Agricultural History Review, Volume 55 Part 2 (2007), pp. 229–250

The direction of farming by the County War Agricultural Executive Committees in the Second World War, coupled with the dissemination of more progressive and productive methods of farming, has been widely hailed as an unqualifed success story. This article evaluates the validity of this assertion by focusing on a case study of Manor Farm, Manningford, Wiltshire. From 1926 it was owned by George Odlum, a specialist dairy farmer, nationally and internationally acclaimed for his ‘Manningford’ herd of pedigree Friesians. In 1942 his farm was privately sold to R. S. Hudson, the Minister of Agriculture, who was, according to the local agriculture committee, treated as ‘Farmer Hudson’. Following press comment that the farm was in ‘poor condition’ prior to its sale, Odlum embarked upon a lengthy campaign to clear his name which culminated in a libel trial in 1946. The evidence presented at the trial provides a detailed insight into the way a progressive farm was managed during the war and suggests strongly that the Wiltshire CWAEC was not impartial in its dealings with either Odlum or Hudson. 

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