A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46

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V. POTTERY SHORTAGES

An inquiry made by' the Wartime Social Survey for the Board of Trade

Interviewing was carried out during May, 1942

514 Housewives were interviewed in the period May 1st - May 9th.

This sample was made up as follows :-

Social Group
A B C D
Interviews 27 89 188 210
Urban Rural
460 54
North Midland South
204 130 180

Towns covered in the North were - Newcastle, Seaton Burn, Wallsend, Leeds, Wakefield, Glasgow, Dumbarton, Paisley, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Manchester, Bury.

Towns covered in the Midlands - Northampton, Rugby, Peterborough, Stamford, Birmingham, Dudley, Walsall.

Towns covered in the South - Tunbridge Wells, Lewes, Cardiff, Pontypridd, Exeter, Tiverton, Bristol, Bath, Aylesbury, Princes Risborough.

The number of interviews in each town was small. Figures for individ­ual towns would, therefore, be misleading and have not been quoted.

TABLE 1

“Have you tried to buy any of the following in the last 4 weeks?”

Yes No Rating
No. % No. %
Cups 196 38.1 318 61.9 1
Mugs 24 4.7 490 95.3 7
Beakers 9 1.7 505 98.3 9
Saucers 130 25.3 384 74.7 2
Plates 70 13.6 444 86.4 3
Fruit Plates 8 1.6 506 98.4 11
Soup Plates 7 1.4 507 98.6 12
Teapots 63 12.2 451 87.8 4
Pudding Basins 29 5.6 485 94.4 6
Pie Dishes 18 3.5 496 96.5 8
Jugs 30 5.8 484 94.2 5
Chamber Pots 9 1.7 505 98.3 9
Bedroom Wash - basins 3 0.6 511 99.4 12
Bedroom Jugs 2 0.4 512 99.6 14
Earthenware Hot Water Bottles 1 0.2 513 99.8 15

Of the 514 Housewives interviewed, 266 (51.7%) had not tried to buy any of the articles listed during the previous 4 weeks.

The right hand column (Rating) indicates severity of demand for the articles listed.

The following tables breakdown the total figures just quoted by Region, Urban and Rural and Social Group.

TABLE II

Regions

North Midland South
No. % No. % No. %
Cups 69 33.8 62 47.7 65 36.2
Saucers 40 19.6 48 36.9 42 23.4
Plates 22 10.8 36 27.7 12 6.7
Teapots 14 6.8 20 15.4 29 16.1
Mugs 14 5 5
Beakers 4 1 4
Fruit Plates 1 5 2
Soup Plates 3 - 4
Pudding Basins 11 8 10
Pie Dishes 6 3 9
Jugs 8 11 11
Chamber Pots 2 5 2
Bedroom Wash Basins 1 1 1
Bedroom Jugs - 1 1
Earthenware Hot Water Bottles - 1 -
Sample 204 130 180

It will be seen that demand in the Midlands was somewhat more intense than in North or. South.

TABLE III

Urban and Rural

Urban Rural
No. % No. %
Cups 175 38.0 21 38.8
Saucers 116 25.2 14 25.9
Plates 67 14.6 3 5.6
Teapots 58 12.6 5 9.3
Mugs 24 -
Beakers 8 1
Fruit Plates 8 -
Soup Plates 6 1
Pudding Basins 25 4
Pie Dishes 17 1
Jugs 25 5
Chamber Pots 8 -
Bedroom Wash Basins 3 -
Bedroom Jugs 2 -
Earthenware Hot Water Bottles 1 -
Sample 460 54

There are no significant differences.

TABLE IV

Social Groups

A & B C D
No. % No. % No. %
Cups 45 38.8 67 35.7 84 40.1
Saucers 29 25.0 43 22.9 58 27.6
Plates 13 11.2 29 15.4 28 13.3
Teapots 16 13.8 22 11.7 25 11.9
Mugs 1 5 18
Beakers 1 7 1
Fruit Plates 2 4 2
Soup Plates 1 4 2
Pudding Basins 5 12 12
Pie Dishes 6 5 7
Jugs 10 10 10
Chamber Pots - 1 8
Bedroom Wash Basins - 1 2
Bedroom Jugs - 1 1
Earthenware Hot Water Bottles - 1 -
Sample 166 188 210

There are no significant differences.

