Migrants from abroad found it harder to enter the country with the 1905 Immigration Act severely limiting legitimate entry into Britain by incoming migrants. Relationships between the continent and the Fens were largely driven by trade with Holland – favoured largely due to its links with the bulb industry. On a whole there was national hostility to immigration from outside the British Empire in 1905. Desperate groups of people were fleeing a tumultuous Russia and eastern Europe in this period. As is common throughout recent European history gypsies were amongst the first to suffer. Many fled from Eastern Europe and Germany to England and the Fens, no doubt hoping to gain agricultural work. Instead they found themselves herded together from the Fens and Lincolnshire and deported back to Germany via Grimsby.
The outbreak of War saw a neutral Holland as a valuable friend to the area and imports of fruit and vegetables into the area is seen with a growth of Dutch traders. Land used to grow bulbs was now growing food and resourceful traders adapted to the times.
The period from 1916 onwards would see the commencement of increased migration into the Fens and Spalding area. In many ways this area had been isolated economically, geographically and culturally from the rest of England, let alone Britain and the rest of the world. Throughout the twentieth century and beyond the area would become increasingly shaped by the migration of people both from within Britain and from abroad, especially as the needs of farming and food processing developed. These migrations would take two forms – seasonal migrations to fulfil specific labour needs and opportunities; and permanent migrations to fulfil specific social, economic and business opportunities and needs of both migrants and the area.
With these various people have stories of success and failure; joy and sadness; exploitation and achievement; gratitude and fear. The economic growth of the area into the twenty-first century was only possible with migration of labour into the area. It saw Spalding and its surrounding towns and villages grow. At the same time it saw nearby Peterborough transform from a large town into a city. To look at the area’s past and not look at these migrations misses a whole aspect of the area. I will attempt to describe the various changes and experiences of different groups, some small, some large. I also view migration as a whole and include that within the UK. As I look at the 1970’s onwards migration is seen largely through my eyes and experience with all the biases that may entail.
I choose 1916 as a starting point for twentieth century migration into the South Holland region for that date saw the first developments of land-based settlements in the area to ensure employment – in this case the employment of soldiers and sailors returning from the front. The reasoning behind this was to promote a policy of closer land settlement by offering discharged soldiers and sailors tenancies of small-holdings to be set up as colonies. This happened in the Holbeach Marsh and Moulton Seas End area on Crown land. It involved larger Crown tenants receiving notices to quit and being forced to vacate a total of 1000 acres. I have been told by successors to those displaced farmers that they did not welcome this reduction in their acreage to be replaced by what they viewed as an experiment that was doomed to fail. This was being seen by government as a solution to solve the problem of lack of labour on the land. Prior to this the South Holland Agricultural War Committee had been called to put 30,000 acres to grass, but was reluctant to do so without the supply of labour into the area. Animals to graze such an area would require labour and the request was turned down on those grounds. There is a valuable lesson that even in a period of national food shortages the largest challenge to food production was labour.
1916 saw the first land settlement procured by a discharged soldier at Moulton Seas End. This received much publicity and he was photographed with his pigs – the idea being that this would encourage further applicants. The problem was that whilst initially a discharged soldier would be paid under the land settlement scheme there was inadequate capital injected into the scheme. The result of this was that for people to stand a chance of being successful they needed some funds, capital or savings of their own. The scheme was a mixed bag of success and failure. Where colonists failed it created opportunity for others to enter it, or in the event of vacancy an upcoming local to gain a smallholding. It did create a slight increase in the supply of labour as the successful small holders also did seasonal work for other farmers and growers. A similar set up to cottagers before them. The scheme also created a group of smallholding tenancies with housing that would over time be taken up by local people employed in Agriculture that would continue in subsequent generations.
There was a growing migration of people from industrial areas to Spalding as the 1920’s progressed. But housing was a difficulty. It was in this period that Spalding saw its first council houses constructed. Housing lists and availability were linked to employment exchanges meaning that work and housing were inter-linked. Indeed, housing availability was skewed in favour of key infrastructure workers such as gas board and electricity board engineers, school teachers etc. It has to be understood that in the Spalding area of that time right through to my childhood was an attitude that went beyond parochialism that meant that people from outside the area were regarded as foreigners. This is summed up by an animated meeting of Spalding Urban District Council in the 1920’s that saw Councillor J.J. Chilvers contend that preferences for residential houses, “ought not to be given to foreigners.” This attitude was ridiculed by the local press at the time in a cartoon that parodied the various “foreigners” of Europe that he claimed were seeking housing.
The 1920’s and 30’s saw significant economic depression in the country with Britain never seeing the growth that America enjoyed in the post War period, albeit short-lived with the economic crash of 1929. In this period both British industry and agriculture felt under siege and undercut by foreign competition. The two socialisms, national socialism and communism, were growing with the former favoured by many farmers and the later favoured by many industrial and land workers. Hence you see National Farmers Union committee members extolling the need for more white farmers in South Africa; Oswald Mosely giving talks to local agricultural groups in the Fens accompanied (before the uniform was outlawed) by his black-shirts; and local fat-stock society members giving speeches extolling “Britain for the Britishers” and “oust the foreigner” in jingoistic language.
The period post World War I was difficult for the area with agriculture at best in the doldrums and unable to compete with foreign imports upon which the country had relied upon in wartime. The fens of this area did benefit from a diversity of crops that helped mitigate this. Looking at maps of the area you still see sizeable orchards, even more so towards Wisbech.
Fruit picking created a short period of requiring relatively large volumes of labour. This was achieved by a transient and visiting work force. Gypsies came to the area following the fruit crop ripening in various areas – this pattern continued into the 1970’s and died out in the 1980’s. The other seasonal migrations was from the Midlands with train loads of families coming from the industrial centre of the country, especially Sheffield. They would camp at the fruit farms picking for the season before returning home.
As British manufacturing struggled in the Great Depression the fruit picking season became an essential lifeline for these families from the Midlands as illustrated by the plea of a Sheffield fruit picker accused of stealing the sack she slept upon in 1931, “…..I have six children and a husband out of work and it cost me to get here.” The magistrate wisely discharged the poor lady.
