office, 1949

Civil Defence in 1964

2009-07-23T14:27:00.015+01:00

This frankly scary series of 7 films (this is No.2) were produced by the Home Office in 1964 for transmission to the British public, should a nuclear confrontation look likely. There was also an accompanying pamphlet, Civil Defence Handbook Number 10, the precursor to Protect & Survive, advising householders what to do in the event of an attack (because something must always be done). Its pitiful to watch these demonstrations of people trying to protect themselves from H-bombs with old boxes and turf rolls.

The state-run Civil Defence Movement began to buckle in the face of the new hydrogen weapons tested in the 1950, when it was realised that existing (and possibly any) measures were woefully inadequate. Government funding was gradually reduced as weapons developments made mass civil defence obsolete.

I've just come across this book which examines Civil Defence in more detail.
After The Bomb: Civil Defence and Nuclear War in Cold War Britain, 1945-68 by Matthew Grant.

Pip, Squeak & Wilfred

2009-07-22T16:11:00.010+01:00

Tyler family

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred were the nicknames given to the three medals issued to servicemen after the First World War, and were named after a popular cartoon strip of the time. More information linked below.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.2495
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip,_Squeak_and_Wilfred

Many families have these medals as they were issued to all servicemen. Here at Tanks & Tablecloths we're curious to know where all these medals now reside, and what place they have in the family and in the home. If you have a Pip, Squeak & Wilfred, please send us a picture of them, and the container/place in the home that they are kept. If there are any stories connected with them that you would like to tell us, then please do.

info@lizzieridout.com

Plotting Romance

2009-07-22T15:55:00.007+01:00

Still from Sound an Alarm 2, a film made in 1962, showing the (ahem) activities of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation during the aftermath of a nuclear attack. It looks like some kind of bizarre mating ritual.

Stores-Spit and Polish Prints

2009-07-22T14:32:00.004+01:00

Welcome to the Tanks and Tablecloths Stores.
We'll have things to sell here as and when they become available. If you want to buy anything, send us an e-mail at info@lizzieridout.com telling us what you want. We're old fashioned types here, so you can't use your credit card but we will take a cheque or bank transfer; drop us a line and we'll give you the details.

These screenprints were designed by us and printed by The Penfold Press. They are in a limited edition of 10, and are sold as a pair. They measure approximately 30 x 22 inches and are printed on lovely Arches 88 heavyweight paper.

£250 + P & P

Also available as a pair of teatowels for £20 + P&P

Nein, Onkel

2009-07-01T12:02:00.004+01:00

Images from www.photo-eye.com © the photographer and/or publisher

Nein, Onkel: Snapshots from Another Front 1938 - 1945; Eds Ed Jones & Timothy Prus; Archive of Modern Conflict; 2007.

Manuals for Survival

2009-04-17T20:39:00.007+01:00

Two manuals for survival-Protect and survive (HM Government, 1980), 101 Things for the Housewife to Do (Liilie and Horth, circa 1936). Both are manuals of diversionary tactics.

In the mid-sixties, 3 Yorkshire housewives were chosen to take part in an experiment placing them in a simulated nuclear 'refuge room'.This article was published in the Times, March 23 1965 and describes the psychological effects on the women.

LETHARGY TROUBLED 3 WOMEN SHUT IN FALL-OUT REFUGE
From our Northern correspondent

Three women civil defence volunteers who had just spent 48 hours shut up in a typical "refuge room" during a simulated nuclear bombing attack reported here today that they had suffered to a surprising degree from lethargy towards the end of the exercise. All three had taken knitting and sewing with them. They had an ample stock of books and games, yet after the first 24 hours even that basic feminine impulse to make frequent cups of tea deserted them. A full set of James Bond's adventures remained unread, the knitting and sewing almost untouched."We all felt the same-we just wanted to do less and less as time went on," Mrs. Margaret Jones, aged 34, a housewife, said. The three women were surprised that this effect was so marked.

