The Annual General Meeting of the High Country History Group was held on the 29th March, 2002. At the meeting, members of the group were requested to bring to the meeting some object which to them was reminiscent of the 1950s. Members were encouraged to record their thoughts in a few words. These thoughts are recorded here together with more observations on the decade.
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
For many, the Coronation of Elizabeth II provided that first memorable television experience. Despite a developing network of transmitters, reception was variable. Pictures were often poor, characteristically snowy and, viewed in the company of invited neighbours, at best the 12 inch (or today, 30.48 cm!) tube, meant that much had to be left to the imagination. It rained and Queen Salote of Tonga remained the memory of a persistent triumph over the inclement weather.
Loving Cup from the Coronation
“The loving cup from the Queen’s Coronation, and I remember watching it on TV. I was most impressed by the Queen’s dress which was embroidered with the emblems of all her Commonwealth countries around the world, plus England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.” - Margaret Padfield
Was it ‘Mick and Montmerency’ or ‘The Grove Family’ that followed the Coronation transmission?
Mementoes of the event survive and are still plentiful, though sometimes worn. By now, these have attained an elevated and protected, status in the household. Postage stamps commemorating the Coronation are still a popular survival. Most colonies issued one stamp in a standard design but there were exceptions. The issue helped to generate a new following of stamp collectors. Otherwise, the number of commemorative stamp issues in the 1950s was modest. The Post Office had yet to implement the policy of saturating with special issues, a strategy akin to philatelic carpet-bombing.
Coronation Teaspoon and Postage Stamps
“The coronation teaspoon has been in daily use, so much so that the silver plate has nearly all work off. The stamps of Great Britain provide reminders of the age:
1948 75th Anniversary of the Universal Postal Union
1951 The Festival of Britain
1952 The Definitive Stamps of Great Britain, designed by Dorothy Wilding
1953 Coronation and the commemorative stamps of the 62 Colonies
1957 50 Year Anniversary of World Scouts
1958 6th British Empire and ommonwealth Games at Cardiff.
Commemorative stamps were produced much less frequently than they are today.”
David and Wendy Thompson - The Wilding Head was used on the early postage stamps from the present Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The nephew of the designer, Dorothy Wilding, was a contemporary at the same school that David attended.
Some mementoes carry special and personal significance.
Hand woven silk velvet for the Queen’s Coronation and Parliamentary Robes, Coronation Medal and citation for William Doe, my father
“In 1952 and early 1953, my father William Doe, a director of Warner & Sons Ltd, was responsible for the contract to weave on the hand looms at Braintree the silk velvet for the Coronation robe and crown, and the parliamentary robe worn today by Her Majesty the Queen to open Parliament. Warners also supplied all the other vestments and hangings for Westminster Abbey. My parents were at Buckingham Palace to watch the Queen leave for Westminster Abbey and return after the ceremony. My father was also responsible for the silk supplied by Warners for Princess Elizabeth’s wedding dress in 1948.” - Peter Doe
The Economy and Money
In 1952, heavy engineering and the production of ships and railways, supported by the mining of coal and the production of steel, dominated the economy. Perhaps surprisingly, the UK economy was the second largest in the world in 1960; today it stands fifth in the world. However, in 1952 we exported only 13.1 per cent of our output, while today exports stand at 34.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In material terms we are twice as well off as we were in the 1950s.
In real terms, our economy is now 3.4 times bigger than in 1952. This has been achieved partly through the growth in productivity, by a factor of 2.3 over the same period. Manufacturing, measured as a percentage of GDP, is now only 20 per cent whereas in the early 1950s it stood at 30 per cent. Today, the wholesale, retailing, and business services sectors, when combined, are larger that the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing has declined but the idea that in the 1950s the UK was a wholly manufacturing nation needs to be viewed in perspective.
In agriculture, the results of the increasing mechanisation in agriculture are plain to see in the High Country. Fewer people work on the land and the character and use of dwellings associated with agriculture use have changed forever.
Occasionally, it comes as a surprise to realise that a generation has now grown up without direct contact with ‘the old money’. Students undertaking history courses, for example, are now generally provided with explanations and conversions for translating sterling into decimal. The farthing, tanner, bob, florin, crown and guinea have all passed.
