Britain in the 60s

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I remember my Dad saying that while houses was being built at record levels in the 1950s & 60s a lot was not good quality, especially the council built housing intended to replace the Victorian terraces. A lot of the worst had to be pulled down after only 20-30 years.

Even before 1973 things weren't going well for the British economy, especially as the far eastern countries started to build up their industry & couldn't guarantee commonwealth countries would buy British.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

In our minds, we obviously think of the 1960s as the final imperial decade of the 20th century - in other words, the final one that we saw just as much as monochrome as the 1920s, 1930s and so on. The 1970s feels to me as if things are starting to modernise and get ourselves ready for the year 2000 - admittedly, a lot of this was probably already taking place in the later half of the 1960s - programmes like Tomorrow's World and indeed science fiction series like Doctor Who are a fine example as to what the future would be like in 30 years or more.

When ITV did their New Millennium show to mark the start of the year 2000, they shown some black and white clips from the 1960s about how people back then thought how life was in the year 2000 - Tomorrow's World-style presenters were seen in those clips. The way that I look at it is that United Kingdom looks prominently green from space, and likewise, the 20th century looks prominently black and white because that is how things were for the first two thirds of that time. The 1960s is a bridge between the post-war depression and modernisation in preparation for the year 2000, with the 1970s inheriting that.

It's interesting looking at television such as Top of the Pops from around 1971-1972 - it feels like the 1960s in colour if you know what I mean - however, the ITV Colour Strike must have felt as if the 1960s had returned briefly. Also, music in the charts from listening to Pick of the Pops - the sound of the songs in the first couple of years of the 1970s still felt 1960s alike until around 1973. I believe that the only difference if one listens to the radio is the fact that it was post-Beatles, and John, Paul, George and Ringo were going their separate ways.

Age wise, a Percy Sugden-alike Second World War veteran would only be in their late 40s or 50s, and it was the Albert Tatlock-alike First World War veterans who were in their 70s - the pensioners of their day. Nowadays, there are people who were now born in the second half of the 20th century who are now pensioners - rather scary that time has moved on like that!

[Arran]

Re: Britain in the 60s

In our minds, we obviously think of the 1960s as the final imperial decade of the 20th century

The final decade of the 20th century when kids at school had to split brain cells learning the £sd currency and grotesque calculations with imperial measurements. £sd caused problems with computers and many British computers had extra circuitry to handle this data structure.

The British Empire still officially exists and we have the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

I have never managed to find an answer to the question: when did the Industrial Revolution end?

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

As I was automatically born into a decimal currency world, it seem strange to see when I was younger, seeing historical things from the 1960s things before I was born with "6d" on them rather than "6p", and wondered what the "d" was - I thought that it was "p" since time began. Then I realised that decimalisation was splitting the pound into percentages, so that 57% was obviously 57p rather than what it was before 15th February 1971.

I saw that Channel 4 documentary Funny Money from 2000, and thought ironically that it was the drug reference that was the reason why Britain went decimal - the fact that pounds, shillings and pence was referred to as LSD (do you see?) Mind you, the Beatles didn't do much for it, did they? Even when I was at Junior school in the late 1980s we learnt about money in Maths and the teacher said that the worksheets were out of date because of the inclusion of the half penny.

I believe that some people probably think that the Industrial Revolution is still going to this very day.

[tex]

Re: Britain in the 60s

As far as i can remember the conversion went somthing like this...

Half penny (hape'ny)= 1/2 new pence (now defunct)
Penny= 1 new pence
threepence (threepenny bit)=1& 1/2 new pence
Sixpence (tanner)= 2&1/2 new pence
Shilling (bob)=5 new pence
Two bob=10 new pence
Half crown=12&1/2 pence
Crown=25 pence
Ten bob (note)=50 new pence....And ofcourse £1,£5,£10,£20£50

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

It's interesting looking at television such as Top of the Pops from around 1971-1972 - it feels like the 1960s in colour if you know what I mean - however, the ITV Colour Strike must have felt as if the 1960s had returned briefly. Also, music in the charts from listening to Pick of the Pops - the sound of the songs in the first couple of years of the 1970s still felt 1960s alike until around 1973. I believe that the only difference if one listens to the radio is the fact that it was post-Beatles, and John, Paul, George and Ringo were going their separate ways.

Age wise, a Percy Sugden-alike Second World War veteran would only be in their late 40s or 50s, and it was the Albert Tatlock-alike First World War veterans who were in their 70s - the pensioners of their day. Nowadays, there are people who were now born in the second half of the 20th century who are now pensioners - rather scary that time has moved on like that!

