It’s the little bits that serve to make a history ……

If you are of certain age, born in the second half of the last century who grew up during the early years of television then the chances are that the wireless played a big part in your life.

1950s elegance

Along with newspapers the BBC remained the primary source for news and entertainment.  It was there in school with a variety of educational programmes, at your place of work with Music While You Work and offered up a heap of comedy and drama broadcasts which stand the test of time.  They were innovative, and funny and set many comedians on a path to fame and success.

Advert for radios, 1949

The list of radio shows from my youth tumble over each other but in a way culminate with Two Way Family Favourites that request programme designed to link families at home in the UK with British Forces serving in West Germany and other places overseas.*

It was just part of Sunday, sandwiched either side of Sunday dinner, beginning with that signature tune “With a Song in My Heart” followed by “In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon so at home and away it is time for Two Way Family Favourites”.

It is perhaps easy to forget that there was a time within living memory that communicating with a loved one was pretty much limited to letters and post cards.

Our first phone arrived only in the 1950s, and the line was shared with another family, but we were lucky because for most people making a telephone call meant a trip to the nearest public phone box while phoning from abroad might involve booking a call-in advance.

All of which meant that keeping in touch was down to writing either letters or the short picture postcard.

And with such limited access to communication often hearing of a relative’s illness was hit and miss.

But here the BBC stepped in with its SOS messages which were designed to alert families to an urgent emergency, like "Will Mr and Mrs Little, last heard of eight months ago in the Birmingham area, head to Leeds General Infirmary where Mrs Little's mother is dangerously ill."

They weren’t frequent but even as a child when I heard one I was transfixed.  And in the same way when the BBC broadcast an appeal for information on a missing person.  

The radio audience, 1944

What strikes me now is that idea that someone could  have been “last heard of eight months ago in the Birmingham area” which with today’s level of knowledge and potential surveillance seems so remote.

I occasionally remember these messages and yesterday went looking for them, a search which led me to a BBC story, “The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send”, Kathleen Hawkins.**

Now I wont steal Ms. Hawkins story, all you have to do is follow the link, but as the story shows we still know so little about the service, even down to when it ended.

According the BBC piece, “It is not known when the messages ended, but it was at some point during the 90s, although BBC World Service continued the practice into the 21st Century. Mobile phones made them redundant, but for those who were directly affected by the SOS messages, my family included, they had a huge impact that lives on today".

I do remember that having grown up with them I caught myself thinking that I hadn’t heard an appeal for ages.

So there you are.  The SOS message, it may only be a tiny footnote in the history of British broadcasting but it’s a bit that serves to make a history and, in the process, offers up a very small window on how we were.

Location; my past and yours

Pictures; 1950s elegance, News of the World's Household Guide and Almanac, courtesy of Debbie Cameron, advert for radios, 1949, from the collection of Graham Gill, radio listings from Saturday July 3rd, 1943, The Derby Evening Telegraph,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and group of young women, signing on for the industrial registration at the Derby Employment Exchange, August 9th, 1943, reproduced courtesy of the Derby Telegraph, January 2, 2013 

* “In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon" .... One song ….. Two Way Family Favourites ….. and a different way of saying hello, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2025/10/in-britain-and-in-germany-it-is-12-noon.html

**“The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send”, Kathleen Hawkins, BBC News, May 15th, 2016, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35815747

Glenton Tours …… the coach company that was the luxury motor holiday

Our dad worked for Glenton Tours for over half a century and the story of his part in that company and its part in the modern holiday industry is fascinating.*

Dad and Elizabeth recieving awards, date unknown

It started with an estate agent settling a debt and acquiring five motor coaches which became the core of a business which ran sight seeing tours across Britain and into Europe from 1929.

Elizabeth and Dad, date unknown

The company was in the right place at the right time, as rising disposable income allowed midddle class families the opportunity to go on a new type of coach holiday.

Not that these were run of the mill excursions, but carefully planned tours which lasted for seven, twelve and fourteen days and guaranteed the customers first class hotels, three good meals a day and an itinerary which provided the travellers with all they might want to do about the places of interest.

Added to which there were commentaries which offered up instant historical information along the way.  

These were provided by the driver on home tours and by a courier on the Continental journeys.

Father did both, starting with trips across Britain at the start of the season but slipping in to the Continental tours in late Spring and through to autumn.

