Catalogue description Ministry of Food: National Farm Survey, Individual Farm Records

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Details of MAF 32
Reference: MAF 32
Title: Ministry of Food: National Farm Survey, Individual Farm Records
Description:

Reports and returns on printed forms in respect of individual farms throughout the country made in connection with the National Farm Survey, 1941.

Each individual farm record consists of four forms, three of which were mailed to the farmer as part of the 1941 June 4th census return. The fourth form is that of the actual Farm Survey, the 'primary survey' only obtained by inspection and interview in the field.

Date: 1941-1943
Arrangement:

The farm records are arranged by county and by parish. The parishes are arranged alphabetically within each county. The individual records are loose papers arranged by type of form and then in farm number order. Great care should be taken to keep them in their original order.

Related material:

Maps which show the extent and boundaries of each farm in the survey, with fields identified by their Ordnance Survey parcel numbers are held in MAF 73

For records of the planning and implementation of the National Farm Survey see MAF 38

For the agricultural returns parish lists referred to in this series, see MAF 65

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Ministry of Food, General Department, Statistics Division, 1941-1947

Physical description: 1405 box(es)
Access conditions: Open
Publication note:

Geraldine Beech and Rose Mitchell, Maps for Family and Local History (Kew, 2004), chapter 4. Brian Short, Charles Watkins, William Foot and Phil Kinsman, The National Farm Survey 1941-43 (Wallingford, 1999).

Administrative / biographical background:

Apart from regular collections, any special surveys for particular purposes are conducted by the Statistics Divisions. One notable instance was the National Farm Survey.

Between 1941 and 1943 some 300,000 farms and other agricultural holdings of five acres or more were surveyed for the National Farm Survey, a 'permanent and comprehensive record of the conditions on the farms of England and Wales' which was to form the basis of post-war agricultural planning. The survey was heralded at the time as a 'Second Domesday'.

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