Catalogue description Records of the East Sussex War Agricultural Executive Committee and the East Sussex Agricultural Executive Committee

For the minutes of the War and County Agricultural Committees and their sub-committee and district committees, 1915-1919 and 1939-1965, see Public Record Office MAF 80; for records of the Women's Branch, 1916-1919 see Public Record Office MAF 59; for an index to service records of the Women's Land Army, 1939-1945 see Public Record Office MAF 421

For letters relating to the East Sussex War Agricultural Committee, 1915-1919, see C/C 29/2; for the minutes of the Poultry Advisory sub-committee of the East Sussex War Agricultural Executive Committee, 1946-1947, see AMS6388/5; for the minutes of the Brighton sub-committee of the East Sussex War Agricultural Executive Committee, 1939-1944, see R/C 10/1; for minutes of the East Sussex County Agricultural Committee, 1920-1947, see C/C 11/59/1-2; for minutes of the Eastbourne War Agricultural sub-committee, 1939-1943 see ACC 4047

For the records of Grace Cockle who served in the Women's Land Army at Hastings, Lindfield and Harlow in Essex, 1918-1940, see AMS6410; for the recollections of Pauline Geary-Pepper as a land-girl at the Deans, Piddinghoe, 1939-1940, see AMS5439

Documents deposited 18 Feb 1971 (ACC 1275)

The documents listed below were deposited by G Nightingale (formerly the Senior Assistant Land Commissioner in Lewes) and were produced by J M J Muir, an employee of the Agricultural Land Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food who acted as Area Farms Manager to the War Agricultural Executive Committee and was involved in land reclamation and the settlement of claims relating to requisitioned land after hostilities ceased

In 1915 county councils were requested by the government to set up County War Agricultural Committees to promote the efficient utilisation of agricultural land. The committees included representatives of local authorities and bodies of interest in their areas. The committees were given extensive powers, including the requisition of farms which were not being properly run under the 1917 Cultivation of Lands Order. After the war the County Agricultural Executive Committees continued to promote efficient farming, although mandatory powers were withdrawn, in keeping with peacetime conditions

The wartime co-ordination of agricultural activities gave an impetus to peacetime reform. The 1919 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Act abolished the County Executive Committees and required county councils to set up County Agricultural Committees. The minister could nominate up to one third of the membership of these committees. They had no powers of direction, but exercised all the limited powers of the county councils

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had no formal regional organisation until after the Second World War. However, in 1939 the minister was empowered to create War Agricultural Executive Committees throughout the country. To these committees were delegated the powers of the minister to control and direct production in wartime. These included the authority to take possession of land, to requisition, inspect and enter property, to terminate tenancies, to stimulate drainage schemes, to organise mobile groups of farm workers and to conduct a National Farm Survey; however, the committees generally delegated the execution of these powers to district and sub-committees over which they exercised general supervision while themselves concentrating on the discussion and formulation of overall policy. Supervision of their activities was the responsibility of the wartime Local Organisation Division

The 1947 Agriculture Act abolished the County Agricultural Committees and reconstituted the War Agricultural Executive Committees as County Agricultural Executive Committees, permanent bodies to whom the minister could delegate any of his functions relating to agriculture; and they continued to be responsible for a wide range of executive tasks, such as the administration of various agricultural grants and trading services. Their staffs now became civil servants employed by the ministry, which continued to deal with them directly rather than through any regional organisation

A Women's Branch was set up within the Board of Agriculture in January 1917 and transferred to the Food Production Department in March, to co-ordinate the mobilisation of female labour and to administer the Women's Land Army (later called the Land Army), whereby women were organised for agricultural work. The Women's Land Army was revived during the Second World War