Elizabeth, Dad, Frank and unknown courier, date unknown

We still have many of the notebooks and pictures he used for the home tours, and these are now a wonderful insight into the Britain of the 1930s and 40s.

He was pretty there from the start, and so we also have photographs which record the different coaches the company used from the beginning and the differing style of uniforms, from the peaked hat and white long coat to the fitted and style uniforms of the 1950s and 1960s.

And because father kept everything we also have some of the brochures which advertised the individual tours, prices and helpful information.

So from the 1951 brochure came the reassuring comments that “You do not have to bother about luggage, frontier, monetary or language difficulties” and the cost included “the inclusive charge provided for all food and accommodation, the sea crossing and gratuities to hotel staff."

Dad and unknown courier, date unknown

But given that this was soon after the war passengers were informed that “Ration Books are not necessary on any of our tours” but that passengers are advised take "a towel and soap in case some hotels are still unable to supply them.”**

All of which has reignited my interest in the company after receiving a collection of photographs from the grandson of the founder of Glenton Tours.  

Some of the pictures are of a Brighton Coach Rally which I can date to sometime in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 

 In his covering note he  wrote  “If your Father went to Brighton Coach Rallies there is a good chance that there is a picture of him”.

And there are heaps of him, mostly holding trophies he had won for successfully competing against other drivers in demonstrating driving skills before the public.***

Interior of one of the 1950s fleet, date unknown

What makes the pictures even more significant is that in the group pictures I can identify not only Dad but also his fellow Continental driver who was called Frank and who lived very close to us on Queens Road, and one of the couriers who we knew as Elizabeth.

One of the Glenton fleet, date unknown

All of which is a nice Sunday afternoon trip back through the story of Glenton Tours and our dad.

Pictures; Brighton Coach Rally, date unknown, courtesy of Peregrine Smith

*Glenton Tours, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Glenton%20Tours

*Motor Coach Holiday Tours, 1951

** UK Coach Rally, https://coachdisplays.co.uk/history/

When torture came with a plastic rain mac …… memories of the 1950s

My Pakamac was ideal for summer showers. 

 "Lewis’s say … Take a cape, circa 1950s

But they were a cruel invention. Despite being light and flexible enough to be squeezed into a small bag they smelt awful and were a nightmare to wear.

It didn’t take long before the warmth of the body trapped in a sheet of clinging plastic made you sweat and the more you walked the hotter and more uncomfortable you became. Which meant you had a choice, wear it and suffer or take it off, get wet and suffer later when my grandmother discovered that this act of rebellion had got me soaked.

"Light and in four colours"

They were a product of the Plastic Age when heaps of things made of traditional materials were junked in favour of light bright products, from cups, plates, cutlery to the Pakamac.

I had all but forgotten this cheap protection from the rain, but in the collection of the Chorlton artist, Derrick Lea I came across this advert.

I have no idea why he included it in his pictures and paintings but perhaps like me he wasn’t a fan.

Nor I think I am alone.  Anyone born in the middle decades of the last century, who remembers watching Ivanhoe on a tiny black and white TV, and who was allowed to roam free at weekends and holidays with no demand to check in will at some point have endured a variation of the Pakamac.

True they were less cumbersome than those belted gaberdine raincoats, but they were no less a chore to carry and got in the way of climbing trees.

Unless of course you had bought one of those surplus army canvas bags which could store all manner of treasures, from a bottle of lemonade to a half-eaten bread roll.

Mine was army green had once been an ammunition bag and cost just one shilling. They were the “must to have” item in 1958 and at a push would take the mac, if you hadn’t already discarded it in full knowledge that mother would not be best pleased.

And that is it.

Location; wet days in the 1950s

Picture; "Lewis’s say … Take a cape, circa 1950s, courtesy of John and Hazel Lea" 

The Knitting years .... number 3 the casual look

The new series on the history of what we wore, Knitting Patterns

Location; pretty much everywhere

Picture; knitting patterns, 1930-1970 from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

The Knitting years .... number 1 balaclavas and other hats

Now I bet not everyone will claim that a collection of knitting patterns is a bit of a history book.

But if you have enough of them, then I rather think you have some of the story of the middle decades of the 20th century.