One aspect of the 1920’s and 30’s was a large reduction in female domestic servants being employed as farmers “pulled in their horns”. This was reported in 1932:
“Figures with regard to a glut of female domestic services are given in a report just issued by the Boston District Local Unemployment Committee which covers the whole of South Lincolnshire. For 438 vacancies 840 girls applied and during the year 347 situations were filled. One curious point is that 156 girls failed to turn up after acceptance.
The Committee reported that the unemployment situation in South Lincolnshire, in spite of the agricultural depression is not serious except in the Horncastle district.”
The area did see migrations from abroad in the inter-war period with the largest group being Italian. This was not great in numbers in the Spalding area, but much greater in Peterborough where the brick factories, and then sugar beet factory welcomed Italian workers. When talking to descendants of migrants from this period you realise that migration is not a fixed thing. I have spoken to people in the Lea Valley, Peterborough, Holbeach, Spalding and more recently Newcastle, all with Italian origins and the migration of their families are often a story of going to and from Italy over a series of years and generations maintaining links and relationships in both countries from the 1880’s through to the present day. It is perhaps a case of “Home is where the heart is .” The best of both worlds is perhaps illustrated by the advice I was given when visiting Italian clients, “When offered a coffee the Italian way or the English way always choose Italian.” The lesson here being that with migration of people is migration of knowledge, whether it be making coffee or growing and processing crops.
If you read George Orwell’s “Road to Wigan Pier” you get a good impression of the deprivations of the 1930’s. South Lincolnshire was not immune to economic depression it was by and large arable farming that took the brunt of the fall with a resultant drop in the price of agricultural machinery and, especially in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and to some extent South Lincolnshire, a drop in agricultural wages. Some fenland fields became derelict especially on black land Fen towards Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. However, potatoes, sugar beet and flowers continued to trade well and subsidies assisted the viability of farming in some areas. There was still a shortage of labour in the fens around Spalding with high reliance upon seasonal workers in gangs. Irish, gypsies, travellers, women and children were all relied upon for labour.
In 1931 the first Land Settlement Bill was passed in parliament as a means of trying to train people from industrial areas and assist their migration to land work. This resulted in 1935 with the purchase of the 122 acre site at Fulney for this purpose.
“The local estate, comprising about 122 acres has been purchased has been purchased by the Association from Mr. G. W. Chatterton of Spalding, and is said to be ideally suited to bulb, flower and strawberry cultivation. Bacon pigs will be kept by the settlers.”[i]
Initially twelve pairs of cottages were planned, but this soon grew to 33 buildings. The site benefitted from mains water, gas and electricity. All these were laid onto the site relatively quickly within the year. The nearest village, Weston Hills, a mile away, didn’t get electricity until 1952. One of the occupiers of the land settlement in the 1980’s told me, “Many of them didn’t make it work. They were miners from Durham and the shipyards up north and hadn’t a clue. They had been unemployed for too long and were used to hard work and heavy drinking but had gotten out of the habit of work.”
Whether this is valid criticism or not is difficult to judge. However, it has to be understood that unemployment in the northeast of England had reached 73 per cent by 1935 and this had been prolonged for up to seven years before that for many. Initially the men would come down to train before being able to apply for a tenancy. The toll of unemployment had been great. In October 1937 one trainee, Mr George Whiting, originally of North Shields received notification from his 17 years old son that his wife had killed herself by inhaling coal gas. The son’s account of his mother, “My mother had been very depressed. She seemed worse after my father left to work in Spalding.”
It has to be understood that many simply struggled to adapt to the land settlement and its work not through any fault of their own when you consider their background and experience as seen in the case of William Taylor who appeared in court for stealing a bike in 1938:
“Prisoner denied to the magistrates that he took the bicycle with any felonious intent. He came to the Land Settlement a few weeks ago as a trainee, but did not settle down. To overcome his sorrows he had a lot to drink; more than ever he had had before. When he realised the next morning that he had taken the bicycle he was in a predicament. He did not dare return it for fear of the consequences so he sent it to Newcastle.”
The circumstances of William’s fate were considered wisely in my opinion in that he escaped a custodial sentence in part due to the evidence given by a sympathetic Superintendent Dawson, “….there was nothing known against Taylor. By trade he was a boiler-maker, and owing to the industrial depression had only worked casually for the past 15 years. He came to the Fulney Land Settlement as a trainee, but was not suited to the work and asked for his discharge, He had a wife and three children.”[ii]
The land settlement saw about forty families arrive in the area, some remained, some left the land settlement for alternative work in agriculture or the local sugar beet and canning factories. The scheme had a high turnover and was interrupted by the War which saw a further challenge on the labour resource.
As Stalin’s rule of terror commenced we did see many Russians enter the country , but they tended to migrate to city areas, especially London. In those days the average person in Britain made no distinction between Russia and Ukraine. I have encountered three families in the Fens that originated from migration of this time, two to avoid starvation in the Ukraine. Sadly these families experienced internment in World War 2 as foreign nationals of an enemy country. They were only released several months after Germany declared war on Russia in 1941. That Ukrainians were caught up in this policy of internment is hardly surprising as fear and paranoia took hold. One thing that struck me as I was told about this was a total lack of resentment for such treatment and even an understanding of it. The outbreak of War also saw the internment of Italian, German and Austrian nationals.
In September 1939 a system of tribunals was set up to review all German and Austrian nationals over 16 resulting by the end of 1939 in 569 internments, 6800 subject to restrictions, and 64,000 subject to no restriction whatsoever.[iii] Many civil servants, and certainly MI5 viewed this as a diversion of resources away from the threat of German espionage. It has to be remembered that there were many Nazi sympathisers in Britain, even having their own clubs and associations, fuelled by antisemitism and conspiracy theories. All before the age of the internet!
Fear and xenophobia was such that in 1939 Bourne Isolation Hospital paid for the following advert:
“The Bourne Isolation Hospital justly claims to have an international staff, including the medical men. The matron hails from Scotland, one nurse is an Italian Jew, another is a German Jew, the third is Welsh, and the fourth is British. There are two medical men who visit the hospital, one of them is Irish and the other of Scotch descent. It is doubtful whether any other hospital of its size in the country can equal this.”
