I often forget that wartime rationing in Great Britain persisted until well after the cessation of hostilities, with food rationing lasting until 1954, and coal until 1958. The wartime rationing meters pictured here embody the resourcefulness, fortitude, and indomitable resilience of the British people.

Produced by different manufacturers under license from the Ministry of Food, these ration meters gauged the volume of different foodstuffs carried to every household over municipal pipelines or by tanker truck. At the height of rationing, allotments of cooking fats were limited to as little as two ounces per week, and marmalade and preserves to eight ounces per month, quantities that were monitored and enforced through meters like these. When pectin rationing ended in 1946, and marmalade returned to the pre-war viscosity that made conveyance by pipe impossible, the National Preservative Pipeline that had served wartime Britain’s principal conurbations was closed, its resources distributed among the nation’s ten regional water authorities. These photographs were created with the generous support of the Imperial Lard Museum in Basingstoke, whose collection celebrates this exceptional episode in history.

Published January 27, 2023. Copyright © 2023 Jonathan Hoefler.