Chairman’s Chit Chat November 2024
An ‘away day’ down Memory Lane. Jessie and I were invited by the village W.I. (Jessie is not a member but has friends on the committee) to join them on their coach trip to Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, near Durham.
Needless to say we jumped at the chance. We have visited Beamish a couple of times over the years but there was an added incentive this time. Recently a new attraction has been unveiled, namely, a replica 1950s village. As I was born at the beginning of the decade (OK – 1950 to be exact!), I knew I was in for a rare treat.
No sooner were we off the coach, fed and watered (a coffee and a slice of carrot cake) than we were journeying to the 1950s village on a wonderfully-restored vintage bus, complete with a uniformed conductor.
There were a lot of buildings to explore but we started with the Community Hall.
Inside was a cornucopia of memorable artefacts from the decade – prams, dried milk tins and public information posters about long-forgotten (thank goodness) children’s ailments, such as diphtheria and much, much more.
There was also a large display of ration books.
It came as a surprise to learn that rationing did not end until 1954.
Then it was, in turn, off to, the miners’ welfare cottages, the shops and the cinema. All very interesting but, for me, the star attractions were the semi-detached council houses.
We lived in a tied cottage (Dad was a farm manager and the house went with the job) but when Dad left farming in 1963, we moved into a council house, very much akin to the ones on site. When the state system was trying to educate me from the mid 50s to the late 60s, practically all my classmates lived in council-owned properties; one still lived in a wartime prefab and a couple were posh and lived in the private rental sector. I cannot remember anyone from a family that owned their own home.
Home ownership did not become popular until the 1980s, when the Thatcher government set about selling off the family silver.
It was very disconcerting to see items that you remember so well, from the kitchen gadgets to the items of furniture, to the blankets and eiderdowns, in a museum. We were fortunate that, on the day we visited, the house guides were two sisters and the house we stood in was an exact replica of the house they grew up in on the Red Estate in Sunderland.
They had a wealth of fascinating anecdotes about their childhood.
Tags: 1950, Beamish