The exercise began last Saturday. It was organized by Mr. A. Cooke,
civil defence officer for the city of York. An analysis of its results may do much to justify the often criticized Civil Defence Handbook No.10 advising the householder on protection against nuclear attack and fallout. The refuge room was built to advice in the handbook. Although the women's experience hardly compares with that of Mlle. Laures, who spent 88 days alone in a cave, the conditions under which they lived were realistic. The women were Mrs. Jones, Miss Winifred Smith, aged 40, and Miss Mildred Veale, aged 40.

They spent six-and-a-half hours in the "core" of the refuge - a 6ft. by 4ft. radiation shelter made of sand in polythene bags, piled on to two ordinary room doors, which were leaning against the wall. They were instructed to spend as much time as possible of the first seven hours sitting in this confined space while the fall-out from an assumed five-megaton bomb, dropped 17 miles away on the outskirts of Leeds was at its highest. They found this highly uncomfortable and suffered from cramp but Mr. Cooke's rough calculation today was that by using this protection they would have escaped with a "more acceptable" radiation dose of only about 120 roentgens in the 48 hours.

The women said they slept badly and lost their appetites and interest in cooking food towards the end. Time eassed quickly for the first afternoon and tben began to drag. Heat and light were cut off about halfway through on the assumption that some power stations would continue to function for a few hours after a nuclear attack. Then they had to use candles and an oil stove. All three also confessed to mild hallucinations - Miss Veale thought the sandbags in the shelter were going to fall on her, Mrs. Jones thought people were watching her, and Miss Smith thought she felt objects rushing across her face.

The silence worried them, and the occasional records that were played over their special radio link with the outside world were highly appreciated. They felt that an old-fashioned handwound gramophone should be added to the list of essential requirements when sheltering from a nuclear attack, and that there was a clear lesson on the importance of maintaining some form of morale-raising broadcasting after an attack.

In spite of all this, they felt they could have stayed in the refuge for anything up to a fortnight. However, Mrs. Jones, who has two young children, was strongly opposed to a further experiment which has been contemplated of shutting up a complete family including children in the refuge. "If this had to be done, it could be done", she said. "But I would definitely oppose carrying it out as an exercise. It would be extremely unfair on the children."

Mr. Cooke said he would take note of her remarks. The room used, about 9ft. by 13ft. was in an outhouse block alongside York Guildhall. It was furnished as a typical living room, with easy chairs, a well-filled bookcase, and prints on the walls. The only air supply came through a crack under the door and other small gaps in the structure. It was legitimate to open the door for short periods because there was a sandbag wall outside.

Manuals for Survival Part II

2009-04-17T20:37:00.005+01:00

From the Protect & Survive Manual, prepared and published for the Home Office by the Central Office of Information in 1976 and reprinted in 1980. 'This booklet tells you how to make your home and your family as safe as possible under nuclear attack.' You can have a look at all the contents of the booklet here.

Short film of the Protect & Survive Warning Sounds.

2009-04-13T21:45:00.000+01:00

Soldier, Sailor, Airman…

2009-04-13T21:39:00.003+01:00

Second World War knitting patterns (images courtesy of the Kevin Morrison collection)

2009-04-13T16:02:00.000+01:00

Atomic blast at House #1, Yucca Flats, Nevada Test Site, 1953 (photo courtesy US Department of Energy)

Austerity

2008-08-05T20:01:00.000+01:00

A chart showing changing food rations between 1940 and 1942.

Genus Hedera, Family Araliaceae

2004-11-08T16:18:00.000Z

The ivy leaf as a visual metaphor for the passing of time and decay.

Tanks and Tablecloths at Newlyn Art Gallery

2004-11-05T15:12:00.001Z

The exhibition space at the Newlyn Art Gallery was offered to us as part of the 'Transition 5' series in November 2004. We had proposed to turn the area into a MILDOMOPS (Miltary-Domestic Operations) room, a conceptual work and exhibition space. We were in the space for the 3-day duration of the exhibition, working on the project and talking to visitors.