I say middle decades because our Jillian who collects the knitting patterns has them from the 1930’s through to the ‘70’s and she roams the charity shop chains with a mission not only to save these knitting patterns but press them back into use.

I should know I will soon be the proud owner of a jumper with a zip and collar and dancing reindeers in brown and red.  She made the original for me in 1970 and I am looking forward to the new one.

But back to the patterns, for here contained on the front covers are how we dressed during the age before online shopping and cheap supermarket clothes.

They include balaclava, and other hats, woollen toys and of course the cable jumper.

So over the next few days I shall be rummaging through our Jillian’s collection and wait for the gasps of “I had that”  “Mine was green” or “Oh God did I really wear that?”and when the series is over there is always my stories about wool shops.*

And there is just one more delight in these old knitting patterns, and that is the game of hunt the famous British actor when they were waiting for the big break and instead had their picture taken with a nice “cardy”.

Our Jillian has one of Roger Moore which is looking for as I type, and he might well find one of my old mate Joe when in between classes at Art school he too wore a selection of woollen jumpers.

Location; pretty much everywhere

Picture; knitting patterns, 1930-1970 from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

*The Wool Shop, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=The+Wool+Shop

Boxing Day 1959 with the Swift Annual Nu 4

This is the third of those comic annuals produced by the Hulton Press in the 1950s.

Swift like its companions, Eagle, Girl and Robin aimed to provide a mix of adventure stories, practical activities and a focus all things historical and scientific.

And like the others it issued an Annual at Christmas.
Swift Number 4 was published in 1957 and along with strip cartoons there were extended stories, and articles on Man 20,000 years ago, the Lighthouse, St Egwin, and a visit to Swift’s sweet factory.

Like the companion volumes there were plenty of line drawings and colour plates on Birds in the Garden, Wonderful Ants and The Story of Transport.

Now Hulton knew they were on to a winning formula and were not adverse to featuring commercial companies which appeared in the stories, so in Eagle there was Tommy Walls after the ice cream company and in Swift, Ladybird made an appearance in the Sign of The Scarlet Ladybird.

There were also DIY pages and what turned out to be my favourite Trains that run Underground.

Today, they seem a little quaint but at the time they were at the sharp end of what children wanted to know and what they wanted to read.

Looking again at my Swift Annual I have to say that the stories and pictures are pure 1950s.

I treasure the images of the trains and cars and enjoy just slipping back to what for a youngster was a carefree time.

At which point there is that danger of nostalgia creeping in so I might just sit down and make one of the many interesting things that Swift offered up.

In Number 4 these ranged from making animals from pipe cleaners to a Knight in Armour and a Cotton Reel Tank.

But Swift was aimed at both boys and girls and DIY acticities like the stories and featurs crossed what was thought at the time to be the gender divide, so for every tank there was advice on hos to make a  Raffia Girl from dusters, bamboo sticks and garden seeds.

And that is one of the charms of the book for the materials were what could be found in a 1950s house and that from memeory did include pipe cleaners, and discarded cotton bobbins.

I doubt that even then I could laugh at the jokes from page 117 of which these may be the best. Q."Why is a dog's tail like the inside of a tree? A. Because it is farthest from the bark, or Q. What is most like a horse shoe? A. His othershoes."

Now that said  I think this is the moment to close leaving me only to ponder on whether I shall explore the last of the Hulton four which was Robin, or strike off into one of the many rivals.
We shall see.

Pictures; from Swift Annual Number 4, 1959, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Robin .... A Christmas Annual from the Hulton Press, in 1953

This is another of those comic annuals which were published by Hulton Press.

Robin was aimed at very young children and while I remember getting the comic and perhaps even the first annual in 1953 sadly neither comic or book have made their way into my collection.

So I have fallen back on a wonderful site dedicated to the Eagle Annual  for this image of the first Robin Annual.*

Eagle, along with Girl and Swift were the companion comics and books which Hulton was responsible for during the 1950s, and for anyone wanting to know more or recreate their childhood the Eagle Annual site  is a wonderful starting point.

Robin contained a lot of colour strips and short stories which parents could read to their children and given the decade it came out in it included stories on Andy Pandy and the Flower Pot Men.

Number one also featured Birthday wishes to the young Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

And even with the help of the Eagle Annual site that is about the extent of my knowledge, although I can remember cutting the comic up for its comic figures.

