The biggest poultry supplier in Britain during the war was Rodwells, who had a large poultry operation between Irongate and Kenyon Clough off Holcombe Road, to the south of Helmshore. By post-war standards it was fairly small, but large-scale poultry production only started elsewhere in the UK during the 1960s. The West Pennine Way guide mentions that American GIs set up camp on the flat top of Musbury Tor to practice paratroop drops and field exercises with live ammunition before D-Day. In 'The Helmshore Historian', published by Helmshore Local History Society during the 1960s, Aspin mentions American paratroopers landing on Bull Hill in the autumn of 1941. He also mentions seeing, as a boy, GIs camped near the bullock sheds above Great House, just before D-Day, and the practicing with live ammunition in Alden Valley.