Until glam rock caught on many musical acts in 1970-1 would have still had more connection with the late 1960s.

I always think it's a bit ironic how colourful the glam era Top Of The Pops was considering most people were still watching in black & white at the time!

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Until glam rock caught on many musical acts in 1970-1 would have still had more connection with the late 1960s.

I always think it's a bit ironic how colourful the glam era Top Of The Pops was considering most people were still watching in black & white at the time!

I think that was why they were allowed to look so garish - it was because the majority who was still watching in black and white wouldn't notice, or it was some way of making them do a U turn and go back to black and white.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

As far as i can remember the conversion went somthing like this...

Half penny (hape'ny)= 1/2 new pence (now defunct)
Penny= 1 new pence
threepence (threepenny bit)=1& 1/2 new pence
Sixpence (tanner)= 2&1/2 new pence
Shilling (bob)=5 new pence
Two bob=10 new pence
Half crown=12&1/2 pence
Crown=25 pence
Ten bob (note)=50 new pence....And ofcourse £1,£5,£10,£20£50

The fact that 5ps and 10ps had the same value and size as the one and two shilling coins respectively, meant that they were around a lot longer until the early 1990s when the coins shrunk in size.

[staffslad]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I would say that is about right. It was a shame to lose unique coins like the threepenny bit. I seem to remember the tanner lasting longer, though not as long as the shilling etc.

I can't remember where it came from, but upon decimalisation we had a piece of plastic with the old coin values printed on it and if you turned it slightly the decimal equivalents would appear.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I think it was shame as prices would be a lot lower than they would be now - decimalisation and inflation seemed to go hand in hand I assume.

Can you imagine pre-decimal prices being quoted now? Instead of a daily newspaper being 65p for example, a daily newspaper would be 13 shillings - now that is an expensive newspaper!

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I think it was shame as prices would be a lot lower than they would be now - decimalisation and inflation seemed to go hand in hand I assume.

Can you imagine pre-decimal prices being quoted now? Instead of a daily newspaper being 65p for example, a daily newspaper would be 13 shillings - now that is an expensive newspaper!

Late pre-decimal prices seemed to be rounded to the nearest 3d, probably making the switch over easier.

[Donald the Great]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Not having ever lived in Britain in the 60s I can not comment here. I will therefore tell you a bit about my country in the 60s. We still had what some called the racist White Australia Policy. Our government forbade all non Europeans from migrating here from the late 40s to the mid 70s.. During this time the first of over 1 million Brits migrated to our shores for some welcome sunshine We colloquially called them 10 Pound Poms as 10 pounds was all an adult migrant had to pay to sail here. That as I understand it is 360 pounds in today's money. Back in the 60s Australia hardly imported anything. We made just about everything. The new trade deals in the 70s that enforced countries to reduce tarriffs on imported goods killed many of our industries and by the 80s we were forced to start importing many products we had earlier made ourselves.

Guys sorry to hijack this thread..

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Late pre-decimal prices seemed to be rounded to the nearest 3d, probably making the switch over easier.

A bit odd considering that 3d was one and a quarter pence - one would have needed two of them to make up two and a half pence.

Sing a song of two and a half new pence, anyone?

[tex]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Not having ever lived in Britain in the 60s I can not comment here. I will therefore tell you a bit about my country in the 60s. We still had what some called the racist White Australia Policy. Our government forbade all non Europeans from migrating here from the late 40s to the mid 70s.. During this time the first of over 1 million Brits migrated to our shores for some welcome sunshine We colloquially called them 10 Pound Poms as 10 pounds was all an adult migrant had to pay to sail here. That as I understand it is 360 pounds in today's money. Back in the 60s Australia hardly imported anything. We made just about everything. The new trade deals in the 70s that enforced countries to reduce tarriffs on imported goods killed many of our industries and by the 80s we were forced to start importing many products we had earlier made ourselves.

Guys sorry to hijack this thread..

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.

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

A bit odd considering that 3d was one and a quarter pence - one would have needed two of them to make up two and a half pence.

Sing a song of two and a half new pence, anyone?

The conversion chart I have in a book from the time has 1p for 3d & 4p for 9d, so it seems lower amounts were rounded down & higher ones were rounded up.

Interestingly there aren't any conversions given for amounts with an old half penny, so I presume these were ignored in the changeover period.