Alas all a long time ago.

Now given that this is the end of the short series on the Hulton four I shall also mention Eagle Times, which for the last 25 years has set about keeping the Eagle comic alive with stories features and conversations with those directly involved with it during the 1950s.**

Picture; Robin Annual Nu 1, 1953, courtesy of Eagle Annual

*Eagle Annual, http://www.eagleannual.info/contents.php

**Eagle Times, http://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk/

The Girl Annual and a take on the optimism of the 1950s

Annual number 7

Now I am fully aware that I might be accused of nostalgia but I am back with those comic annual books which were published in the 1950s.

They were a by product of the popular comics like Eagle, Girl, Swift and the Lion and came out for Christmas.

But were books I kept going back to throughout the year and now fifty years after I got them as presents I still read them with pleasure.

So, not so much a present for Christmas as a friend for life.

My favourite was the Eagle but Hulton who published it were quick to spot its success could be replicated with a companion comic called Girl and two others aimed at a younger market.

These were the Swift and Robin and in the fullness of time I shall visit them too.

Today however I shall focus on the Girl Annual.

Woman of Action Lotte Hass

Like Eagle it was a mix of popular stories from the weekly comic, with features on history, nature, science and fashion. It also contained advice on a range of subjects from “New Uses for Duffle Coat Buttons” to “Making a Picnic Basket” and rope table mats.

All of which seems a little twee but the books actively sought to show women could have careers from being doctors to competing with men in the most dangerous environment.

So the Girl Annual included pictures of Women in Action including the photographer Michaela Dennis, the deep sea diver and photographer Lotte Hass and the pilot Jacqueline Cochran.

There was also a long article on the careers open to women in the merchant navy.

Now I fully concede that all of these were the caring and sharing professions  but  it did refer to “World’s 
First Woman Radio Operator Aboard ship gets her ticket” and was confident that while this was a foreign ship where “one merchant service makes a start, others will follow.”

New foods for the 1950s's table

Along with these more challehging new careers was the story on foods in many lands, which while it did refer to them as odd foods, was still opening up new horizons to young people brought up on spam and nothing more exotic than a banana.

Both Eagle and Girl reflected that optimistic view of the world which was abroad in the 1950s and which challenges the popular misconception that it was a grey drab decade of shortages, and make and mend just waiting for the “swinging ‘60s.”

It was instead an exciting period when everything seemed possible.

Belle of the Ballet

There was television and jet travel, materials like plastic and the promise of full employment and a welfare state.

There might also be the threat of the H Bomb, countless nasty and brutish colonial wars and the legacy of many old habits and ideas but the world was changing and my Eagle and Girl annuals reflected that change.

And in the process were not afraid to reflect on what had been. So the story of Belle of the Ballet and A Midsummer Night's Dream was set in the blitzed out ruin of a church hall.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Back with the Eagle in the 1950s

Now if you were born sometime between the early 1940s and the mid ‘50s, the chances are you were a fan of the Eagle comic.

It is a topic I keep coming back to and the reason is that back then it amounted to the best of British comics.

Its appeal crossed class lines as well gender and if my father was anything to go by attracted an older generation as well.

It came out each week and like other comics of the period had its own Christmas annual which was supplemented by books on some of the other leading characters.

But for me the Eagle Annual which first appeared in December 1950 was a must under the tree and it kept me going through the year, because here as well as comic strips were extended stories articles on sport , history science  and nature.

In between there were practical information on how to make a Kite-released parachute, sending secret messages using invisible ink and making your own printing set.

Never being particularly practical most of these DIY projects rated little more than a second glance.

For me it was the sections dealing with history and the stories which drew me in.

And of the stories it was Dan Dare Pilot of the Future who always was my first choice.

At this point I have to say this is no nostalgic trip. Instead is an exploration of how a popular comic managed at the same to introduce a whole pile of educational information which never led you to think you were back at school.

Nor were the books or comics aimed at the middle class, for there was enough here for any lad like me whose highest aspirations seemed to be a secondary modern school and a future mapped out in one of any one of a number of practical occupations.

The activities were all rooted in things any nine year could do and the stories were  in a world I understood.

And when they were based in space the Wild West or North Africa they were believable.

What is more the science of the future was our everyday life just a little different.