1940 saw the internment of Italians and this was particularly unpopular as many had long-standing ties and loyalties towards Britain. Civilian internment camps were set up in various locations including the Isle of Man. Before these were set up the Victorian prisons of England were used – most unfairly as the very nature of the internment was that there was no criminality. Policies built on fear seldom create equity. In 1943 the Home Office reported there had been four suicides by civilian internments.[iv]
Sir John Anderson, the Home Secretary in 1940 justified internment as, “the alien wolf masquerading in the refugees sheepskin” whilst at the same time it caused hardship to friendly aliens the country lost out by interring people of use to the War effort. In August 1940 Lord Faringdon challenged the government with the case of the internment of a sixteen year old who had lived in Britain since the age of 11 months and whilst he was interned with his father in a camp in Liverpool they were subsequently separated and the boy was shipped to Canada. The Bishop of Chichester visited the internment camp in the Isle of Man and found 1900 interred there of which 150 had been in concentration camps in Germany. There was effectively people interred in camps who’s life would be forfeit in Germany. This shows how supposed “British” values can easily be eroded by fear.
March 1941 saw Boston Town Council move that in the opinion of the Council all aliens whether naturalised or not should be interred for the duration of the War. The paranoia of the time even hit the Fenland village of Moulton Chapel:
“Owing to the fact that for several weeks past rumours have been circulated in the neighbourhood that Mr. Thomas Frederick Speakman, father of the vicar of Moulton Chapel, has been interned as an enemy alien, the Rev. H. D. Speakman publicly denied this in church on Sunday evening. He stated that there was no truth whatever in the statement, nor was there any cause for it. He had in fact heard from his father the previous day from the address where he was staying at Leamington Spa.
Mr. T.F. Speakman, who is a widower, has in recent years made his home with his only surviving son at the Vicarage, Moulton Chapel, after disposing of his London house. He was born of English parents 77 years ago at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and after training at Saltley College, Birmingham, was a schoolmaster in the service of the London County Council. On his retirement in the early twenties, he undertook educational work in Switzerland and also travelled abroad extensively, being a good linguist.
Incidentally, the family name of Speakman has no connection with the Continent, but can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times, when its original holders were the “spokesmen” of the community, a position of no small importance. It is especially found in Lancashire today.
The Rev. H.D. Speakman, who was born in London and served in the late war, stated, ‘I have written to my father about these rumours, and I have no doubt, that he will be coming home in the future to show himself. I can well understand that people are worried and suspicious today, but they should verify their facts before speaking. A great deal of unhappiness and inconvenience can be caused by thoughtless gossip. Fortunately I have a thick skin, and an English one too, and things do not easily upset me personally. But I recognise that it is rather embarrassing when I am connected with A.R.P. and other public duties. However, now that the matter has been ventilated, I hope that all the gossip will cease. I can think of no cause for it.’”[v]
There was one curious case of internment as Japan entered the tripartite pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940 – their citizens immediately became subject to internment in Britain. Whilst the region had very few Japanese citizens staying in the area the poultry industry had been using Japanese “sexing” experts since the 1920’s to sex chicks. Though these people were not numerous, they were significant in their skill and importance to the poultry industry. One poor soul found himself caught up in the crossfire of War. When reading the following it has to be considered that the fall of Singapore to the Japanese was only a month before and feelings were very high as the press had published detailed accounts of devastation, destruction and deprivation and over 42,000 allied prisoners were captured.
“JAP CHICKEN SEXER
Woodhall Petition For Removal
Much indignation has been expressed by almost everyone in Woodhall Spa at the employment by a local poultry firm of a Japanese chicken sexer who has been released to carry on his war work.
So strong is the feeling that a petition carrying several hundred names has been forwarded to the Home Secretary, asking for his removal from Woodhall and re-internment.
The petitioners wonder why aliens of a country we are at war with should be allowed liberty to follow the occupation of chick sexing, a job that can be done by our own countrymen, who although perhaps not so speedy as the Japs can yet do the work equally as well and probably at less expense.
It is useless for anyone to say that these men are friendly aliens and harmless, and the only way to make certain that they are really safe is to intern them.”[vi]
The outbreak of the Second World War saw a huge pull on the supply of able-bodied men. This was to be appeased slightly by three sources: soldiers, land army girls and prisoners of war.
June 1940 saw a huge influx of soldiers billeted in the area as they recovered from the evacuation of Dunkirk. 198,000 British and Commonwealth troops and 140,000 French were evacuated to Britain and there was a shortage of space and places to accommodate them. As a result, many farmers, especially on the marsh farms, accommodated soldiers who did some work on their farms in this period. It was quite a miserable time for them, to be evacuated and then billeted at a farm some distance from any town or even a pub. Sadly on the evening of 30th August 1940 two of those surviving soldiers that survived Dunkirk died in a motorbike accident at Weston whilst returning from an evenings respite in Spalding.
Whilst the women’s land army swung into action very quickly in 1939, the model for it had already been established in 1917, use of the women’s land army was relatively low in South Holland until 1943. I have been told that this was because they were more expensive than the labour supplied by soldiers in 1940 and the prisoners of war that started working in the area in 1942. In the fens around South Lincolnshire many of these were Italian and a few were German. The reality is that the Holland War Agricultural Executive Committee was fairly slow in applying for land army and prisoner of war labour.
1943 saw the Holland War Agricultural Executive Committee request applications from farmers for a limited number of Italian prisoners of war that would be available for harvest. The Italians were well-regarded and friendly. My mother has told me about them working at Spinney Farm between Bourne and Spalding. She told me the Italians cooked the best chips with limited resources and would feed the children with them. One of the prisoners made a ring out of wood for her sister. The prisoners would bathe at their house in a tin bath guarded by a soldier with a rifle. When her mother asked the soldier, “You wouldn’t use that on them would you?” He replied, “If they make a run for it I won’t have a choice.” The reality was that they had nowhere to run to. Indeed I have seen more than one account of Italian prisoners experiencing better conditions in wartime Britain than they had experienced in rural Italy before the War.
Italian POW’s became extremely trusted and some selected prisoners were permitted to cycle up to seven miles to their work without an escort. October 1943 saw the majority of Italy effectively switch sides, but the Italians in Britain still had no route home. This meant that the authorities freed up the resource of Italians into agricultural work in favour of Germans who were deemed to still need guarding. The accommodation at Spalding land settlement that had been used for trainees began to house displaced persons that were working on farms in the area.