The space was divided, by a demarcation of a 'No Man's Land', into MILOPS, where we were working and DOMOPS, where visitors were encouraged by us to contribute to the production of various artworks. There was also a looped slideshow of the Tanks & Tablecloths Visual Archive and reading material relating to the work, with tea and cakes on offer.

PROPOSED LAYOUT OF TANKS AND TABLECLOTHS MILDOMOPS ROOM

KEY
1. Information gathering/communication area (DOMOPS)
2. Recording/analysis/artwork area (MILOPS)
3. Horizontal plotting board (with plotting stick)
4. Vertical Perspex plotting board
5. No Man’s Land (marked on floor with tape)
6. Administration area - desk, 2 chairs, typewriters, filing
7. Retractable screen
8. Comfy chairs, sidetables for tea, reading etc

The central focus of the space was the Plotting Table, which straddled No Man's Land in the centre of the room. The table, which was based on the visual aesthetic of a wartime plotting table, was intended as a ever-changing brainstorm, in which visitor interaction was an integral part.

Visitors were encouraged to write on pre-prepared blocks, words relating to the military or the domestic and place them on the table in relation to 'Tanks'(military) in one corner and 'Tablecloths'(domestic) in the other. They were also able to use plotting sticks to manouvere the words into position with one other, making visual connections between them.

Mapped from the Air

2004-11-04T14:35:00.000Z

Plotting the links between the military and the domestic…
Click on the image to view a larger, print-able version.

Penelope - as remembered by Jocelyn Ridout

2004-07-22T16:36:00.000+01:00

Airshows & Activists

2004-07-22T15:53:00.000+01:00

Lizzy Masterton and Lizzie Ridout's differing recreational pursuits during childhood.

Real Ones and Dummies

2004-07-21T16:26:00.000+01:00

Second World War illustration (copyright ‘We’ll Eat Again’, Imperial War Museum)

One co-incidence that we happened upon during our initial research were recipes for 'mock' animals in recipes from the Second World War. Due to the shortage of meat during rationing, various other foodstuffs were substituted. For example, the recipe for 'Mock Goose' (described below) contained only vegetables!

Recipe for Mock Goose
1 & a half lb potatoes
2 large cooking apples
4 oz cheese
Half teaspoon dried sage
Salt & pepper
Three quarters pint of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon flour

Method:Scrub and slice potatoes thinly, slice apples, grate cheese. Grease a fireproof dish, place a layer of potatoes in it, cover with apple and a little sage, season lightly and sprinkle with cheese, repeat layers leaving potatoes and cheese to cover. Pour in half pint of the stock, cook in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour. Blend flour with remainder of stock, pour into dish and cook for another quarter of an hour. Serve as a main dish with a green vegetable.

(Recipe from The Victory Cookbook, Marguerite Patten, Octopus 2002)

Elizabeth Masterton, maquette for 'Solomon J Solomon', felt horse approx 300cm x 200cm

The appearance of mock animals in recipes brought to mind the use of dummy animals in the theatre of war. Solomon J Solomon, one of the forefathers of camouflage describes the ingeniuous use of wooden cavalry:

"On the road in front of these houses the dummy horseman is seen. His horse is lighted by the sun and casts its shadow on the ground, as all solid objects in sunlight must; but in front of him (and this is how we know he is a dummy) there is a big hole intended to represent three horses, for three black equine heads and necks project from the hole, which is said to be their bodies. There is no light in this mass of shadow, cut in a canopy higher than the rest of the road."
(from 'Strategic Camouflage' 1925)

Mock animals were also used by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in WW2 in the form of exploding rats. Dead rat skins were cured and filled with high explosive. Rat bombs were said to have been responsible for a number of successful attacks on German supply lines.

Mock animals have also found their way into our home life in the form of the formation of three flying ducks which once adorned the walls of many households. We are currently trying to research the origin of this peculiar decoration, so please contact us if you are a flying duck expert!

Lizzie Ridout, maquette for wooden flying ducks, plywood

2004-07-21T15:29:00.000+01:00

Images of fictitious wartime ladies from The Kevin Morrison Collection.