The National Farm Survey was commissioned to assist the work of the County War Agricultural Executive Committees (CWAECs) by assessing Britain's ability to feed itself in wartime. Britain was vulnerable to the blockade of its Atlantic trade, and for that reason food imports could not be guaranteed., nor was the transport of animal feed stuffs a good use of shipping in wartime.

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A hurried survey of land quality took place in 1940 and, despite having to operate under wartime conditions, the 1941 survey aimed to create a "Second Domesday Book", a "permanent and comprehensive record of the conditions on the farms of England and Wales". The survey was integrated with the 1941 "June Census" and data were gathered on four forms covering farming types, cropping and stocking, machinery, labour, farm size and structure, land ownership and farm buildings, plus maps of farm boundaries. It covered all farms over 5 acres, about 320,000 in all, including eleven farms in Bishopdale.