Building Society Share Pass Book
“My wife and I began to save when we became engaged, so the original entry includes her maiden name. The only large deposit was a wedding present. The biggest withdrawal was to deposit on our first house. The passbook pages are interleaved with blotting paper; all entries are in ink and are pre-decimal. Thirty years later, I took the book for the nearly-forgotten rump of the money to be updated. The girl at the counter blanched when she saw the £.s.d.. The book had to go to Head Office to be calculated.” - Jack Stewart
Premium Savings Bonds were introduced in 1957. ERNIE, the acronym for the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment, generated the winning random numbers. ERNIE presented a more exciting way to save. At the outset, the monthly winning numbers were published widely but with a top prize in the draw of £1,000 interest waned; the prize for eight draws on the football pools was then £80,000. The top prize was gradually raised until in 1994 the top prize reached £1M, with the result that within a short period, more premium bonds were sold than had been sold in the first 37 years of their existence. Those early bonds, often given singly as birthday presents, still remain, often neglected, but rarely having contributed to their keep.
Premium Bond
“My wife and I got married in 1958. I had a new suit for the wedding. As I paid for it in cash, I was given a £1 premium savings bond. Needless to say, we have won nothing on it.” - J. Wood
Living
Everyday living in the 1950s was coloured by austerity and household economy. Rationing, introduced during the war, was progressively relaxed until 1954, but coal was still rationed until 1958. Devices such as the wire mesh soap-saver, which enabled a bar of soap to be used up completely in the interest of that additional wash, was typical of careful attention to household expenditure.
Ration Book from 1952
“I can remember coupons being exchanged at the grocery store run by Mr Liddel. This ration book still has the majority of stamps inside. Only the ones for Mr Liddel’s food have been removed.
My mother saved clothing coupons for a pair of new red shoes for me. These were duly purchased. I can then remember my mother being furious with our Labrador puppy, Trixie, for chewing the shoes.” - Anne Brooks
The 1950s brought innovation in the home; labour-saving devices; new materials; new food options. Numerous examples of these have become accepted as indispensable to modern living, whether liked or not! Terylene clothes were introduced into the UK in 1951. One year later the telephone answering machine was invented. The first electric kettle was developed in 1954. Convenience food took mouth-watering steps forward with the development of the fish finger. The appearance on the High Street of the first outlets of the Wimpy hamburger chain followed one year later. The Tetley tea bag was first introduced to the teapot or teacup in 1952.
The Government had introduced measures to improve the diet of young people.
Coupons
“In 1958, we had our son, Richard, and I was given orange juice coupons and cod liver oil coupons.” - Margaret Padfield
Personal entertainment became attainable with the transistor radio and cassette tape recorder at the end of the 1950s, shrinking the cumbersome radiogram to something more easily portable. ‘The Archers’ was broadcast for the first time in 1950.
Velcro provided cheap fasteners. Barbie dolls, perhaps mimicking the teenage female pop stars of the time, arrived just before the decade closed and have remained with us. Other everyday objects have sometimes proved strangely resilient, outliving their original purpose and becoming devoted to uses outside of the original design or intention.
Sanatogen Jar
“This Sanatogen jar is from the period 1950 to 1954. It came from Burrows Farm where my mother worked for Mrs H. Millbank. Surprisingly, the storage jar has been in use ever since.” - Margaret Wright
Education
The 1939-45 World War had restricted developments in education. The attention of authorities was diverted to matters at least as pressing and education was disrupted, through the evacuation of children, and the partial destruction of the fabric of education.
Letter dated 8th June, 1946, from King George VI
“All children of school age received a letter from the King shortly after the end of the war in which the King spoke of the ‘shared hardship and dangers of Total War’. As a small boy growing up in London, I well recall the air raids. I slept for several months in a cellar under our house, partly in a gas tent. I was evacuated to Much Hadham for a period where I slept in an Anderson shelter with the mice. My school in Loughton was hit by a Doodlebug - a cause for some rejoicing!” - Patrick Griggs
Essex was keen to present a memento of the Coronation to children.
Book, “Royalty in Essex”
“All the children in Essex were presented with this book in 1953 on the occasion of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.” - Anne Cook
“We also have the ‘Royalty in Essex’ book that was given to all Essex school children by County Education in commemoration of the Coronation.” - Phillipa Giles
Perhaps strangely, much official data on education only dates from the 1960s. Generally, education in the 1950s followed a succession from infant, through primary to secondary schools. Secondary education was selective based on an examination, the 11 Plus Exam, to determine whether attendance at a grammar school was appropriate, or whether the secondary modern school was better suited. For those considered more able, the ‘Grammar’ held the promise of education leading to A levels and possibly university, whereas the alternative would often result in an early exit from the education system at the age of 15, unfortunately.