As the War came to an end prisoners were being freed – but getting home, if they had a home to go to any more, was a considerable problem. My father recalls just after the War ended a German wanting to share his small amount of chocolate with him in Ayscoughfee Gardens, Spalding – possibly missing his own family. I have spoken to three local people that stayed in the Spalding area after being prisoners of war to make a life as they were effectively unable to get home. People think that the end of the War meant everybody could go home and start living peaceful lives. This is far from the truth. Europe was effectively being carved up by the Allies and Germany had been split. One local person told me how she ran barefoot in the middle of the night to ensure she was in the western side of Germany as the war ended such was the fear of Russian troops before eventually making her way to Britain as a displaced person. Thousands of people were displaced, in the wrong place, or simply had nowhere to go. The movement of people back to their origins, where possible, would take years for some. In addition, the post-War expansion of Russia into Eastern Europe would see further displacement of people into the following decades.
In the post-War period agriculture was crying out for labour and this would see further migration, temporary and permanent of displaced persons into the area.
1946 saw this headline:
“Italian Workers Wanted
Farmers in Lincolnshire, who may be forced to grow less unless they get more labour, are asking the Government to send back to them Italian ex-prisoners of war.
They urge that the Italians worked well during the war and suggest that they be invited back to England to settle. Their plan is being put to the government through the National Farmers Union.
Mr. George Deer, Socialist M.P. for Lincoln, negotiating with the Ministries concerned said on Monday: ‘There is no question of trying to oust British workers with foreign labour.’”[vii]
1947 saw the following headline:
“Potato and Beet Harvest Labour
It is understood that the labour force in the county of Holland is sufficient to deal with the potato harvest and sugar beet lifting. There are 180 Ukrainians resident in the Fulney Park Hostel, and 55 German and 50 French students, with approximately 20 others at the Sutton Bridge harvest camp.
The Crowland and Deeping St. Nicholas districts are being given preference, and groups of eight to ten men are being sent to help on farms in rotation for potato lifting.”
1948 saw the following headline that illustrates why some Ukrainians could not return for fear of being executed:
“8000 Ukrainians To Help Harvest
As a result of an agreement with the Italian Government, 8000 Ukrainians will arrive in Britain from Italy in time for the harvest. They form the remnants of a division which the Germans recruited in the erstwhile Polish Ukraine to fight against the Russians, and fell into our hands in Italy.
In view of the impending ratification of the Italian peace treaty, and to relieve the pressure on the Italian economy, we have agreed to withdraw them from Italy, and until some decision is taken on their ultimate disposal they will provide a labour force in Britain.”
I have showed this article to a descendant of one of these soldiers and she responded that her grand-father had been effectively press-ganged at bayonet point into the German army aged sixteen. They were largely treated as cannon fodder being issued with no more than five rounds of ammunition at a time so their ability to fight was always limited. He managed to remain in Britain, but two of his old school-friends were deported back to the Ukraine via Germany in late 1949 and he fears that they were executed as they had promised to write and his letters never received a response.
The post-War period saw displaced persons from Hungary, Poland, The Czech Republic and East Germany and their plight had consequences well into the 1960’s. For example, Zbigniew Stecs aged 15 became a trainee in Horticulture in Spalding in 1962 and was sponsored by the local Rotary Club. His mother was born in Poland and deported by Germans in 1941 and since then had been confined to displaced persons camps. Zbigniew came to Britain under the protection of the Ockenden Venture – a charity formed to assist refugees by the teacher Joyce Pearce in the 1950’s.
Generally the migration of people into the Spalding area from the 1960’s through to 1980 whether from abroad or other areas of the UK tended to be quite low, especially when compared to subsequent decades. The influx of non-European migrants from abroad into post-war Britain hardly touched South Holland. The migration of people of non-European origin into the area was tiny, but not insignificant as some of the attitudes I have already described in the inter-war period reared their head.
The early 1970’s saw Ugandasians being forcibly deported from Uganda by Idi Amin. As Indians with British passports were evacuated they were robbed of everything they had. This is as well as having to leave their homes and businesses, that in many cases had been established in the nineteenth century. Both newspaper articles and minutes of Spalding Urban District Council of the time show vehement arguments against housing these refugees. You see on councillor proudly declaring, “I’m an Enoch Powell man.” When you look at the people arguing you see a pattern – generally small businessmen and professionals appear highly supportive of helping house these refugees, and those from an employed labouring background were strongly opposed. Surprisingly to me this echoed in my own family where my father and grand-father seemed to have sympathy with their plight, not a stance I would normally expect from them. I believe a particular turning point of sympathy was an account of men and women having jewellery and watches removed as they boarded planes to leave Uganda.
In my experience it is usually the case with any refugee that people fear them as a group, but when they look at the individual person those fears disappear in empathy and understanding of basic humanity. The first Ugandasian refugees to arrive in Spalding were rented a house by Spalding accountant Mr Arnold Smith housing husband and wife and their three children. This he did after the committee of the local council had denied them access to housing – a subsequent meeting of the full council over-ruled this. This family gave an interview to the local press and painted a picture of leaving their home, business, wealth and virtually all possessions behind to flee for their lives. However, the extended family had been split with most of them making it to Britain and some to India. I recall three of the family moving to the area with two of them living in council houses in Spalding. They were memorable to me for two reasons -I had met virtually no-one with brown skin before and they introduced me to the smell of curry. My father supplied them with TV’s , originally they bought second-hand and as they were able to afford it they upgraded to new colour TV’s . The reason I recall the smell of curry is that older TVs used to carry the smell of the house they came from, cigarette smoke, food smells and other less pleasant smells. I remember going with my father to pick up their TV to repair and asking my father what the smell was. He explained it was curry. I had never smelt curry before.
This valued customer earned further respect when he explained to my father that if he had someone come into his shop in his circumstances asking for a TV with legs attached to it was because it would then be classed as an item of furniture and the local authority would pay for this. He strongly disapproved of this. From my father’s point of view he avoided supplying anything that would be billed to the council because they were such slow payers.
