the 1940s & 50s remembered
DESCRIPTION
Memories and reminiscences from the 1940s and 50sTRANSCRIPT
Chris Helme Presentation
The 1940s were dominated by the Second World War. Whilst
many family members were away fighting in foreign parts the
war really came home to our area on the 22 November 1940.
This was when a German bomber dropped a single 220lb bomb which devasted 537 houses in the Hanson Lane and Crossley
Terrace area in the heart of the most densely populated part of
Halifax. A total of 11 people were killed
and a further 10 needed hospital treatment.
Bomb damaged house in Cliff Side Gardens Leeds
The same Cliff Side Gardens in 2007
Bomb damaged house in Easterly Road
Rationing is something that everyone who lived
through that era will remember. Mothers in particular as it was they
who had to try and provide meals for a
growing family.
Rationing started8 January 1940
When did food rationing stop? Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at
midnight on 4 July 1954, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted. This happened
nine years after the end of the war
Some Leeds ladies sorting out the new ration books
Dig for Victory was something that many families did during the war. If this was not in their own garden many people took the opportunity
of starting an allotment.Many parks were turned over
for use as allotments. Even during the 1960s at my
secondary school we had weekly gardening lessons did
you?
Gardening lessons at school. This was something that was taught at secondary modern schools
A march past led by the Navy stretches down The Headrow as far as the eye can see, for Ark Royal week
Wartime parade in Thornton Square Brighouse
How many of you can remember wearing a gas mask?
How many of you can remember the Anderson Shelters ?
The War Is Finally Over
At the end of the war General Alfred Jodl signed the instruments of unconditional surrender on 7 May 1945 in Reims as the representative of Admiral Karl Doenitz
Typical end of World War 11 celebration (Edmonton)
VE Day in Halifax – May 8th 1945The crowd at the Halifax Town Hall listening to the
Declaration
Then of course there was the more local celebrations – here in Brighouse
Typical end of World War 11 celebration (Edmonton)
Now the war was over the world as we knew it was about to change
Would these changes in the work place continue ?
Women in work
Did your mother have a job ?
Many ladies actively looked for work after the war. Life at home for many families was gradually changing
Housing in the 1940s and early 1950s
These type of properties by the 1950s in many areas were slowly disappearing under the
demolition mans hammer
Inside a 1940s early 50s kitchen
The 1950s kitchen cupboard
A group of women examine the very latest in oven technology in Leeds
Bath time for some children in the 1950s
Bath time for some more children in the 1950s
The old tin bath is back in fashion
Who can remember these ?
With their frozen pipes and the big key kept on a length of string usually with a large bobbin attached to it . This
made it easier to find just in case you dropped it in the
deep snow if having to made that emergency visit
during the night.
Ladies can you remember the first washer you had ?
OR the first modern domestic appliance ?
1952 saw the launch of a new kind of vacuum
cleaner, the 'Constellation', which
floated like a hovercraft. Hoover designed it so you
could place the vacuum cleaner in the centre of the room and then work
around it
1950s, 1960s and 1970s Hoover Junior
Can you remember the prefabs ?
Chapel Croft Rastrick
The 1951 prefab and its front garden at Collingham
Major new housing developments were cut through green field sites
Once the builders started other council areas soon followed building there own new estates only this
time they to be homes fit for heroes...
You could even go and look at a model of the new houses
that were being built
Within no time at all the open
green fields had all gone
and the building work
started.
New housing estates saw the building of new schools - Cliffe
Hill School Lightcliffe
Looking back at the
street games of the 1950s
No health and safety rules about conkers back in the 50s
For most boys football was played in the streets with a couple of pullovers used as goal posts and then all trying to be the new Stanley Matthews.
Unlike today where girls do play football very successfully. Back in the 1950s they stuck to games like skipping. Once again most of these games were
played in the streets
More Street Games
...or even hop scotch and hoopla
Leeds children from the 1950s playing on a swing with the all too familiar mill chimney in the back
ground bellowing out black smoke.
Family viewing in the 1950s – commercial TV arrived 22 September 1955
Muffin the Mule with Annette Mills
Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men with Little Weed
The television started to pull children away from the street games to watching to what many called ‘The Goggle Box’
Television programmes we grew up with
With 432 30 minute episodes it ran from 9 July 1955 – 1 May 1976
Ran from 1957 to 1967 Ran from 1955 to 1967
Ran from 1955 to 1961 Originally ran from 1955 to 1959
Cinema – Memories of the 1940s and 50s
1940s 1940s
1950s
CINEMA NAMES
Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation
Essoldo – what does this mean
Odeon – what does this mean?
Why did the old time cinemas tend to have short names :
1. Rex 2. Roxy 3. Royal, 4. Gem, 5. Regent, 6. Grand 7. Ritz and the 8. Rio etc...
Esther, SOLomon and his daughter, Dorothy Sheckman
Short names - the illuminated sign outside was cheaper
The Saturday morning visit to the pictures to see the next episode of Flash Gordon – will he survive or not? – to have your ABC Minors membership badge was a must back in the 1950s
The Changing City Centre (Leeds) 1950s
Lower Woolshops, Halifax – early 60s
1951. View from Albion Street looking along Boar Lane.
Boar Lane – 1950s
Briggate Leeds – 1940s
Remember the corner shop in your area...?
Corner shop memories
Shopping in the 1940s and 50s –Woolworth’s 1959 a different type of shopping
The world of the self service shop arrived and the SUPERMARKET..... in the 1950s
Canal Gardens, Roundhay Park Leeds – 1950s
Your spiritual needs as well as your social needs were taken care of at the Church and
Chapel as seen here in 1949
This local Chapel was thriving but with changing
times and with a dwindling congregations
this like many other chapels was demolished.
Sunday School was the second home for most local children at Lane
Head. During the 1950s many other activities
took place at the chapel.
Easter events, concerts and
Christmas pantomimes were events that all the
Sunday School children looked forward to each
year.
All the Sunday School children pose for this 1953 chapel photograph – did you have as coat like these
children are wearing ?
Sunday School Whit-Walks – 1950s
Can you remember your first motor car or the first time you were taken in one?
We can all remember the age of steam – the diesel train was beginning to replace the age of the steam
engine by the end of the 50s
D Day – Diesel Day 2 November 1959
The first diesel trains to rumble in to Halifax, Greetland, Elland and Brighouse stations was on
this day the beginning of a new era.
This collection of images date back to 60 years ago which for some of us is a life
time. But for some of you those days will seem only like yesterday.
I hope these few images have brought you back some happy memories from
your childhood days.
Hold on to those memories for as long as you can they are very precious.
The End