Fairgrounds at War

Given that we are now in 2014 and fast approaching the centenary of WW1 this blog post is perhaps not as topical as it could be, but this week I’d like to share with you a more unusual perspective of World War Two. Most of us are familiar with the events of 1939-1945, whether it be the participants, the mechanisation of warfare, the Blitz, evacuation, Dig for Victory or the Holocaust. The list goes on, but I am pretty certain that most people can recall something about the period. We tend to think of it in terms of ‘the people’s war’; the war that affected everyone’s daily life in one way or another, but how many of us can say we’ve thought about the impact on specific professions – in this case I’m thinking about show people and fairground owners?

J P Collins’ Fowler traction engine King George VI, i
n war damage at Manchester, Oct 1941
(SHC Ref 6790/4/8 F2147)
www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk

I recently undertook some research on the experience of the fairgrounds and the show community during the war and found it extremely thought provoking. WW2 is on most school syllabuses at most school levels and we’re all taught about the basics – evacuation, conscription, the blackout etc. But they’re general war time policies that applied across the country. When I was encouraged to think about these policies in relation to one particular profession I somehow felt I’d gained more meaningful insight into wartime Britain and the experiences of those who lived through it. It put into greater perspective the sacrifices people made and the extent to which war can turn people’s lives upside down.

Throughout much of 1939, Europe had anticipated war. As a reflection of this uncertainty, attendance to fairs declined, people just weren’t in the mood for spending money, and by September, a number of showmen had shut down their fairs for good, believing they were merely pre-empting government policy. They had expected the war to finish them off, but this wasn’t to be. To my great surprise, thanks to the efforts of the Showmen’s Guild and continued support of the government, fairs generally emerged from the war in a much stronger position.

1939: A Depleted Guildford Fair showing Wall Bros Dodgem Tracks
(SHC Ref 6790/4/2/ F629)
www/exploringsurreyspast.org.uk

Of course fairs were affected by wartime policies. Blackout regulations were introduced as part of the ARP regulations and in order to comply with these regulations showmen were forced to alter equipment, mainly by encasing them in material that prevented light seepage. Rationing also affected the showmen, changing the attractions that were on offer to fairground goers. For example shooting galleries declined in number, not surprisingly owing to a shortage in ammunition. Showmen also turned their machinery over to the war effort and got involved in demolition, agricultural and forestry work; while the sites where fairgrounds were held were also turned into allotments and civil defences. I don’t know why all this came as a surprise when I was researching this topic, of course the war effort came first, but I’d never really thought about how those policies could dramatically alter someone’s way of life to such an extent, as they did in the case of showmen.

My biggest surprise however came as I was reading about the Holidays-At-Home Fairs which were a government supported scheme introduced 1942/43. As it became apparent that the end of the war was a long way off, the government began to place emphasis on bolstering the morale of the population and promoted certain forms of entertainment, especially fairs. It was believed that in order to maintain productivity and support for the war effort the population needed some respite and activities that resembled normal life, prior to the war. As a result of the holidays-at-home fairs, many more were held across England and attendance figures soared, contradicting completely what I’d expected to uncover.

Fun Fair at Hoglands Park, Southampton
www3.hants.gov.uk/heritage100/itemlist

War turned life for members of the show community upside down and through my research I gained fascinating new insight into life during WW2. It’s one of those areas that unless you make the effort to look into it you don’t think to consider – like the fact that rationing also affected zoo animals. Bristol Zoo’s gorilla, Alfred was famed for suffering the same plight as Bristolians during the war, it’s something we don’t think of, yet, because it is less conventional, it has huge potential for prompting renewed interest into a well-researched area of British history.

When thinking in terms of public history finding such alternative and engaging perspectives has huge potential when attempting to communicate past events to those disinterested or desensitised to history. Just think, if you could pick any topic to find out a little more about its history, what would it be? I doubt it would be something that we’ve all learnt about during education, more likely it would be something unique to your personal interests and because of that, you’d undoubtedly be more prepared to engage with historical material. In short, I suppose what I’m trying to say is don’t be afraid to look beyond the conventional and pursue your own interests. It doesn’t matter what history you engage with, just that you do. 