School satchel, leather
“I passed ‘The Scholarship” in 1952, the year of the Queen’s accession. This is the satchel that was bought for me. It was used throughout the rest of my schooldays.
My daughter used it when she started school and used it until holdalls became fashionable.” - June Wood
Such selection at 11 was severe and the chance of being later transferred to the ‘Grammar’ through, for example, a 12 Plus Exam) was unusual. The availability of the ‘Grammar’ was variable across the country and attendance would often involve long, daily journeys to counter the promise of success one was presumed to enjoy in later life.
Over the last fifty years, education has become more available. If the statistics from forty years ago are compared to those of today, then the huge growth in access to education becomes apparent. At nursery level, less than a quarter of a million children under 5, 10 per cent of the total, attended school in the 1950s; today the figure is 90 per cent. The number of pupils who left school with 2 ‘A’ levels has increased from approximately 8 per cent at the end of the 1950’s to about 30 per cent in 2000. This increase is aided by the number of young people staying on past 15 in full-time education. The figure is up from 35 per cent in 1958 to around 70 per cent today.
More remarkably, perhaps, over the same period there has been a ten-fold rise in the number of people going on to higher education, to 2 million in full or part-time study today. The number of universities in the UK has risen to 90 today from 20 in 1952. Nevertheless, the suggestion remains that this increase is accompanied by a reduction in educational standards.
Hospital Nursing Certificate
“Training for the nursing profession was strict, regimental and exhausting. Patients were segregated in fifty bedded wards and drugs were limited, so strict hygiene was essential. Everything was sterilised by hand.
We worked shifts of eight hours by day and twelve at night with one day off a week. All breakages had to be paid for.
Each year, we were required to pass both a hospital and a State examination.
Today I recognise the enormous responsibility we carried for the care of our patients, with limited resources, but the training offered then has been acknowledged today as second to none.” - Anne Stewart
Family
Statistics demonstrate that relationships and family structures have changed markedly over the past 50 years. About five times as many people live alone now, to seven million in 2001. Population has risen by one fifth, yet marriage is less popular, with one quarter fewer marriages. Divorce has risen five-fold and co-habitation is now the most common form of first partnership. Both men and women can expect to live eight-and-a-half years longer.
Babies’ names have changed. The following lists the most popular girls and boys names in 1952 and 2001:
1952
David
John
Michael
Peter
Stephen
Robert
Paul
Alan
Christopher
Richard
2001
Jack
Thomas
Joshua
James
Daniel
Harry
Samuel
Joseph
Matthew
Lewis
1952
Susan
Linda
Christine
Margaret
Patricia
Janet
Elizabeth
Mary
Carol
Ann
2001
Chloe
Emily
Megan
Jessica
Sophie
Lauren
Charlotte
Hannah
Olivia
Lucy
It seems remarkable that the top ten names differ so markedly for both boys and girls over the period. Today’s names are no less ‘traditional’ than in 2001, and the more recent choices for boy’s names have very strong biblical origins.
The family holiday of the 1950s still carries enduring memories. Most families afforded one annual holiday, which was usually spent in the UK at holiday camps, hotels or guesthouses at seaside resorts. The first National Park, the Peak District, was designated in 1951. Today, the majority of holidays are taken abroad. Holiday photos from the 1950s, usually black and white, do survive in corners but sometimes the memento is more notable.
Charcoal Sketch of Shirley Fisher
“I was on holiday in Devon with my family and encountered an artist sketching the scenery. My father asked him if he did portraits. He did, and for a cost of 1/6d each, he sketched my parents, my sister and myself.” - Shirley Fisher
Again, a present from a typical holiday -
1951 Necklace and Earring Set
“My best friend, Margaret, gave these to me on returning from a holiday in Llandudno. However, we often had holidays together, with parents, and thoroughly enjoyed them despite the fact we didn’t go far from our homes in Yorkshire, but to Scarborough, Skegness etc. We played tennis, swam, sunbathed and went for cliff top walks, once almost missing lunch as my watch had stopped and we’d no idea of the time. We are still good friends and recently had a wonderful day as guests at her son’s wedding.” - Maureen Meddows
and a coincidence, left at a holiday cottage -
The Illustrated London News magazine
“We discovered this copy of The London Illustrated News magazine in Cornwall in a holiday cottage that we had rented in the 1970s. The date on its cover, 25/4/59, was the date of our marriage and, inexplicably, we found it in one of our suitcases when we arrived home in Essex!” - Joan White
Transport
In 1952, there was no motorway in Great Britain. With just 3 million cars, both the bus and the train, and the bicycle, provided alternative ways of travelling even for short journeys. Less than one in six households had access to a car. More use was made of public transport, the train, and a combination of the two, the trolleybus.