This extended Ugandasian family became respected business people in both Spalding and Peterborough. Indeed, later in the 1970’s one of the family made approaches to buy my father’s business and employ him, an approach he declined.
1979 saw an improved reaction from South Holland District Council when refugees from Vietnam were housed in Spalding. But, with them not having the benefit of the English language and quite limited support I feel they were more isolated. One family lived around the corner from me and I recall as I went home from school often seeing a Vietnamese man carrying fish that he had freshly caught in the River Welland and taking them home to eat. Talking to the water bailiff of the time he had no rod licence, but considering the experience he had had and the lack of English the bailiff reckoned, quite rightly, he should be let be.
As I have described so far, Spalding has seen many temporary and permanent migrations and these have been almost entirely from Europe. This is in common with many rural areas. I have asked several first and second generation migrants, mostly in Peterborough, but also elsewhere why this may be the case and received several explanations and opinions:
- “When you first migrate you go to where you can get work and this is easier in a city or large town where friends can introduce you.” (First generation migrant – from Kenya to Leicester in early 1970’s)
- “When Dad started the only work we could get was gang work. He got fed up with not being paid a full wage so started his own gang. His old gang master tried to stop him. So he went to the gym and trained to box. We earned respect and worked hard and didn’t take any shit. That’s why I love boxing.” When I asked him whether it was racism he paused and said, “no. it was business.” He then told me that his father taught him that racism is what people resort to when they fail. (Second generation migrant - originally from Punjab migrated initially in 1971).
- “When I first came here I couldn’t find work until I stopped wearing a dastar. [vii] So I shaved my head and got a job straight away.” (First generation migrant from Indian continent 1970’s)
- “I like Spalding, good people. I didn’t miss there not being a Mosque. I still had faith and I still prayed. But I missed having the choice to go to a Mosque. I sometimes went to Peterborough. The only regret I have is not making the pilgrimage, but my son says he will do it for me.” (First generation migrant from Uganda 1972)
- “My parents won’t talk to me about how they came here. It’s too painful for them. But they don’t understand that I need to know as I feel I have no roots.” (second generation Ugandasian in Louth quote from 2006)
- “It was a nightmare today. A gang turned up from Leicester, all Indian, dressed inappropriately with them saris and jewellery. I couldn’t make them understand that that was wrong and their clothes would get caught in the line. In the end we got them to tie their clothes back and cover their jewellery with blue plasters.” (line leader at a Spalding food factory quote from 1989)
- “I’ve learned its best to keep people on the factory line together that speak the same language. If this means segregating people by colour or nationality that’s fine with me.” (Factory manager 2002).
- “For over forty years I was in the trade and had no staff problems because I would rotate friends and family from India. They came over earned good money and I had a good source of staff. Then in 2016 they messed it up. That’s why I don’t like Europe.” (Indian first generation immigrant came over in 1967 operated Indian restaurants – quote from 2017). The comment about Europe may be misplaced as my understanding in 2023 is that there is no improvement to the visa/immigration system. But certainly the very nature of the EU and the Schengen border control area is a bias towards Europe.
- “I always go where I find family. I won’t stay here very long.” (A dual nationality Indian Kenyan I met in Whittlesey 2011)
- “I walked from Afghanistan to Spalding with the only ride being in a lorry from Calais to Peterborough. Many boys learn English and we hope to come here. I like work and they treat me well.” (23 year old Afghan at a car wash in South Holland. The ‘owner’ of the car wash did not like me talking to him until he realised that I knew him as a registered gang master. His car washes he explained to me were as side line for those without papers. The paradox for me was that I knew that they would be treated better than some other people operating in the black economy. This was in 2016.)
- “We need to be tougher on illegal migrants and send them back where they belong.” (Local politician to South Holland in 2017) My response to them, “But you are happy to have them wash your car.” The person has not spoken to me since!
These comments are but a few I have collected over the years. I have related other modern examples when I looked at Agricultural labour earlier.
If you come from another country and go to a city it is easier to mix with people. With volume of people comes greater diversity. There also becomes greater choice to stay in your own group. I believe immigrants from Commonwealth countries often have the edge because they experience a dominant culture of English, even if it has been one of exploitation or abuse. I never realised that Kenya experienced similar pogroms to Uganda until I met Indian businessmen in the early 2000’s that had fled Kenya in the early eighties – their experience was not the same as Uganda as many of them had business partners that were local Kenyans, whereas in Uganda there was a greater split in society, but the need to escape was the same. It is telling that they were so entwined in English culture their families would send them aged eleven unaccompanied on a ship back to India to have a residential English grammar school education in India!
One local historian once told me, “The dominant culture in the Fens is Fenland.”
The Fens, in common with other rural areas is predominantly white English, certainly compared to the great cities of Britain. There were no historical support systems. The nature of the area is that most people were brought up in the area and stayed in the area to live and work. If you look at my family name – the Elsdens originally migrated from Europe into Soham in the sixteenth century and from there the name has not travelled far being focused around the Cambridgeshire Fens and my own family in Spalding. My wife’s family has dozens of relations that largely stayed within the same group of villages around the Whaplode Drove area. Go into the graveyard of Cowbit church and you see family names of Holmes, Tyrell, Batterham and Braybrooks showing a tight knit community. Stepping outside the relatively closed society of the Fens tended to happen either through professional employment for a large company such as a bank or via university education – the increased availability of these avenues of escape did not occur until the late 1960’s.
More specifically the simple fact is that farming is dominated by English and European people. The following give some insight of the migrant experience:
- “When I came to Britain I sold my farm in Kenya. I thought I could become a farmer in the Fens around Peterborough because so much is grown there. When I made enquiries I found that land agents did not take me seriously. A Dutch friend explained to me that because I was not British and did not come from Europe they assumed I was not a serious farmer. He offered to partner with me to open doors, but I didn’t wish to. I then realised the amount of cash required to buy good farmland was out of proportion to the returns I was used to, especially compared to my experience in Kenya. The farmers here are good at growing, but not good at selling. I have good connections in Africa and Europe. So I used those to set up a fruit and vegetable wholesale business selling initially just to Indian and Chinese restaurants and then to all types of restaurants and independent shops throughout eastern England and into London. Quite early on I talked to the chefs in Indian restaurants and learned that they wanted fresher onions. When onions are harvested they are dried – this makes them easier to handle without bruising and damage. However, in drying they lose flavour. I now pay farmers to grow and pack onions as I want them under contract. It takes more people to crop, but we get paid more for supplying what the customer wants. I am far better off than I would have been if I was a farmer.” (Indian from Kenya with British dual nationality 2016).