TABLE V

Difficulty in Buying

Tried and Could not get Obtained
Went to 1 or 2 shops Went to 3 or more shops Total With * Difficulty Without x Difficulty Total Total trying to buy
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Cups 34 6.6 100 19.5 134 26.0 48 9.4 14 2.7 62 12.1 196 38.1
Saucers 25 4.9 67 13.0 92 17.9 31 6.0 7 1.4 38 7.4 130 25.3
Plates 14 2.7 28 5.5 42 8.2 13 2.5 15 2.9 28 5.4 70 13.6
Teapots 12 2.3 21 4.1 33 6.4 18 3.5 12 2.3 30 5.8 63 12.2
Mugs 4 14 18 3 3 5 24 4.7
Beakers 2 6 8 - 1 1 9 1.7
Fruit Plates 1 7 8 - - - 8 1.6
Soup Plates 1 4 5 - 2 2 7 1.4
Pudding Basins 5 10 15 8 6 14 29 5.6
Pie Dishes 2 4 6 5 7 12 18 3.5
Jugs 8 11 19 6 5 11 30 5.8
Chamber Pots 4 3 7 2 - 2 9 1.7
Bedroom Wash Basins 1 1 2 1 - 1 3 0.6
Bedroom Jugs 1 - 1 1 - 1 2 0.4
Earthenware Hot Water Bottles 1 - 1 - - - 1 0.2
Sample 514

* tried 3 or more shops.

x tried 1 or 2 shops

TABLE VI

Regional

Tried and Could not get Obtained Sample
Went to 1 or 2 shops Went to 3 or more shops Total With Difficulty Without Difficulty Total
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Cups North 11 5.4 35 17.1 46 22.5 16 7.9 7 3.4 23 11.3 204
Midland 17 13.1 28 21.5 45 34.6 12 9.3 5 3.8 17 13.1 130
South 6 3.3 37 20.5 43 23.8 20 11.1 2 1.1 22 12.2 180
Saucers North 8 3.9 22 10.8 30 14.7 6 2.9 4 2.0 10 4.9 204
Midland 13 10.0 21 16.1 34 26.1 11 8.5 3 2.3 14 10.8 130
South 4 2.2 24 13.3 28 15.5 14 7.8 - 14 7.8 180

For plates, teapots and other items regional totals are too small to be broken down.

TABLE VII

Social Groups

Tried and Could not get Obtained Sample
Went to 1 or 2 shops Went to 3 or more shops Total With Difficulty Without Difficulty Total
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Cups A & B 9 7.8 26 22.4 35 30.2 9 7.7 1 0.9 10 8.6 116
c 15 8.0 24 12.7 39 20.7 20 10.6 8 4.3 28 14.9 188
D 10 4.8 50 23.8 60 28.6 19 9.1 5 2.4 24 11.5 210
Saucers A & B 8 6.9 16 13.8 24 20.7 4 3.4 1 0.9 5 4.3 116
c 12 6.4 16 8.5 28 14.9 13 6.9 2 1.1 15 8.0 188
D 5 2.4 35 16.7 40 19.1 14 6.7 4 1.9 18 8.6 210

The Sufficiency of Supplies

The following table summarises the supply position

TABLE VIII
Number Requiring Unable to buy Bought number required Bought less than number required
Cups 193 135 24 34
Saucers 130 94 18 18
Plates 69 42 20 7

Detailed figures are given below for Cups, Saucers and Plates. In the case of other commodities detailed figures are too small to be of significance.

TABLE IX

CUPS

Housewives requiring cups No. of cups required Bought 0 Bought 1 Bought 2 Bought 3 Bought 4 Bought 5 Bought 6 Bought 12
3 1 1 2
18 2 12 6
25 3 16 1 1 7
28 4 25 - 1 - 2
1 5 - - - 1 -
106 6 72 - 9 6 6 1 12
1 7 - - - 1
2 8 2
- 9
2 10 2
- 11
7 12 5 - - - - - 1 1
193 135 9 11 15 8 1 13 1
TABLE X

SAUCERS

Housewives requiring saucers No. of saucers required Could not buy Bought 1 Bought 2 Bought 3 Bought 4 Bought 5 Bought 6 Bought 8
1 1 1
8 2 2 - 3
10 3 6 - - 4
20 4 18 - 1 - 1
- 5
81 6 56 - 7 3 4 1 9 1
2 7 1
2 8 2
- 9
2 10 2
- 11
4 12 3
130 94 - 11 8 5 1 10 1
TABLE XI

PLATES

Housewives requiring plates No. of plates required Could not buy Bought 1 Bought 2 Bought 3 Bought 4 Bought 5 Bought 6 Bought 8
- 1
3 2 1 - 2
9 3 4 - 1 4
10 4 6 - 1 - 3
- 5
40 6 27 - 1 1 1 - 10
1 7 - - 1
2 8 - - - - - 1 - 1
- 9
- 10
1 11
3 12 3
69 42 - 6 5 4 1 10 1
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