The increased production of military aircraft, weapons and munitions was central to Britain’s Second World War effort and is well-covered by military, economic and industrial texts. That this military-industrial infrastructure was predominantly built on green-field sites in rural and peri-urban areas has not previously been identified, analysed or quantified, and as a result the broad environmental impact of Britain’s Second World War has been obscured. Using a wide range of original or understudied material from national and local archives, this thesis uncovers the location, origins, war-time use and post-war lives of a critical mass of 220 sites owned and/or operated by the Ministry of Supply and Ministry of Aircraft Production, the two ministries at the heart of British war production. As a result I argue that, from an environmental history perspective, Britain experienced a long Second World War from 1936 when sites were first identified and building commenced, until 1946 by which time the post-war fate of the majority of sites had been decided. My findings show that through a combination of state purchase and requisition, rural and peri-urban land experienced a form of military-industrial enclosure, resulting in rural areas being transformed into peri-urban areas, and peri-urban into urban. With just two exceptions, the military-industrial sites within this study did not return to their pre-war use once the war ended. Furthermore, these two studies illustrate the power of elite amenity and institutional interests and expose state institutional class bias towards the value of amenity across perceived upper/middle and working class areas. This thesis is the first to fully uncover how Britain’s rural and peri-urban landscapes were central to both its industrial war effort and post-war reconstruction, and to examine how this was contested by both state and civil society interests.
Fields into factories: the contested growth of military-industrial capacity and its impact on Britain's rural and peri-urban landscapes across the long Second World War, 1936 to 1946
Willis, G. (Author). 3 Oct 2023
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)