So Dan Dare’s spaceship used dial and buttons and levers, the command structure of Space Fleet including the uniforms which  mimicked the armed forces and of course many of the expressions used were rooted in the language of the 1950s.

None of which should surprise us but allowed every nine year old to feel that this imaginary world was not so far off from their own everyday life.

Of course the Eagle was ruthless in its use of its name which was marketed for all sorts of types and products, but again there is nothing new there.

So that said I shall this evening retreat into that world of the Eagle Annual leaving the cares of the 21st century behind.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Eagle, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Eagle

A Christmas sometime between 1955 and 61

I don’t usually do nostalgia, but this week is an exception.

So for all those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s here is a selection of the presents that came into our household each Christmas from 1952 till 1963.

They are not in any order and lean heavily on my own child hood experiences, but I bet they could be replicated by many who read this.

And for those whose childhoods came later there will be in another post, with images of Barbie Dolls, the Bay City Rollers and Mud annuals, along with scaletric, my little Pony and the Turtles, including all four sourced from the cellar.

Of course if I wanted to really revel in nostalgia I could invite contributions on the upstairs of Quarmby’s, the sparkling and  groaning shelves of Woolworths and that paradise for all ages which is Toys R Us.

I don’t recall doing the storehouse Father Christmas and think we avoided it when the lads came along, but I have always been a sucker for Christmas trees.

They have to be so big that you end up chopping a bit off the bottom, come from a forest somewhere and have a mismatch collection of decorations which are as much about past Christmases as they are about elegant design and appearance.

Only recently I gave up on the multi coloured tree lights and went with the wishes of our Josh that they should be all one colour.  And every year we still put the Christmas angel designed by Saul somewhere near the top.

That said there is always that debate when to buy the tree, too early and it runs the risk of losing its needles and too late and all that is left are those sad two foot specimens which have a bit missing in the middle.

But the event is as much about family traditions as anything so despite being 41 Ben will still get a Beano album in his stocking and Luca a selection of wine gums, fruit pastilles and the odd Kinder egg.

And because I grew up in the 50s and that pretty much has frozen in time the Christmas I like, we shall bring out the Monopoly board, insist that everyone tries a selection of the festive nuts, and gather to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

That said there will be the addition of those nice things to eat that Tina grew up with at home in Italy, at least three phone calls to Varese during the day and a visit from Ron and Carol.

All that and the Christmas football match which the boys and their friends play for half an hour on the Rec sometime after the presents and before the big meal.

It is a tradition which they have played for as long as I can remember, and over the years the event has pulled in friends, and anyone who is around the house on the day.

But mindful of my responsibilities I stay indoors, tending the fires, laying the table and reflecting on past family gatherings.

That said a few things have changed.  Back in the early 1950s we still attached candles to the tree, went out for a brisk walk up to Peckham Rye and ate directly after the Queen’s broadcast.

Not that it ever seemed to snow back then either.  But as they say be careful about what you wish for.  Back in the afternoon of Boxing Day in 1962 the snow fell across Peckham, New Cross and Eltham, and continued for months.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

“In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon" .... One song ….. Two Way Family Favourites ….. and a different way of saying hello

Two Way Family Favourites was one of those radio programmes that was always on in our house on a Sunday during the 1950s.

Most of the time it sat in the background as an accessory to preparing the midday meal and doing heaps of other things.

But even as background you absorbed the family messages sent to servicemen and women abroad, the choice of music and the exchanges between the broadcasters, one here in Britain and the other in Germany.

And it began with that signature tune “With a Song in My Heart” followed by “In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon so at home and away it is time for Two Way Family Favourites”.

It is perhaps easy to forget that there was a time within living memory that communicating with a loved one was pretty much limited to letters and post cards.

Our first phone arrived only in the 1950s, and the line was shared with another family, but we were lucky because for most people making a telephone call meant a trip to the nearest public phone box while phoning from abroad might involve booking a call-in advance.

And set against this was that in the immediate post war period into the 1950s and 60s, Britain maintained a large standing army, supported by conscription and stationed across the world.

A substantial element of that force was in Germany and so every Sunday the BBC hosted a two-way radio programme of messages and music.

It is of course a bit of my past but for younger generations it will sit with the Age of the Dinosaurs and the Stone Age.

But in that time before  the internet, social media and mobile phones, it was all we had.

