Britain in the 60s

[Arran]

Re: Britain in the 60s

You still find fahrenheit on the cover page of the Express.

Americans love fahrenheit but despite all their claims of its virtues over celsius the British have well and truly abandoned it. I suspect that there is more public support for celsius in the US than fahrenheit in the rest of the world put together.

The mile for road distances and pint for beer (only at retail level) are exceptional British measurements that the EU gave permission to use indefinitely. Milk is now sold in litres in Scotland but still in pints in England and Wales. Shops don't seem to sell milk in quantities less than 1 pint (or 500mL in Scotland) apart from UHT capsules for coffee and tea, and I have never seen any 1/3 pint bottles for sale even back in the 1990s. A measure of spirits in a pub was 1/6 gill or 1/5 gill in Scotland until 1985 when it changed to 25mL and pubs had to buy new optics. Some pubs in Scotland and Northern Ireland serve 35mL measures.

The power output of radiators is more commonly quoted in BTU/hr by retailers rather than watts.

[Zincubus]

Re: Britain in the 60s




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[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

If there is one imperial measurement that has died in Britain since the 1960s but is still alive in the US it's fahrenheit. Fluid ounces are also fading into obscurity although they are mainstream in the US.

I mentioned this in the Heatwaves and Hot Summers thread that I started earlier on this year - the fact that Fahrenheit is a bit like Michael Fish - i.e. we don't see or hear about either of them on British weather forecasts anymore. Using Fahrenheit makes it sound a lot hotter when used in heatwaves - 80 degrees v 30 degrees in Celsius.

They will never get rid of miles from road signs or people's speedometers as it is the default measurement of road distances.

A 1/3 of a pint milk bottles makes me think of Infant school - where else would you get them?

[Arran]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Don't forget of course that metrification was another big thing at the time as well - pounds and ounces v grams and kilograms, although they continued side by side for many years.

Schools went metric gradually. The O Level exams went metric some time in the 1960s and primary schools changed over during the late 1960s through to the 1970s when new books and educational resources were purchased. Remember that there wasn't a national curriculum back then. There were still (official) vestiges of imperial when I was at primary school in the 1990 such as clothing sizes in inches, travelling distances in miles, 1/3 pint milk bottles, a pound of flesh in The Merchant of Venice, and 3 1/2 inch floppy disks.

If there is one imperial measurement that has died in Britain since the 1960s but is still alive in the US it's fahrenheit. Fluid ounces are also fading into obscurity although they are mainstream in the US.

[tex]

Re: Britain in the 60s

And they say the 70s was the decade that fashion forgot...

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Peter noone is still alive but no longer part of HH.

My parents saw them a few years ago & my Dad noted that only the drummer as an original member.

[tex]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Hermans Hermits still going. One of my fave Brit 60s groups.

Peter noone is still alive but no longer part of HH.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Maths lessons were fun around the time of decimalisation. Annoying though for kids who had to split brain cells on £sd then no longer needed to use it. Teachers were not always in favour of decimalisation.

Don't forget of course that metrification was another big thing at the time as well - pounds and ounces v grams and kilograms, although they continued side by side for many years. How many market traders have been prosecuted for using pounds and ounces by Trading Standards - something that wouldn't have happened in the 1970s? Coronation Street dealt with that issue as early as 1961 when Florrie Lindley's Corner Shop was visited by some people from the weights and measures organisation or whatever it was called by the time (I looked this up on the Corriepedia website to find all this out!)

[Zincubus]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Coronation Street is nostalgic and fictitious. Britain successfully embraced the 50p, £1, and £2 coins but the Americans can't get to grips with the $1 coin. They exist but customers overwhelmingly refuse them in their change and shops are reluctant to accept them. The Presidential Series of dollar coins was effectively terminated half way through with the remainder of coins just produced in small numbers for collectors rather than for circulation because the public did not want them as currency.

Maths lessons were fun around the time of decimalisation. Annoying though for kids who had to split brain cells on £sd then no longer needed to use it. Teachers were not always in favour of decimalisation.

Quite a lot of older folk believe that metric measurements and decimal currency have contributed to a decline in maths skills in children. What they don't realise is that the countries where children excel in maths today have had metric measurements and decimal currency for longer than anybody can remember. I think that the decline took place as a result of not updating the maths syllabus following decimalisation.

We both grew up with Coronation street and still watched it when we got married UNTIL they started telling us the storyline in advance
I actually lived about 50 yards from Len Fairclough's house and walked past it going to school for many years ... now there's a scary thought !



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[Arran]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Coronation Street is nostalgic and fictitious. Britain successfully embraced the 50p, £1, and £2 coins but the Americans can't get to grips with the $1 coin. They exist but customers overwhelmingly refuse them in their change and shops are reluctant to accept them. The Presidential Series of dollar coins was effectively terminated half way through with the remainder of coins just produced in small numbers for collectors rather than for circulation because the public did not want them as currency.

Maths lessons were fun around the time of decimalisation. Annoying though for kids who had to split brain cells on £sd then no longer needed to use it. Teachers were not always in favour of decimalisation.

Quite a lot of older folk believe that metric measurements and decimal currency have contributed to a decline in maths skills in children. What they don't realise is that the countries where children excel in maths today have had metric measurements and decimal currency for longer than anybody can remember. I think that the decline took place as a result of not updating the maths syllabus following decimalisation.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I was still at school when decimalisation came in !!

We went into the local shop to buy sweets/toffees before school with the new coins snd were shocked when we came out with about half as many sweets !!

I bet that Maths lessons at school were fun around the time of Decimalisation - I read that an ITV Schools programme made in around 1968 which was a Mathematics series had an episode about money which had to be remade when Britain went decimal due to the fact it became out of date as soon as 15th February 1971 came along.

And series like Coronation Street and On the Buses had episodes where the characters explored decimalisation - two years before there was an episode of Coronation Street around the time that the 50p coin was introduced and showed a Rovers scene with Jack Walker referring to the new 50p as a "foreign coin", and Betty Turpin saying that it wasn't foreign. Just shows you how conservative elderly people were back then.

[Donald the Great]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Went to a 60s concert at the manchester opera house about a month back, on the bill were Hermans hermits, amen corner,Chris farlow,The searchers. Problem was most of the original band members were deceased so you had 30 year old musicians in bands formed 50 years ago. That said it was a most enjoyable show

Hermans Hermits still going. One of my fave Brit 60s groups.

[Donald the Great]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I bet that penny chews were difficult to sell because of inflation.

Watching that Funny Money documentary, they showed a clip of an Australian PIF which was a black and white cartoon about going decimal, and had the lyrics:

"In come the dollars and in go the cents
To replace the pounds, and the shillings, and the pence..."

That is true. We went decimal in 1966.

[Donald the Great]

Re: Britain in the 60s

My wife was almost a £10 pom, when she was 5-6 years old her dad got a job in Australia and the family were all set to emigrate but there was a complete change of heart at the last moment and ofcourse it didn't happen,hard to imagine how my own life would of been so different as a result.

Life's twists and turns tex.

[zabadak]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I remember there was such a thing as a penny wafer in our sweet shop. After decimalisation, there still was! In other words, the manufactures had snuck in a 2.4% price increase!!!

...or should that be 240%?