A Village Communal Kitchen

From the Yorkshire Evening Post, 19th March 1918.

A VILLAGE COMMUNAL KITCHEN.

SIR MARK SYKES' EXPERIMENT AT SLEDMERE.

With characteristic thoroughness Colonel Sir Mark Sykes, has adapted the communal kitchen plan to rural needs, and on his Sledmere estate, yesterday, inaugurated the first venture of the kind outside urban districts.

Housed in a rifle range which Sir Mark had built before the war, the Sledmere kitchen serves not only the villagers, but the promoter and his family, his agent, the vicar— everybody in fact in the parish.  The effect is that with a collective use of meat coupons full value is derived from the rations.  In all, about six hundred people benefit under the scheme.

There are paid assistants, with expert knowledge, as well as voluntary workers, and not only substance but variety is aimed at in the arrangement of the menus.  Particular attention is being paid to the needs of the children, many of whom have to travel a mile or two to school from the outlying farms and homesteads.

One little maid, yesterday, dissolved in tears at the prospect of the stern attentions of the Food Controller, because she could not consume all the food set before her.  At the other end of the scale, a farm labourer of the generous Yorkshire type, declared, after a hearty dinner, that he felt like a toad with dropsy!  Evidently, the rations do not err on the side of scantiness.

No meals are served on Sundays, but a double portion can be had on Saturdays, so that there will be little trouble in preparing the Sunday dinner.  The experiment in this remote country district will be watched with interest by many rural areas, and a much wider development of the idea than was expected when communal kitchens were first opened may well be in prospect.

WEAKER BEER.

It is confidently asserted by persons closely connected with the brewing industry (says the "Daily Telegraph") that there will be further Government restrictions very shortly with regard to the strength of beer.  The proposal, it is stated is to reduce the specific gravity from 1036 the figure fixed for war-time when the strength was last lowered, to 1030.  The brewing standard of specific gravity in normal tunes is 1055.  The reason given for the contemplated change is that by reducing the gravity to 1030 something like 200,000 quarters of barley could be diverted from the brewers to the bakers.  If the anticipations in the trade are realised all brewers will have to come into line, and the standard, so far as specific gravity is concerned, will be the same everywhere.

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The Ministry of Food decline to include brain workers amongst those who are eligible for the supplementary meat ration, because they declare scientific opinion is unanimous that a man does not need any more food because he works with his brain than he would if he were not working!

[Sledmere is in  Easy Yorkshire.  The house is open to the public, and is still lived in by the Sykes family.  

It's not quite clear how the communal kitchen worked - I presume that participants had to pay for their meals, unless Sir Mark was extremely generous, and wouldn't have had much choice in the matter once they had given up their coupons. It does sound an interesting idea, though.

Beer: I think a quarter of barley means a quarter of a hundredweight, or 28 lb. (12.7kg.)]