TIPS to help the hard pressed housewife were regularly published in the Advertiser and this week’s recipe was for a fish and celery casserole.

The dish, cooked with potatoes and milk, was described as a light nourishing meal.

To save fuel housewives were also given instructions on how to make a hay box, the war time equivalent of the slow cooker.

Soups and stews should first be brought to the boil on the stove before being placed in the saucepan in the hay box, a hinged wooden box lined with newspaper and stuffed full of hay.

Allowing at least twice as long as usual to cook, the pan was then returned to the stove again before serving.

But the humble onion was proving too expensive for many as Swindon housewives welcomed the decision made by the Minister Of Food to introduce a maximum price for this basic ingredient of so many meals.

An Advertiser journalist who went shopping in both Old and New Town reported that prices of between 8d and 1s a pound were being charged.

“There is undoubtedly a shortage of onions, due to the cutting off of supplies from the Continent,” the report said.

“But there is no getting away from the fact that big profits are being made by somebody.”