- On two separate occasions both I and one of my colleagues has people of Pakistani and Indian origin approach us to help buy a farm. In my case the client was originally from Pakistan. He had been a farmer in Pakistan and wished to do the same here. He had worked all hours and saved a considerable amount of cash to achieve his dream. He was frustrated at not being taken seriously, but I have the cash!” he said. The problem was that he literally did have the cash - £300,000 in cash mostly £20 notes and believed he could easily use this to buy land. I explained to him that he would have to account for the source of the money to comply with money laundering rules and that this was the case for solicitors as well as banks. My gut told me that this was legitimate – his story and history made sense. It also has to be understood that it is normal for people with any history of being a refugee in their lineage where their parents or grand-parents lost everything, to have portable wealth and accumulate cash and assets outside of bank accounts. This applies across all geographical backgrounds. The paradox is that this feature is also shared by those earning funds illegally or wishing to avoid revenues.
- A potential client wished to open a bank account to set up a farming business. No borrowing was required as he had a group of investors. I explained that I needed to, at that time, identify any source of funds over £5000. On the face of it a reasonable request. However, each investor needed to prove their source of funds and this was to open a whole family tree of businesses with investors and funds that became too cumbersome to prove. The issue here was caused by both business practise and religion. Most of the investors (not all) were Moslem and it was a common business practise to help friends and associates with interest free finance between themselves in line with their religious beliefs. I have seen this first hand in Islam and second-hand with a Jewish client in the corporate world. The principle is that you cannot lend to a person of the same faith and charge them interest. Interestingly you can lend to people outside of the faith and charge them interest. In this case the need for Bank compliance posed too significant a barrier to cross. I argue that this is in part a cultural barrier as in other areas I have been highly successful at identifying key investors to comply with source of funds requirements from Egypt (potato merchant), India (seed development) and Taiwan (horticulture).
- A Syrian refugee I encountered in 2017 had entered the UK with his family through legitimate means and had appropriate paperwork. His background was in farming. Despite this he found difficulty obtaining work as many employers found his status as a legitimate refugee hard to process. As a result he obtained mostly part-time or seasonal work largely gang related. He hated relying upon any form of benefits and in addition to work had transformed his garden growing fruit and vegetables and had a few chickens. He sold some off – whilst not a large income it helped his desire to be as independent as possible. He wished to rent an allotment to expand this. He would not get accepted onto an allotment list. However, I did find a plot of just over 2 acres that amounted to a potentially useful smallholding without the accommodation, but a good useful shed. The landowner was happy in principle to rent the land to him on a simple Farm Business Tenancy for three years with the tenant having support of a simple guarantee to be given to the owner. The whole arrangement fell over because the refugee was Syrian and therefore deemed subject to sanctions!
It is hard for anyone to get a foothold in farming, but when I have listened to people over the last fifty years about how they established themselves it tends to be by one of the following:
- Family inheritance or succession;
- Very small beginnings such as a cottager or allotment;
- Small beginnings on small tenancies and land purchases whilst doing several jobs;
- Tenancies especially Agricultural Holdings Act Tenancies and local authority lifetime tenancies;
- Second job having their own livestock and growing the value to raise cash.
Whilst I accept there is no easy path into farming, even farming inheritance is laden with obstacles, it has been the nature of things that the odds are stacked against the non-European migrant, especially when compared to other trades and industries, especially retail and fast-food.
Modern migrations into the Fenland area are by and large not driven by the needs of refugees – rather they are driven by the demand and supply of labour. Thus, in this area at least, the xenophobic myth of leeches tapping into welfare is blown out of the water. However, this does not mean that over time resources, including welfare, education, health and other services , are not put under strain either temporarily or ongoing if adequate investment into those services is not made. There is also the high risk of suppression of wages against increased pressure of housing costs. This is not to say this is good or bad – it is merely an acknowledgement of benefit and cost.
The development and subsequent expansion of the food industry in the post-War period fuelled a demand for labour and this took women away from the land and horticulture. As post War rationing dropped off the 1950’s saw economic growth in all industries with high levels of employment. This was fuelling wage increases. Thus in 1957 we see an optimistic Harold Macmillan claiming Britons “have never had it so good.”
“Go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country.” Harold Macmillan 8th July 1957.
Certainly the period 1957 to 1972 saw very high levels of employment with a matching peak in incomes against living expenses. It is argued that 1967 saw people benefitting the greatest from this income against living expenses. The area had always had seasonal migrations of labour, but the supply from the industrial areas of the Midlands that had occurred prior to the War dried up. Meanwhile, local people with a choice of employment sought higher wages. With peak canning in the summer months this was an attractive employment for students. August 1962 saw Smedleys import over 130 Irish students to solve the seasonal labour shortage at Spalding and 71 Maltese were flown into the UK by Smedleys to work at Wisbech. Italians from Peterborough were also transported in daily to help with seasonal work. Smedleys built hostels at its factories to accommodate seasonal workers. At this time Smedleys had their own buses and bus drivers to enable labour to get to work in an area that was not yet dominated by car ownership.
There were allegations that local labour had been paid off at Wisbech to make way for the Maltese – this was refuted by Smedleys, “They would not go to the expense of bringing in labour from other countries and areas if they could get it from their home town.”[viii]
In 1962 Smedleys built a hostel costing £20,000 at the Spalding site to house seasonal workers. Different canning seasons suited different seasonal groups, but by 1965 a regular routine of young ladies from Malta arrived in May and usually departed the following October at Smedley’s expense. By this date the visiting girls had sparked at least four romances that resulted in four local marriages. The arrangement for girls to come over to work was done through an organisation called Catholic Action that involved a priest accompanying them on their journey and catering for any social or spiritual requirements whilst they were here. The girls were all aged between 18 and their mid-20’s. There were other groups of girls from Ireland, Poland and the Ukraine accommodated, but in this period the Maltese were the largest contingent.