A Trolleyhead
“Essex once had trolleybuses. These were electrically powered passenger vehicles and were used to replace trams in the ‘thirties and ‘forties. Their great attribute was quietness of operation. Trolleybuses were to be found in Southend-on-Sea, and on London Transport system at places like Woodford, Leytonstone, Barkingside and Ilford. As a youngster, I often caught the 661 at the ‘Green Man’, Leytonstone, to travel to London. Regrettably though, I never sampled the delights of a Southend trolleybus ride, along the seafront to the Kursaal. Trolleybuses disappeared from Southend in 1954 and from Ilford in 1959. The artefact here is a trolleyhead. It is one of a pair, fixed to long poles mounted on top of the vehicle, that pressed up on the overhead wires to collect the electric current that powered the vehicle.” - Keith Farrow
Fifty years later, the number of cars has multiplied by a factor of nine, to a total of 26.5 million and 73% of households now have access to at least one car. 85% of the passenger kilometres travelled are made on the roads by car, van or taxi. There has been a tenfold increase in the distance travelled by road, roughly proportional to the increase in the number of cars. 3,400 kilometres of motorway have now been built.
Other methods of road travel have declined. The distance now travelled by bus or coach has dropped to one half of its level in 1952, but more marked is the decline in the use of the bicycle to one sixth of its former level.
Of course, the greatest expansion has taken place in air travel. Over the last 50 years the number of passengers using the main airports in the UK has increased by a factor of 65, while the number of trips made has increased one hundred-fold!
LP “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley
“Bill Haley was the first rock n’roll star. In February, 1977, Bill Haley came to the UK. He crossed the Atlantic by transatlantic liner, docking at Southampton. The big sister of a friend of mine travelled to London on one of the four or five trains that were laid on to carry all the fans. Bill Haley must have been one of the last touring stars to travel by sea. The passenger traffic at Southampton docks remained steady but eventually declined under competition from cheaper, faster and more convenient air transport. The formerly grand and busy transatlantic passenger facilities, for example, the Great Western Hotel, with its associations with the Titanic, Mauretania, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth liners, slowly succumbed during the 1960’s to the airlines.” - Rob Brooks
Southampton also supported a flying boat service, but this ceased in 1958 to be replaced by the hovercraft service to the Isle of Wight. In the early 1950s, disasters hampered air travel. In 1952, the first Comet jet service, from London to Johannesburg, commenced. Three early Comets were lost during landings, one in a thunderstorm, but it was when a Comet 1 broke up on departure from Rome on 10th January, 1954, that concerns about their safety mounted sharply. A further Comet belonging to South African Airways disappeared off the coast of Sicily on 8th April of the same year and as a result the Comet 1 was grounded. The Comet had been the first airliner to encounter pressurisation metal fatigue. Comet 4 was introduced much later on 1st October 1958.
Entertainment
Only one in six households had regular use of a car in 1952 compared to seven in ten now. As a result of the increase in personal mobility, the range of people’s leisure interests has expanded.
Now, the largest slice of our spending goes towards non-essential leisure goods and services. Over the last fifty years, patterns of entertainment have been dramatically changed. The widespread absorption of television into the home means we now visit the cinema just one tenth of the former frequency although, maybe because of some disappointment with television, this decline is currently reversing). Those queues of children outside the Odeon on a Saturday morning have vanished.
Collection of bird’s eggs and “The Observers Book of Birds Eggs”
“As a country schoolboy, born in 1950, I spent many happy hours scrambling around the hedgerows of Stapleford Tawney, collecting bird’s eggs. I would ‘blow’ the contents, making holes with a pin at each end, and identify them using the Observer book. At the time considered an innocent and healthy hobby. It is now a criminal offence!” - Duncan Padfield
More recently the widespread penetration of the computer into the home has provided families with a range of additional pursuits in the form of computer games, word processing, publishing and, more recently, access to huge information databanks. The transition of computer systems from a few large mainframe computers in the 1950s, carrying out calculations of national importance, to the distributed home computer, each possessing greater computing power, is a trend that was wholly unexpected. Even CEOs of major international computer companies failed to anticipate the trend. The capability to communicate with others worldwide through the Internet, selectively and even when not directly known, completes a staggering revolution in interpersonal communications really commenced only at the start of the twentieth century.