And I am always reminded of this little bit of my past when the song Sailor is played with that chorus

Barlow Moor Road, circa 1950s

“As you sail across the sea

All my love is there beside you

In Capri or Amsterdam

Honolulu or Siam To the harbour of my heart

I will send my love to guide you”.

From memory it was a popular choice and the programme played both the Petula Clark and Ann Shelton versions which both came out in 1961, and were a variation on an earlier German song Seemann (Deine Heimat ist das Meer)" "Sailor (Your Home is the Sea)".

I have listened to both and I like them both, but the English version is perhaps a tad more sentimental and so chimed in with Two Way Family Favourites.

Family life, 1953

And that is it.

Location; Britain and Germany,

Pictures; 1950s elegance, News of the World's Household Guide and Almanac, courtesy of Debbie Cameron ,Barlow Moor Road, circa 1950s and Family life from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Sailor, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k8fzE7UHu8

***Seemann, deine Heimat ist das Meer, https://lyricstranslate.com/en/seemann-deine-heimat-ist-das-meer-sailor-your-home-sea.html

Looking to our future ……. in 1954

Now I am back with that favourite observation of the future, written by Thomas Hobbs in 1650, who wrote “No man can have in his mind a conception of the future for the future is not yet.  But of conceptions of the past, we make a future.”*

And when you look at these pictures from Adventures of the World, Mr. Hobbs is spot on.

In one sense projecting the present and past into the future is obvious, more so because we ask science to extend our knowledge and technology into the realm of what might be, on the assumption that we will just make better what we already have.

So, in 1954, James Fisher drew on atomic power stations helicopters high rise apartments and transport in the sky to offer up  a vision of what would be.

And because he wasn’t stepping too far ahead, much of what he presented is now part of how we live.

The book is part history, and part science fiction and aims to show that “Man learns to work hand in hand with Nature, respecting and husbanding her resources to ensure his own welfare and happiness”.

In retrospect, we might retreat from the optimism  underpinning that confident assertion in the face of Global warming, our continued inability to feed large sections of the world’s population or lift them from grinding poverty, poor medical facilities and basic schooling.

Added to which pursuit of a “fast buck” has done no favours to “Nature”.

But that said the book does offer up a fascinating glimpse of how we thought the world would be, along with the assumptions upon which that confident futuristic view was based.

Pictures; Adventure of the World, 1954


*Hobbs, Thomas, The Elements of Law, Natural and Politics, 1650
**Fisher, James, Adventure of the World, 1954

The 1950s ... that decade of optimism

 I am looking at one of those to do lists we all make from time to time.

And given this is summer it is not surprising that our list should feature what to take on holiday.

It all looks familiar until you spot the items listed as Identity Card and Ration Card and we are suddenly in a time long before now. A time when everyone was issued with an identity card which had to be carried on your person and a change of address had to written on the card and registered at the relevant centre.

And walking in tandem with the identity card was your ration card which is a hint that we are in the early 1950s. Both were a legacy of the last war and in the case of rationing the card would still be necessary till 1953 when the last foods came off rationing.

And I can pin the list to 1952 when it appeared in the News of the World's Household Guide to and Almanac.

It is a treasure trove of lost insight into the 1950s. 

Now the 1950s in some ways remain more interesting than the much lauded "Swinging 60s".

It was after all the first full decade of peace and saw the end of rationing, a growing level of affluence which brought with it the expectation that everyone might share in a better life

 Compared to the bitter 1930s characterised by mass unemployment and the Means Test and followed by a hard war the 1950s were the optimistic decade. 

But that growing prosperity stubbornly wasn't shared by all just as parts of Britain recovered more quickly from the Great Depression. 

So, while my grandfather never had a permanent job after 1931 till the war time economy saw him in full employment, by contrast during the 1950s he was never again out of work. 

Not that l was aware of much of this.  Having been born in 1949 l was just past my tenth birthday when the 60s began. 

So, the guide offers up those snip bits of a period many of which never get into the serious history books.

And along with our holiday list there is an advert for "Blighty" which was one of those light hearted periodicals aimed at men.

It had launched in 1916 went through several reinventions changing its name along the way and finally emerging as Parade.

Now Parade l knew because back in the 1960s it occasionally came in to the house by routes l never understood. 