The background behind this seasonal migration is that Malta up to 1964 was a British Colony with its economy dominated by British military expenditure. The contraction of the British Empire coupled with the failure of Britain in the Suez crisis of 1956 saw a contraction of military spending and a withdrawal of military from Malta. Malta had to adapt its economy from being dominated by construction to growing its manufacturing, agricultural and tourism industries. This change caused a shock in its economy, financial difficulty, and unemployment that it had not experienced before. At the same time its population had grown since the War. The result was a series of temporary and permanent migrations predominantly to Britain.
It has to be noted at this time seasonal workers were being employed directly by local firms and they took an active interest in their welfare. Subsequent decades would see this “responsibility” delegated to gangmasters and agencies. As one worker put it to me, “We used to have Welfare Officers to look after the workers. Nowadays they have Human Resource Managers to look after the Company.”
The Yom-Kippur War and the subsequent energy crisis of the 1970’s was to have massive implications to both seasonal and permanent migrations to the area from other parts of the UK as it heralded a contraction of British industry that would see people desperate for work moving and travelling to the area as steel works and coal mines closed. At the same time a politically expanding Europe and a changing South Africa would see movements from those regions into Spalding and the surrounding Fenland area.
1987 saw me working at Holbeach and Long Sutton and I witnessed the first influx of, initially mostly white, South Africans into the area. From what they told me many older people feared a pogrom against the whites as apartheid dismantled. Younger South Africans that could, used their dual nationality to come to Britain to avoid the draft, to quote a former colleague, “I don’t want to fight our own people in the townships.” Their fears were legitimate and based upon what they had seen, particularly in Kenya and Uganda. I met a young black Ugandan in the 1990’s that had worked for the United Nations reviewing Ugandan Agriculture, and because the report he filed was not favoured by the government he was warned to leave Uganda within 24 hours or else he would disappear. African Nationalism had much in common with Stalinist Communism in that control was sought through fear. Nelson Mandella broke that mould. 1990 saw the first influx of black South Africans. Those without dual nationality came here with visas and work permits for either six months or two years. Thus, for the first time in my life I met people from all sorts of fascinating backgrounds from Zulu of Natal to Ouambo of Namibia. Many returned to their homelands, but as is the way, some stayed and formed relationships locally.
In this same period, from the mid-80’s, I saw gangs of workers travelling in daily into the area from more industrial areas, especially Sheffield and Doncaster to work each day. I recall my Mum’s cousin in Rotherham having her husband and three sons all unemployed at one point. The area around Spalding had been sheltered from unemployment of the same magnitude by the food industry.
In the same era of the mid-80’s we saw a great increase in large second homes being bought by people from the London area where new house builds in Spalding were marketed aggressively appealing to the well off and those nearing retirement who could cash in on their southern home.
There was also a key change happening that would have a huge impact on the area, its people and its migrants. Firms in the food industry locally were changing from family controlled businesses to larger multi-national companies. Employment patterns changed in that rather than be tied to a permanent work force or regular arrangements that they were responsible for both the food and the farming industries started to rely upon gangs and agency workers.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 would see Europe expand eastward and as people arrived this pattern of gangs and agencies became like the wild west with little action taken to regulate it until 2004. Gang labour is well established and as I’ve written about in the nineteenth century, was open to abuse.
Some gangmasters would purchase a premises as a hotel or hostel for their workers to occupy. The gangmaster would ensure all the correct permits to work were held, would recruit at home and abroad, and provide accommodation with the rent for this taken from people’s wages. Such a system was open to fraud, abuse and exploitation. It worked for many and failed for many. Ordinary domestic houses were bought or rented and over-occupied by gang staff, in some cases involving people staying in garages and sheds. Even once they were given the powers local authorities repeatedly failed to address this causing misery for neighbours let alone the exploitation of the occupants themselves. Not all multiple occupancy was bad. For those wishing to settle in Spalding it provided a means to an end. By putting up with hard living conditions for a couple of years and working all hours you could buy a house of your own. The food and farming industry had created an area of opportunity, but at a price. A new plentiful supply of labour had a consequence. It suppressed wages in an area that saw a rising cost of living fuelled by a group of hard-working people prepared to put up with low cost, low standard residential circumstances if only on a temporary basis to either establish themselves here or to return to their origins. Every bit of the food industry was implicit in this race to the bottom. Previous generations of businesses had invested time, money and resources back into the local community – the legacy of which remains to this day. But as we entered the 21st century this was not the pattern in big business that rather promoted itself with meagre social investments for appearances sake. Coupled with this was a reduction of facilities in proportion to the population, be it health, welfare, social services, law and order[ix] or even basic utilities.
This short-changing of the local population, whether newcomer or long-standing resident fed dissatisfaction. Thus we see South Lincolnshire and the Fens area with a population that feels as politically, socially and economically remote from the London power base as previous generations did when there were greater physical barriers and poorer communications.
The challenge for Spalding and other Fenland towns, especially Wisbech and Boston, has been a massive under-recorded population change caused primarily by European migration. To say that migration is good or bad is, in my opinion, immensely stupid, for it is both. Migration is part of the human condition as much as it is that of the birds that fly to and from the Wash. It has benefits and costs for people both those migrating and those being joined by migrants. Migration has frequently heralded economic benefits, but also economic costs. But the speed of change has also changed the identity of the area. You have to also consider that some of those movements have been from countries affected by the great changes of the iron curtain retreating towards Russia, and upheaval, political unrest and war create opportunities for crime to migrate into the area with lose borders, and the nature of food commerce providing traffic between the Fens and abroad, and simply the regular flow of people in and out of the area, enabling all sorts of crime to flourish, whether people trafficking, illegal alcohol, cigarettes and vapes, drugs. That this has increased is visible and undoubted and can be seen by simply reading the local press over the last few decades. Any local, like me, born in the 1960’s will have seen massive change and the challenge is to let go of the past and embrace the new, whilst acknowledging both have good and bad.