Dramatically, home entertainment changed in the 1950s. The fragile shellac of 78 rpm records, was to change to the more durable vinyl LP, at 33 1/3 rpm, pioneered by Columbia in 1948, and a 45 rpm format, from RCA in 1949. Records now became available to most young people at a price that they were prepared to afford. Elvis Presley was one of the first to profit from these developments. From 1956, Elvis Presley records sold hugely However, Elvis enjoyed nine top twenty hits until his first chart number one.
78 rpm “Hound Dog”; Elvis Presley
“This was my first love. The record label still retains traces of lipstick. Was the lipstick Lucky Pink?” - Christine Marchant
Hound Dog reached number two, spending 16 weeks in the charts. Blue jeans were also part of this teenage revolution in spending habits. They first sold in the UK in 1955. They were different, fashionable and comparatively cheap.
My Mother’s Dress
“I am wearing my mother’s dress, one of those she wore when courting my father. It is white cotton with mauve roses, shoestring straps, a ruched bodice, which was originally boned, and a small skirt that would cover a net underskirt. There is a contrasting wrap to go with it. At some time it was in our dressing up box and I have worn it to dances. I will keep it and pass it on to my daughter for dressing up in fancy dress in the future!” - Phillipa Giles
The formality of the dance or the ball of the 1950s has largely passed.
Dance Card
“In 1955, I went to the Scotch Bachelor’s Ball, where we were given cards. As the first half hour before the dancing began, you filled it in to arrange you dancing partner.
In 1956, we got married. We met at the Young Farmer’s Club. Maurice belonged to ‘Harlow” and I belonged to “Ongar”. It was known as the Marriage Bureau for the Young Farmers.” - Margaret Padfield
The 55th Aldeburgh Festival takes place this year.
Programme, Aldeburgh Festival, June 14th to 22nd, 1952
“In the early days of the Festival, before Snape Maltings, concerts were heard in the Jubilee Hall and the Parish Church. Lectures were held in the Church Hall, Baptist Chapel and the Cinema. It was all very informal and friendly.
I went to the Kathleen Ferrier recital in the Parish Church. When a concert was due there, streams of folk would be heading in that direction carrying cushions as the pews were very uncomfortable.
Tickets on sale at the Festival Office were priced at 3 shillings each. The complete programme book was 6 shillings.”
Jean Millbank
The festival, founded by Benjamin Britten in 1948 lost some of its importance following his death in 1976. The auditorium at the Maltings was burnt down on its first night in 1969 but was rebuilt in time for the festival the following year. Alas, Kathleen Ferrier died tragically in the year following the date of the programme. Was the programme book a bargain at 3 bob?
Sport
Sport in the decade will be remembered for some legendary achievements against a background of increasing professionalism.
At the end of the decade, the maximum weekly wage for a footballer was limited to £20 during the season and £17 in the summer. A strike threatened and the maximum wage was abolished on January 9th 1960, partly to counter players moving to Italian clubs. John Charles had already moved to Juventus, where his salary was trebled. Charles, the ‘Gentle Giant’, was paid a signing-on fee of £10,000, equivalent to 10 years salary in the English First Division. There was concern that the loss of the maximum wage would encourage wages to spiral out of control in the Football League!
F.A. Cup Final programme and ticket from 1950
“This was my granddad’s programme and ticket from the 1950 F.A. Cup Final between Liverpool and Arsenal. Arsenal won 2-0 in very wet and muddy conditions. Joe Mercer captained Arsenal and Phil Taylor captained Liverpool. Denis Compton, the England cricketer, played for Arsenal. At half-time, Denis, flagging in the conditions, was given a glass of brandy to revive him.” - Robin Fisher
In cricket, amateurs played alongside professionals, as they had always done. The Gentlemen, amateurs, still played the Players, professionals, at Lords annually. In 1957, the batting of the Gentlemen included the Reverend David Shepherd, Peter May, Colin Cowdrey and Ted Dexter, while the Players could muster the strong bowling attack of Frank “Typhoon” Tyson, Freddie Trueman and Jim Laker. Denis Compton captained the Players in his last professional season. In the absence of one-day cricket, cricket grounds hosted representative games, perhaps oddly viewed today; England versus The Rest; The North versus The South; Under Thirty-Two versus Over Thirty-Two.
