New home for Woodlands Homework Help primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk

If you were born in the 1950s it is very likely that your mother did not work outside the home, but instead concentrated on providing a safe and cosy environment for the family. Only your father would have gone out to work to provide an income for your family.

Timeline of Events

1951
Festival of Britain - this event marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The festival generated demand for new fashions in furniture and furnishings. The exhibits introduced new styles of pottery, ceramics, fabrics and furniture made from revolutionary materials - fibreglass, plywood, formica and plastics.

1953
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll
To celebrate the coronation, everyone was allowed an extra pound of sugar and four ounces of margarine.

1953
The summit of Mount Everest was reached for the first time by Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzinf, his Nepalese guide.

1954
All rationing comes to an end

1957
The space Race began with the Soviet Union launching the first vehicle to orbit the Earth, the satellite Sputnik 1, on 4th October 1957. This was followed a month later by the launch of Sputnik 2. On board was the first living creature to travel from Earth into space, a dog named Laika.

House and Homes

Household goods

1950s saw the introduction of fish fingers, electric fires, washing machine, ink and toilet paper.

In the 1950s, a typical home had a cooker, vacuum cleaner and a plug-in radio.

Only 33 per cent of households had a washing machine. Most people were still doing their washing by hand.

Only 15 per cent had a fridge and freezers and tumble dryers were scarcely heard of.

Only 10 per cent of the population had a telephone.

People listen to gramophone records

Television / Wireless

Most families’ entertainment came from the radio (or ‘wireless’) or through listening to 78rpm records on a gramophone. However, a single event in 1953 gave a huge boost to the uptake of television. This was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2nd June 1953 at Westminster Abbey. Cameras had never before been allowed inside Westminster Abbey for a coronation, and the general public were thrilled to be able to watch the event live. Families crowded into the home of anyone lucky enough to have a television to watch the event.

Two-thirds of homes owned a television. The programmes were shown in black and white. A second and commercialised TV channel was added in 1955.

Leisure

People spent most of their leisure time at home – reading, listening to the radio, watching
television or pursuing hobbies. The most popular hobbies were knitting and needle-work for
women, and gardening for men.

Children spent a lot of time playing with other children outdoors. They also enjoyed a range of hobbies such as stamp collecting.

Families enjoyed playing board games such as Monopoly, Ludo, and Snakes and Ladders.

There was a craze for yo-yos, 3D-spectacles, I-Spy books and hoola hoops in the late 1950s.

Population

1952 Population of Britain = 50 million

Fashion

Clothes rationing had ended by 1949 and by the early 1950s women in particular wanted dresses and skirts made with a huge amount of fabric to make up for the meagre amounts they had endured during the war.

50s fashion

50s fashion

Pop Art

Pop Art started in London in the mid-1950's.
The artists of the Pop Art movement depicted images from popular culture, including comics, advertising images, and celebrity portraits.

The best known artist of Pop Art is undoubtedly the American artist Andy Warhol.

www.millbankprm.cardiff.sch.uk

library.thinkquest.org/J002045F/pop_art.htm

www.bedewell.s-tyneside.sch.uk

Shops

Most food shopping in the 1950s was done every day and from local shops. Not every household owned a car or a refrigerator, so food shopping was part of the housewife's daily routine.

It would have been quite normal to visit separate shops for your bread (bakers), meat (butchers), vegetables (greengrocers), fish (fishmongers) etc. It was quite common too, for tradesmen to deliver their goods direct to the housewife. Groceries and greengroceries were often delivered each week in a motorised van and milk was delivered every day.

1957: Only a handful of shops in the country were self-serve (pay as you go out). The first Sainsbury’s to try out this innovation was opened in June 1950 in Croydon.

2007: There are more than 33,500 supermarkets and convenience stores in the UK

A shopping basket in the 1950s would have included items such as:

wild rabbits, mangles, corsets, candles, wireless licence and gramophone records.

Fresh fruit and vegetables came mainly from Britain, so strawberries would be in the shops for just a few weeks in the summer, and there would have been no fresh peas, beans or salads vegetables during the winter months.

Transport

Car ownership more than doubled in the 1950's. By 1955 there were over three million cars on Britain's roads.

1948
The Morris Minor is launched, designed by Alec Issigonis, and becomes one of Britain's best-selling cars

1952
The first jet aeroplane to carry passengers, called Comet, began a regular passenger service. It was a small jet and could not carry many people.

1956
First hovercraft

1959
The Mini is launched, designed by Alec Issigonis, and becomes the best-selling British car of all time. It cost £496 – about the amount of money someone earned in a whole year.

1959
Britain's first motorway, the M1, between Birmingham and London, opened.

Computers

1956
The first computer hard disk used

1958
The modem invented.

Music and Dancing

It was the decade of jive, skiffle and rock'n'roll. Popular singers were Elvis Presley and Bill Haley.

Inventions

Inventions since the 1930s | Timeline from the end of the war

Life in 1948 | Population from 1991 | Money | Websites

Life in the 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s