What we need to acknowledge is the humanity of people, listen to their stories and their experiences. As I looked through my notes I realised I have gathered scores of anecdotes and experiences some of which I referred to earlier regarding labour. The following is a mere glimpse at why people travel to and from different countries:
The following is from my notes in November 2004: “Today I took the train to work in Peterborough. It was cold. At the station were a group of Polish men going to work in Peterborough who obviously did not feel the cold. They were all middle-aged men with open coats, shirts unbuttoned revealing copious amounts of chest hair, and sporting Lech Walesa moustaches. Talking to them their English was poor, but apparently they were working on the second fix of flats and houses in Peterborough. They had serious faces but were amused by me trying to talk to them especially when I asked if they liked Lincolnshire sausage. They told me in broken English I should try Polish sausage. I hope there was no double-entendre intended! When they got to Peterborough station a mini-bus picked them up, my guess is they were going to Hampton[x]. I felt that they were like a Polish version of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.”
In 2006 I arrived at a fruit farm just over the border into Norfolk and parked in the car park was a van with a picture of a lingerie-clad model on the side and what I thought was Polish writing on the side. It was explained to me that they arrived each year for fruit picking and back in Poland their business was selling lingerie. They came here when there was a lull in their business back home and the arrangement worked well.
“It’s great here! I can work all night and drink all day.” – This was from an Australian worker at Tinsleys food factory as he sat on a bench outside a pub in Holbeach in the snow with a pint of lager in 1993. He’d never seen snow before.
“I was born in Cascais, but its full of English and I can’t afford to live there. At least moving here I can earn enough money and not have half my income disappear in health insurance.” This was related to me by a Portuguese neighbour in Spalding in 2003. Cascais is a pretty coastal town on the edge of Lisbon.
“My partner couldn’t get a full time job in Poland unless he was married. There is such a bias towards marriage that there is a pecking order when you apply for jobs. This means younger people either take several part-time jobs or go abroad to work. You don’t realise how free you are to work in this country. The trap is, once married, the bias is against women working full-time. We’re getting married soon so we will choose which country we wish to bring our children up in.” This was told me in 2008 by an English worker that had visited Poland several times with her Polish boyfriend. I described to her how it was similar up to the 1960’s when a single woman in a Bank office would have to resign upon marriage. I understand that the situation in Poland has much improved in 2024.
The following note from April 2008 is rather wonderful and you have to admire the single-mindedness and determination of the lady involved who crossed continents to migrate to Spalding: “Coming home on the train today I met a lady who was really happy because her son had gotten a place at Spalding Grammar School. She explained to me that she was Malaysian and a single mum. She had dual British nationality due to her father being British and being born here, before going back to Malaysia. When her son was born she started doing research into schools in Britain and decided to try and get herself into a position so her son could go to a British Grammar School. She found Spalding was a good choice as she was certain she would find work either here or in Peterborough, and it had a Grammar School. She worked hard and saved to enable them to emigrate by the time he was five and then got various jobs in Spalding, before eventually working at Peterborough hospital. You have to admire her determination.”
“In Poland me and my partner could not live safely together as a gay couple.” A near neighbour in September 2020 as I helped him deal with a speeding penalty.
“I love Polish summers – we take our family over to Poland to visit my in-laws and have a six week holiday in their log cabin in the forest. This is common practise in the summer. We all muck in together and they eat so much wild food. It is great family time.” This was described to me by an English lady with a Polish husband in 2008. The early starting and highly valued Polish summer holiday was well recognised in the area as there was an annual exodus. This did have some irritations as described by the words of a Spalding primary school teacher to me in 2011: “ It really pisses me off. Two weeks before summer term ends all the Polish kids simply don’t turn up for school because they have started their summer holiday in Poland. Other parents don’t get away with it. It’s wrong.”
The following note is from July 2017 and came out of a chat I had with what I am almost certain was a professional criminal and drug trafficker or dealer. His story is interesting because he is from Ukraine and reveals how leaky European borders. It also shows a very human side of his dreams and ambition despite his criminality: “Today I needed to go out and the car park was blocked off by three large BMW’s. So I asked around and went up the back metal stairs to be greeted by three huge blokes sat on chairs just outside their flat entrance. They might as well have had “Don’t mess” tattooed on their foreheads, but I’ve learned manners tends to get you a long way, although a few consider it a sign of weakness to exploit. I asked them to move their cars into our car park that I had unlocked in order to let me out. They agreed to this. First of all they had to forage through a pile of keys that I could see included Porsche, Lexus and BMW that I could recognise. Whilst waiting for two of them to shuffle the cars I chatted to the remaining bloke. I asked him where he was from and he told me he was from Karkiv. I asked if that was in Russia and he laughed and said ‘no it is in Ukraine.’ I asked how on earth he got here from outside the EU and he smiled and put his finger to his lip and explained that they had German passports. He explained to me that German passports could be bought for 500 Euros because the paperwork validating them was supervised by the former Stasi and you can buy anything. I wondered what brought him to Peterborough and he explained he could ‘make money.’ ‘ You’re a wheeler dealer’, I said. He had never heard that phrase and I had to explain it diplomatically. He agreed he was a ‘wheeler dealer’ and quite liked the title. I asked him what he would like to do in the future, his reply was as normal as anyone else’s dreams, ‘a nice house, a nice car and a family in the countryside.’ I thanked them for moving the cars, shook hands and went on my way.” A few weeks after police found cocaine concealed in a dilapidated car parked just outside our car park. I am convinced it was connected to these three as I did not see them again and suspect this was their off premises store that they could deny all knowledge of.
The town centres of Spalding, in common with Boston and Wisbech saw massive changes to their town centres dominated by a new generation of migrants. But, I wonder, are these changes any different in impact to those felt when the Elsden’s arrived from the Hanseatic League area into Soham in the sixteenth century?
[i] Spalding Guardian 28th September 1935
[ii] Spalding Guardian 16th September 1938
[iii] Defend the Realm – Christopher Andrew
[iv] Liverpool Echoe 4th August 1943
[v] Spalding Guardian 5th July 1940
[vi] Standard March 21st 1942
[vii] Sikh headgear for men
[viii] Quote from Mrs Abbott, Welfare Officer for Smedleys August 1962
[ix] December 2023 Lincolnshire has the smallest police force in the second largest county.
[x] Hampton is a development on the edge of the A1 at Peterborough.
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