The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships were strictly amateur throughout the decade. A professional circus, led by Jack Kramer, toured extensively providing spectacular entertainment throughout the decade. Kramer, having won Wimbledon in 1947, joined Bobby Riggs, the winner of all three male Wimbledon titles in 1939, in the circus. In the 1950s, Frank Sedgman and Lew Hoad, both Wimbledon singles winners, among several others, turned professional, leaving the amateur game poorer for their absence. The major tennis tournaments were only opened to professionals in 1968.
Wimbledon programmes from the 1950s
“I played at Wimbledon during the amateur days when professional tennis took the form of a travelling circus. The programmes recorded most of the results. I played Rod Laver at Wimbledon but prefer to forget the score. The amateur days were reflected by the home players travelling to the courts by bus, and players getting to the third round earned themselves a player a meal ticket.”
John Ward
Athletics remained amateur, apart from the The Powderhall Sprint, run in Edinburgh, but open only to professionals! Professionalism in rugby union is a recent and generally resisted, development; previously the two rugby codes had followed quite distinct paths.
Perhaps the 1950s hosted the transition of sport to the modern era. The growth of professionalism is both a cause and an effect of this. Professionalism was a reaction to the need of all sportsmen and sportswomen to obtain support to enable both time and equipment to be devoted to raising performance. Emil Zatopek adopted a training routine that is still regarded as punishing today. Having won both the 5,000m and the 10,000m at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, Zatopek entered the Marathon, his first. In a well-known exchange with Jim Peters of England, Zatopek enquired whether they were running fast enough. “Too slow” was the unwise reply. Zatopek accelerated to win his third gold medal easily. Zatopek, a Czech army officer, was promoted through his athletic success.
Instances of the transition to the modern era in other sports can be suggested. There are links. In football, Stanley Matthews, of Blackpool, finally won his Cup Final winner’s medal with Blackpool in 1953 after a career, which started with Stoke in 1932; later in the decade the 17 year old Pele became the youngest player to play in the final stages of the World Cup. In 1953, Gordon Richards, later knighted, finally rode a Derby winner, Pinza, at his twenty-eighth attempt at the age of 49. The following year, Lester Piggott won the first of his nine Derby victories. In boxing, Joe Louis made an ill-considered comeback in 1951 against Rocky Marciano, and the young Marciano knocked him out in the eighth round. In 1960 Cassius Clay, won the gold medal at the Rome Olympics as a light-heavyweight, one early step to becoming the best-known sportsman in modern times. Arnold Palmer won his first US Masters title in 1958, so creating a tournament link that has only just ceased.
. . . . and lastly, Roger Bannister ran the first 4 minute mile. Was this as fast as a man could run? No, the world record now stands to at 3m 43.13s!
. . . and finally
It is quite possible you recall the 1950s vividly. This is true for me. Is it because it coincided with my schooldays when the mind was open to new experiences, uncluttered with acquired knowledge and irrelevancies? Or is it because the decade could be viewed with an emotional detachment permitted by the general absence of responsibilities? Or were the 1950s, in reality, colourful, fresh and vivid and a decade of innovation and change?
Of course, there is much that has not been mentioned . . . . The Festival of Britain . . . . the Cold War . . . . Eisenhower and Churchill . . . . Stalin . . . . Bulganin and Kruschev . . . . the conflict of Korea . . . . the Hungarian uprising . . . . Nasser and Suez . . . . Sir Anthony Eden . . . . Telstar . . . . Sputnik and the dog, Laika . . . . Burgess and Maclean . . . . Hillary and Tenzing . . . . the Munich air crash . . . . Puskas . . . . the Hungarian football team . . . . 6-3 and 7-1 defeats . . . . Anita Lonsborough . . . . Cliff Richard . . . . zebra crossings . . . . ITV . . . . myxomatosis . . . . smog . . . . the M1 . . . . and parking meters . . . . . . . . . . .
Thanks are also extended to the members of the High Country History Group who entertained with their reminiscences at the group’s Annual General Meeting on 29th March, 2002.
Acknowledgements in the preparation of this article are also due to the Internet, and in particular the National Office of Statistics and the St Osyth Parish Magazine for July 2001 . . . . among many others.