It was a mix of pinups, light articles as well as jokes, and offered guides and suggestions to the lifestyle all young men should aspire to.

I know that neither father of mother would have sought out the magazine and l do recall sometime around 13 summoning up the courage to buy copies for one shilling from the newsagents.

And to my eternal shame when we moved house I dumped the lot. Some behind the shed wall and some into a cupboard for which the key had been lost.

I had almost forgotten Parade with its titles like "June is busting out all over".

Although I do still have my identity card and some of the family ration cards which somehow survived the accidents of decluttering.

I have to thank Debbie Cameron for the gems from the Housekeeping Guide with their insights into how we lived and how the editor thought we should live.  

So please keep them coming Debbie

Location; 1952

Pictures from; News of the World's Household Guide and Almanac, courtesy of Debbie Cameron

Those other history books .......

 This is 1952.

How they do it in Paris, 1951

I was just three and my memories of that decade are fragmentary, so like all people across all the centuries I turn to books to find out what my period was like.

To which those of us born in the last century have the luck to call on films, photographs and recordings of those who were encouraged to talk about their lives and the events they experienced.  Those events range from the mundane to the great moments of war ,disasters, and the imperceptible changes of lifestyle and expectations.

So, one of my uncles was born in 1898 and died in 2001 and saw two world wars, the death of the old Queen and the birth of the NHS.  To which can be added the gramophone, the wireless, cinema, TV, and cars, and planes as well as the telephone and the internet.

There is nothing novel in this.  Had you lived through the industrial revolution you would have encountered the transition from manual to steam power, the swift urbanization of many parts of Britain, participated at some point in the extension of Parliamentary democracy, and seen the transition from horse to railways.  

Of course, if you were a woman some of these momentous changes would wait until the beginning of the twentieth century and in respect to equal pay, promotion and even certain jobs that wait would extend into the middle and late decades of that century.

All of which is chronicled in the history books, but sometimes the real history leaps out from other sources, and here I am indebted to Debbie Cameron for posting two of her most recent purchases. One is the “Punch Library of Humour”, and the other is the "News of The World’s Household Guide and Almanac for 1952".

Household guides and Almanacs have been around for a very long time. So, before Mrs Beaton there were guides on household management stretching back into the 18th century and beyond. The development of printing, literacy and the emergence of a rising and aspiring middle class led to monthly publications which marched alongside the almanac.

"A modern sitting room in which brilliant soft colours combine" ... 1952

And in 1951 The News of The World was show casing changing fashions in the home as well as adverts for foreign travel and just what the well-dressed woman would wear to Paris.

Of course, if you wanted to trawl this type of history there were countless magazines, books and from the mid-1950s heaps of lifestyle programmes on the TV.

My grandparents regularly got the Reader’s Digest and while I never read the articles as a boy I would absorb the adverts with their promise of a better life with that new brand of cigarettes, soap powder or fashion accessory.

Even better was the Saturday Evening Post which somehow also appeared in the house with its insight into the America of the 1950s and which brought New York, the mid-west and California into their small two up two down in Derby.

But for now I will eagerly await the next posting from Debbie drawn from the pages of the News of the World’s Household Guide and Almanac for 1952.

Location; 1952

Pictures; from the News of the World’s Household Guide and Almanac for 1952, courtesy of Debbie Cameron

Waiting for the tally man

There is always a tally man.

The name may change, and so to the description of the business.

We knew it as “tally” but others will remember it as “the never never” or “HP” and today it’s simply  “credit.”

But the process was pretty much the same and consisted of the opportunity to buy goods in advance of the full payment up front.

Now I am not being sniffy about this.

For my family and for many others if we wanted to share in that new consumer boom of the 1950s and 60s, we pretty much were forced into putting down the deposit and paying monthly.

In our case it was a chap with a van who came round each week collected a small regular payment, brought back the shiny catalogue and if mother had decided on something he would bring it out of the said van.

I have completely forgotten the chap’s name which might have been Terry and until recently I had also forgotten the name of the firm which was John Blundell Ltd, but also seems to have traded as Edward Evans and maybe also the Hartlepools Mutual Trading Company Ltd.

But as you do in going through some old family stuff there, dating back to the 1960s were the payment cards.

There are no dates on any of the cards, but we were round 116 and our payment day was “day 6” which I suppose was a Friday and was always in the evening.

