In 1954 the Second World War had been over for nine years. But in England you’d hardly have known it. The final phase of rationing only ended halfway through the year. In so many cities the damage of wartime bombing was still brutally evident. The war remained one of the constant topics of conversation. Every male over a certain age had fought in it. For some it was still the high point of their lives.
And, of course, there were many more who hadn’t come home when peace was declared.
In 1945, possibly remembering the failed promises of 1918, Labour had been elected to power in a landslide victory and created the Welfare State. But they’d lost to the Tories and now – finally - there was a huge wave of house building for all those young families. More and more old slums were being demolished. We were making the transition from the Britain of a distant past and putting our feet very tentatively into the present.
With the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, television had become part of the public consciousness. Employment was good and people had disposable income, possibly the first generation where that was the case en masse. And they spent it on things for their new houses, labour-saving devices. And motor cars to explore their green and pleasant land at leisure, even though public transport was still the way for most people.
The real social revolution was still a decade away. There was the first stirring of youth culture with the Teddy Boys and their distinctive Edwardian dress (along with mutterings about juvenile delinquency and cosh boys, as some called them). But Britain didn’t have teenagers yet. Skiffle was starting to surface, thanks to Lonnie Donegan’s spots with Ken Colyer, but it would take a few years before it became a craze. Elvis had only just made his first commercial recordings for Sun Records. Rock’n’roll was the future for the young, but no one here had heard it yet.
There was still National Service for young men, two years of uniform and discipline. British forces were scattered around the globe, some of them fighting (Korea had only ended the year before). They were boys when they left and men when they returned. As a boy you dressed as a boy. As a man you dressed like your father. That was the way of the world, and a job for life was still a plum to be sought.
It was, in almost every way, a black and white world.
The war cast a long shadow through life. Comics had soldiers beating the Jerries, the sense of make do and mend was still part of the everyday. The consumer society was starting, but it would take another generation for it to become the be all and end all.
More people listened to the radio for entertainment than watched television. People read newspapers avidly. Holidays were almost invariably in Britain. Going abroad seemed like an adventure for the privileged, daring few. It was another, alien world on foreign shores and people didn’t want it – yet. We’d gladly huddled our shoulders into a smaller world. The Empire might be rapidly slipping away, but so many remembered when pink covered the map and were loath to accept the change. After all, we’d beaten the Germans…
One thing it wasn’t was a classless society. The old order still presided, and would continue to do so for another 10 years at least.
This is Dan Markham’s world. Out in the provinces, away from the centre of power, where in many ways little had changed since the start of the century. But as he discovers, things are beginning to move.
This is the world of Dan Markham from new book ' Dark Briggate Blues'. Out in the provinces, away from the centre of power, where in many ways little had changed since the start of the century. But as he discovers, things are beginning to move.