Memories and reminiscences from the 1940s and 50s

1. Chris Helme Presentation

2. The 1940s were dominated by
the Second World War. Whilst
many family members were
away fighting in foreign parts the
war really came home to our
area on the 22 November 1940.
This was when a German bomber
dropped a single 220lb bomb
which devasted 537 houses in
the Hanson Lane and Crossley
Terrace area in the heart of the
most densely populated part of
Halifax.
A total of 11 people were killed
and a further 10 needed hospital
treatment.

3. Bomb damaged house in Cliff Side Gardens Leeds

4. The same Cliff Side Gardens in 2007

5. Bomb damaged house in Easterly Road

6. Rationing started
8 January 1940
Rationing is something
that everyone who lived
through that era will
remember. Mothers in
particular as it was they
who had to try and
provide meals for a
growing family.
When did food rationing stop?
Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at
midnight on 4 July 1954, when restrictions on the sale and
purchase of meat and bacon were lifted. This happened
nine years after the end of the war

7. Some Leeds ladies sorting out the new ration books

8. Dig for Victory was
something that many families
did during the war. If this was
not in their own garden many
people took the opportunity
of starting an allotment.
Many parks were turned over
for use as allotments.
Even during the 1960s at my
secondary school we had
weekly gardening lessons did
you?

9. Gardening lessons at school. This was something
that was taught at secondary modern schools

10. A march past led by the Navy stretches down The
Headrow as far as the eye can see, for Ark Royal week

11. Wartime parade in Thornton Square Brighouse

12. How many of you can remember wearing
a gas mask?

13. How many of you can remember the Anderson
Shelters ?

14. The War Is Finally Over

15. At the end of the war General Alfred Jodl signed the
instruments of unconditional surrender on 7 May 1945
in Reims as the representative of Admiral Karl Doenitz

16. Typical end of World War 11 celebration (Edmonton)

17. VE Day in Halifax – May 8th 1945
The crowd at the Halifax Town Hall listening to the
Declaration

18. Then of course there was the more local celebrations
– here in Brighouse

19. Typical end of World War 11 celebration (Edmonton)

20. Now the war was over the world as we knew
it was about to change
Would these changes in the work place continue ?

21. Women in work
Did your mother have a job ?

22. Many ladies actively looked for work after the war.
Life at home for many families was gradually changing

23. Housing in the 1940s and early 1950s
These type of properties by the 1950s in many
areas were slowly disappearing under the
demolition mans hammer

24. Inside a 1940s early 50s
kitchen

25. The 1950s kitchen cupboard

26. A group of women examine the very latest
in oven technology in Leeds

27. Bath time for some children
in the 1950s

28. Bath time for some more children in
the 1950s

29. The old tin bath is back in fashion

30. Who can remember these ?
With their frozen pipes and
the big key kept on a length
of string usually with a large
bobbin attached to it . This
made it easier to find just in
case you dropped it in the
deep snow if having to
made that emergency visit
during the night.

31. Ladies can you
remember the
first washer you
had ?
OR the first
modern
domestic
appliance ?

32. 1952 saw the launch of a
new kind of vacuum
cleaner, the
'Constellation', which
floated like a hovercraft.
Hoover designed it so you
could place the vacuum
cleaner in the centre of
the room and then work
around it
1950s, 1960s and 1970s
Hoover Junior

33. Can you remember the prefabs ?
Chapel Croft Rastrick

34. The 1951 prefab and its front garden at Collingham

35. Major new housing
developments were cut
through green field sites

36. Once the builders started other council areas soon
followed building there own new estates only this
time they to be homes fit for heroes...

37. You could even go
and look at a model
of the new houses
that were being built

38. Within no time
at all the open
green fields
had all gone
and the
building work
started.

39. New housing estates saw the
building of new schools - Cliffe
Hill School Lightcliffe

40. Looking
back at the
street
games of
the 1950s

41. No health and safety rules about conkers back in
the 50s

42. For most boys football was played in the streets
with a couple of pullovers used as goal posts and
then all trying to be the new Stanley Matthews.

43. Unlike today where girls do play football very
successfully. Back in the 1950s they stuck to games
like skipping. Once again most of these games were
played in the streets

44. More Street Games

45. ...or even hop scotch and hoopla

46. Leeds children from the
1950s playing on a swing
with the all too familiar
mill chimney in the back
ground bellowing out
black smoke.

47. Family viewing in the 1950s – commercial TV
arrived 22 September 1955

48. Muffin the Mule with
Annette Mills
The television
started to pull
children away from
the street games to
watching to what
many called ‘The
Goggle Box’
Bill and Ben the Flowerpot
Men with Little Weed

49. Television programmes we grew up with
With 432 30 minute episodes it ran from
9 July 1955 – 1 May 1976

50. Ran from 1957 to 1967 Ran from 1955 to 1967
Ran from 1955 to 1961 Originally ran from 1955 to 1959

51. Cinema – Memories of the 1940s and 50s
1940s 1940s

52. 1950s

53. CINEMA NAMES
Essoldo – what does this mean
Esther, SOLomon and his daughter, Dorothy Sheckman
Odeon – what does this mean?
Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation
Why did the old time cinemas tend to have short
names :
1. Rex 2. Roxy 3. Royal, 4. Gem, 5. Regent, 6. Grand
7. Ritz and the 8. Rio etc...
Short names - the illuminated sign outside was cheaper

54. The Saturday morning visit
to the pictures to see the
next episode of Flash
Gordon – will he survive or
not? – to have your ABC
Minors membership badge
was a must back in the
1950s

55. The Changing City Centre (Leeds) 1950s

56. Lower Woolshops, Halifax – early 60s
1951. View from Albion Street looking along Boar Lane.

57. Boar Lane – 1950s

58. Briggate Leeds – 1940s

59. Remember the corner shop in your area...?

60. Corner shop memories

61. Shopping in the 1940s and 50s –
Woolworth’s 1959 a different type of shopping

62. The world of the self service shop arrived and the
SUPERMARKET..... in the 1950s

63. Canal Gardens, Roundhay Park Leeds – 1950s

64. Your spiritual needs as well as your social
needs were taken care of at the Church and
Chapel as seen here in 1949

65. This local Chapel was
thriving but with changing
times and with a
dwindling congregations
this like many other
chapels was demolished.
Sunday School was the
second home for most
local children at Lane
Head. During the 1950s
many other activities
took place at the chapel.

66. Easter events,
concerts and
Christmas
pantomimes were
events that all the
Sunday School
children looked
forward to each
year.

67. All the Sunday School children pose for this 1953
chapel photograph – did you have as coat like these
children are wearing ?

68. Sunday School Whit-Walks – 1950s

69. Can you remember your first motor car or the first
time you were taken in one?

70. We can all remember the age of steam – the diesel
train was beginning to replace the age of the steam
engine by the end of the 50s

71. D Day – Diesel Day 2 November 1959
The first diesel trains to rumble in to Halifax,
Greetland, Elland and Brighouse stations was on
this day the beginning of a new era.

72. This collection of images date back to 60
years ago which for some of us is a life
time. But for some of you those days will
seem only like yesterday.
I hope these few images have brought
you back some happy memories from
your childhood days.
Hold on to those memories for as long as
you can they are very precious.

73. The End