The weekly sums paid back range from 4 shillings up to a £1 and mother never seemed to miss a payment which given that a £ in 1964 was still a substantial amount of money was a serious commitment.

I have no idea when it began but Terry or his name sake was already a feature of the weekly routine in the late 1950s when were still in Lausanne Road and carried on when we moved to Well Hall.

From memory Dad always paid on the nail for the big domestic items like the washing machine, telly, and wireless and so the tally man was there for those items of clothes, bedding and shoes.

And these were always in demand given that there were five of us all at school.

The down side of the system was that it was no cheaper than credit today.

So the “Terms” on the card announce that “5p per week for every £1 in value or as arranged, Payments may be used as a deposit on a later purchase [and] Special terms arranged for Furniture and Cycles.”

Added to which of course many of the clothes items may well have been almost worn out before mother had finished paying for them.

But that was the price you paid, and while some more virtuous than me will mutter “we always saved up for and then bought” I have to point out that there was and still is not an option for many.
Not that this is a rant, or a reflection on the power of consumerism, just a reflection on how we lived prompted by the discovery of some old credit card payment books.

Location; Eltham, New Cross, Peckham and pretty much everywhere.

Pictures; tally Payments Cards circa 1964, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Space ….. the place to be in 1953

I was too young to remember the first series of Journey into Space.

It was broadcast during the autumn of 1953 into the January of the following year, when I was just four.

And by the time that last series finished in the February of 1957 I would have been watching the telly with mother, leaving dad in the kitchen with the old coal stove, and the wireless to listen alone.

My Wikipedia tells me that “Journey Into Space is a BBC Radio science fiction programme written by BBC producer Charles Chilton. It was the last UK radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Originally, four series were produced with the fourth a remake of the first......  Chilton later wrote three best-selling novels and several comic strip stories based upon the radio series”.*

I can’t claim to have read any of the books but followed his comic strips in the Eagle Comic, and a full 40 years ago I got a tape of the first series which at times sounded hammy and a bit stilted but took me back to that kitchen, the wireless and Dad.

So that is it, leaving me just share those memories of the 1950s, and the adventures on the Home Service of Captain Andrew “Jet Morgan”, Doctor Daniel “Doc” Matthews, Stephen “Mitch" Mitchell and Lemuel “Lemmy” Barnet. 

With just one extra, and that is a reflection on Pan Books. Long before l started on Penguin and Pelican paperbacks l was an avid reader of Pan. The company offered up a range of novels often with striking or lurid front covers. 

Here l found Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the James Bond classics all of which drew me into reading.  

And that in turn was thanks to mother and an English teacher at Samuel Pepys who picked up loads of second hand paperbacks which were left for us to dip in into.

Leaving me just to include this book on the Roman Invasion by Leonard Cotterell bought my mum in 1961 when l was 11 and still in the collection.

Location; My childhood

Pictures; cover of Journey into Space, circa 1954, and the Great Invasion, 1961

*Journey into Space, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_into_Space

“Come .... where the sun shines longer” .............. down at the holiday camp

Now we never went to holiday camps which had nothing to do with my parents being sniffy.

It was just that Dad worked in the tourist trade driving people across Europe on sight seeing tours and was away from Easter till September.

And given that there were five of us I rather think mum never fancied taking us all away to a holiday camp.

That said my mate Jimmy always went every year with his mum, dad and brother Fred and always came back sun tanned with heaps of stories about the entertainments, the food and the sheer fun of the place.

They usually went to Butlins, and I think preferred Margate.

The first holiday camps had started up before the Great War but the real growth was during the 1930s and in the years after the Second World War.

The big players were Warner, Butlins and Pontins who played to their strengths offering an all in holiday which was affordable with no hidden charges.

But with the development of cheap foreign packages in the sun the traditional British holiday became less attractive and many were closed.

And last week my friend Andy showed me this brochure from Campers Ltd which family regularly visited

They had three camp sites, one in Kent a second on the Isle of Wight and a third in Norfolk.

I am hoping that this will be the first of a series and that subsequent posts will include memories and descriptions of all the camps.

Location; 1950s and 60s





Pictures pages from “Come .... where the sun shines longer,” Campers Ltd Brochure, circa 1960, from the collection of Andy Robertson