Mapping wartime farmland: the National Farm Survey Project and the Cataloguing of MAF 73

Dylan Bunyan and Samuel Smith – Cataloguing Officers, November 2024

In this blog, Samuel Smith and Dylan Bunyan discuss their work cataloguing MAF 73 as part of the ongoing National Farm Survey Project at The National Archives, including background context, how they are cataloguing, and some interesting features they have found.

Dylan and Samuel are Cataloguing Officers in the Cataloguing Taxonomy and Data Department working on the National Farm Survey.

Printed map covered in land boundaries with coloured lines.

National Farm Survey map from East Sussex. Coloured outlines separate farm boundaries on a 1932 Edition OS base map. Catalogue reference: MAF 73/41/29

Background

The National Farm Survey (NFS) (1941–1943) was a government initiative to survey every farm or holding in England and Wales greater than five acres. Scotland was not included in the NFS, instead conducting its own survey (MAF 38/217).

The NFS was ambitiously hoped to form a ‘permanent Domesday record’ of the nation’s farms (Short et al., 2000, 76).

The National Archives holds two series relating to the NFS, MAF 32 and MAF 73.

MAF 32 contains forms collecting information on each individually surveyed farm, typically four per farm, linked via farm numbers assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF).

MAF 73 contains OS maps displaying farm boundaries and their ministry number amongst other annotations. There are over 3,500 folders in MAF 73, containing up to 16 maps.

Both MAF 32 and MAF 73 are very popular series. Digitisation and online publication enable these records to be freely available to a wider audience, increasing accessibility to the archives. The cataloguing and digitisation of both series has been made possible by a generous grant from the Lund Trust. The images will be made available on The National Archives’ online catalogue alongside more detailed descriptions.

The cataloguing process

The catalogue data will be updated to provide a higher level of description detail, increasing their usability. Data capture of MAF 73 will be done at The National Archives, whilst an external company will provide a limited transcription of MAF 32.

Annotators were instructed to label each farm with its ministry-assigned parish and farm number. Consequently, having a reliable list containing the period-correct name and number of each parish in England and Wales was crucial.

Before cataloguing we searched for inconsistencies between MAF 65/81 (an index of English and Welsh parishes) and MAF 32, to determine they were all listed under their correct contemporary name.

Parish lists complete, we began cataloguing MAF 73. We created Excel templates to capture the relevant information for different fields. This includes the OS map edition, each parish that appears on a single map, and the scale. This is either 6”, or photographic reductions of maps originally at 25” scale. This data is carefully entered into our spreadsheets, where we can run a variety of data manipulation tasks to check the data.

However, not all counties followed the Ministry’s instructions. A common example is counties using their own parish numbering systems— or foregoing parish numbers entirely! The Primary Returns contained in MAF 32 are particularly useful in linking different references.

Maps aside, MAF 73 includes MAF 73/64, a guide to the location of every numbered OS map sheet and individual parish within each county. This is an incredibly helpful resource for sense-checking seemingly misplaced parish code, often mistakes of the original annotators!

What do the maps reveal?

Farms

Annotators were expected to draw the outlines of each farm and write the full MAF code for each farm. This was achieved with varying levels of success and accuracy. Most annotators neatly used colour pencils, water colours, or ink, with a clearly visible farm code (in parish/farm or district/parish/farm format) in the middle that corresponded to the farm’s forms.

Derbyshire used perfectly drawn guiding lines, whilst Anglesey maps feature the correct information, but are mostly scrawled in graphite pencil. West Sussex chose to use its own coding system, with a key in the margin, whilst Herefordshire used its own coding system with no visual clues present on the maps. Worcestershire maps feature only the farmer’s and farm’s name for each farm, with the parish name occasionally written alongside.

A map of Gloucestershire featuring farm numbers and annotations, with drawings of a fox and two dogs on the right. Catalogue reference: MAF 73/14/48/5.

Military Sites

In August 1941, MAF instructed the CWAECs to not include military sites on the maps. Despite this instruction, repeated in 1943, numerous maps feature airbases, camps, decoy targets, and even US military sites. Lancashire features some later censorship; explanations of what organisation was occupying the land have either been erased or replaced with ‘requisitioned’.

Drawings

One of the most enjoyable experiences has been discovering drawings made by the map annotators. A pair of Gloucestershire maps (MAF 73/14/48/5 and MAF 73/14/48/9) feature a beautifully drawn fox and a dog, whilst in the sea around Clevedon in Somerset (MAF 73/36/4/3), the annotator added a fisherman catching a very large fish! In rural Radnorshire (MAF 73/63/13/SE), a large British flag has been drawn next to a farm.

An area of map marked in red pencil, with a sketch of a Union flag next to it.

A close-up of the British flag drawn onto a map of Radnorshire. Catalogue Reference: MAF 73/63/13/SE

Conclusion

A comprehensive survey of the nation’s farms, the NFS provides a wealth of information for those interested in agrarian or social history. As our cataloguing shows, the NFS also provides a significant glimpse into military history and land usage during WW2. The annotations themselves are works of art, showing how each county captured information on farms and farmers.

Digitising these series will make them freely available online, globally accessible, and significantly increase their searchability. As this cataloguing project continues, we look forward to making more exciting discoveries!