Lumberjills

Lumberjills
Author: Joanna Foat
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2019-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750991607

When war was declared in 1939, Britain was almost completely dependent on imported timber – but only had seven months of it stockpiled. Timber was critical to the war effort: it was needed for everything from aircraft and shipbuilding to communications and coal mining. The British timber trade was in trouble. Enter the Lumberjills. Lacking in both men and timber, the government made a choice. Reluctantly, they opened lumber work for women to apply – and apply they did. The Women's Timber Corps had thousands of members who would prove themselves as strong and as smart as any man: they felled and crosscut trees by hand, operated sawmills, and ran whole forestry sites. They may not have been on the front line, but they fought their own battles on the home front for respect and equality. And in the midst of heavy labour and wartime, they lived a life, making firm friends and even finding soulmates. In Lumberjills, researcher Joanna Foat tells their story for the first time, and gives them the recognition they so truly deserve.

Wartime Industry

Wartime Industry
Author: Neil R. Storey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2022-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 178442501X

An illustrated introduction to how British industries, supported by thousands of newly recruited women, strove to meet the nation's wartime need for munitions, armour, shipping, uniforms and aircraft. During the Second World War (1939–45), Britain stretched every sinew of its industrial might to fend off a Nazi invasion. As the nation stood alone against Fortress Europe, it harnessed, coordinated and maximised its resources, firstly to defend itself and then to help liberate Axis-occupied countries. Wartime Industry uses informative text and beautiful illustrations to show how the men and women of Britain met this unprecedented demand for military and home-front materials. It explores the work of Lord Beaverbrook's highly organised Ministry of Aircraft Production; the 'Shadow Factories' that enabled manufacturers such as Vauxhall and Rootes to make tanks and aircraft; the Royal Ordnance Factories that produced firearms and explosives; the 'Bevin Boys' conscripted to work in the coal mines; the Women's Timber Corps; and war workers – who, together, helped the nation to make it.

British Forestry in the 20th Century

British Forestry in the 20th Century
Author: Dick Richards
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2021-11-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9004474390

This book tells the fascinating story of the policies and projects that resulted in doubling the size of British forests over the past eighty years and of the Acts and actors that played a role in this development. By the end of the century the area of forests in the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland) had risen to over two and three quarter million hectares and covered eleven per cent of the land area. Three quarters of them consisted of plantations. Few other countries - Ireland and Denmark are two - have achieved a comparable change in the rural landscape in favour of forestry over as short a time. Furthermore, from being in a deplorable state by the end of the First World War, British forests are now well above the European average in terms of productivity (wood yield per hectare). At the same time they are being called upon to meet increasingly heavy social and environmental demands from a dense, largely urbanised society.

Which People's War?

Which People's War?
Author: Sonya O. Rose
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2004-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191037532

Which People's War? examines how national belonging, or British national identity, was envisaged in the public culture of the World War II home front. Using materials from newspapers, magazines, films, novels, diaries, letters, and all sorts of public documents, it explores such questions as: who was included as 'British' and what did it mean to be British? How did the British describe themselves as a singular people, and what were the consequences of those depictions? It also examines the several meanings of citizenship elaborated in various discussions concerning the British nation at war. This investigation of the powerful constructions of national identity and understandings of citizenship circulating in Britain during the Second World War exposes their multiple and contradictory consequences at the time. It reveals the fragility of any singular conception of 'Britishness' even during a war that involved the total mobilization of the country's citizenry and cost 400,000 British civilian lives.

Timber Decay in Buildings

Timber Decay in Buildings
Author: Brian Ridout
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013-06-17
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1136739963

This is the first book to tackle all the issues relating to timber decay. It presents the facts and explores timber decay problems through case studies. These are illustrated with clear self-explanatory photographs for the reader to use as a diagnostic aid. Section 1 discusses timber as a living material, Section 2 deals with decay organisms and their habitat requirements. Section 3 moves on to the building as an environment for timber and discusses the ways in which wood responds to moisture change. Section 4 ends with an approach to timber decay which integrates knowledge on the decay organism, its requirements and natural predators with appropriate and targeted chemical treatments.