Grant’s Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy

Grant Museum of 
Zoology & Comparative Anatomy

In keeping with my weird and wonderful interest in natural history and its evolution during the Victorian period, I had wanted to go to the Grant Museum of Zoology, part of UCL, for quite a while. So imagine my excitement when, while sat eating lunch after a very interesting seminar at the British Library, I discovered it was in fact only just around the corner! That was it, my three willing accomplices and I had a destination and we set off, too tick yet another thing off the history ‘bucket list’.

The museum was established in 1827 as a teaching collection for the newly founded University of London by Robert Edmond Grant, himself a Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. Grant struggled to find the resources he needed to successfully teach his classes and began to amass his own collection for the purposes of dissection, diagrams and lectures. The collection was bequeathed to the university after Grant’s death in 1874, and has been repeatedly expanded upon by a number of his predecessors, including E. Ray Lankester and W.F.R Weldon.

My first impression of the museum was that it was much smaller than I had imagined – the whole contents, office included, confined to a medium size room in the Rockefeller Building. But what I immediately loved was the nostalgic feel to the place; it was almost as though I had stepped back in time. “Hypocrite!” I hear you cry; given last week’s blog you’d be fully justified in making such comments, but in this case I found that to be a positive experience. The glass cabinets, remnants of what I imagine a Victorian museum to have looked like, were crammed with weird and wonderful specimens from the natural world; some preserved in liquid, others with bones and skeletons, as well as mounted animals and examples of taxidermy. It felt very authentic and yes, ‘refreshingly old fashioned’.

I think what really stood out for me was the opportunity to see animals, well at least bits of them, that are now extinct and that I’ve only read about or seen in very early photographs. Take for example, the Quagga (a subspecies of a zebra), a Thylacine (a carnivorous marsupial, known as the Tasmanian Tiger) and the Dodo. I mean one jar had parts of the Thylacine in formaldehyde…. A real Thylacine! Tell me that, that isn’t cool! Natural history is still incredibly relevant and I believe there are still a lot of lessons to be learnt about conservation, that linger on from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Seeing specimens of extinct species, those we as humans have been involved in killing off, is quite a poignant experience, especially given the current threat to a wide number of species. It was a weird sort of place, there were exhibits that made you want to recoil in horror - hey Katy? But generally I found it to be incredibly fascinating.

Katy not sure what to make of it all

Quagga Skeleton

Thylacine Skeleton and jar of parts

It has to be said, for a moment I did stop and wonder where the historic value was in what I was seeing, it was a fascinating curiosity, but how is it a museum? I suppose this comes down to our definition of a museum, but I thought the question over its relevance and place, has been answered in a particularly interesting and quite modern way. Topical and contemporary issues are juxtaposed against the specimens, though the use of modern technology, which is interspersed throughout the museum. In amongst the jumble of artefacts, there were a number of Ipad’s which posed thought provoking questions about the morality and purpose behind what you were witnessing. The museum encourages public participation in the debates that surround the themes of the museum rather than hiding away from the more controversial elements. As visitors, we were encouraged to type comments on the Ipads, or use social media and tweet our responses using a hashtag.

I think that is perhaps what for me swayed me into feeling more positive about the nostalgic feel to this museum; the merging of both old and new techniques for a positive visitor experience. We may not have spent particularly long in this museum, but it provided thoughtful stimulation about natural history both in the past and in today’s world. This, in my opinion, gave the Grant Museum an edge over other museums I’ve visited and one that I was particularly fond. I am definitely glad I took the time to visit!

A quick further note - a read of the website reveals more details of the museums interesting history and can be found here -  http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology/about/history. The museum’s use of this website in ‘outreach’ is also interesting, for example ‘collection highlights’ and ‘specimen of the week’ which make the exhibits and interesting features of this museum more accessible to the wider public.