I reviewed the first book in this series (A World to Build : Austerity Britain 1945 - 1948) in my post of 6th December 2023. Smoke in the Valley carries on where that left off. This is another hugely researched book but the repetitive nature of including so many extracts from different sources does at times get a little tedious.
WHAT DO YOU SAY
At the start of the book there are some gems. Such as the blockbuster start of the opening ceremony of the first post war Olympic Games at Wembley in 1948. And banned from the parade was the cox of the British rowing eight because he only had one leg! We hear about the race riots in Liverpool and the vast number of people taking trains to the coast on Bank Holiday (63,287 from Waterloo alone). There are many extracts from diaries the author has found including one for Norman Wisdom at the Spa Theatre, Scarborough. We are told about the shortages, the rationing (I remember my parent's ration books quite clearly), and about how milk was delivered in churns to fill our own containers. In April 1949, sweets came off rationing, I was four. But the soap ration was terribly "insufficient".
OH FOR A LITTLE BUTTER
As an example of the extracts from diaries, Gladys Langford (a school teacher) said "the streets are deserted, lighting is dim, people's clothes are shabby and their tables bare". We were lucky that Dad worked for a grocers. The black market was in full swing and nearly all new cars were only for export. As for television for those very few in the south of England who had a set, there was only one hour in the daytime and two in the evening. (We were fortunate to have our first tiny black and white TV for the coronation in 1953. We were never allowed to watch commercial programmes when ITV started in 1955 when I was nearly eleven. So it was a thrill to see them when we went to stay with our grandmother). So it was the radio that prevailed in our house. Take It From Here was one of the first popular shows. I was not keen on a lot of the political stuff, particularly the ins and outs of nationalisation.
JOLLY GOOD AS A WHOLE
We hear about the early days of the NHS and the "teething problems". Literally. The start of laundrettes (I used them all the time in the sixties), the new big housing estates and tower blocks. Quite a lot about sport, there were 46,000 outdoors at White City for some heavyweight boxing. And a full Wembley Stadium for the World Speedway Championships. Half a million applied for 85,000 tickets. At the packed cinemas came the Ealing Comedies: Whisky Galore, Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico. Some disturbing stuff about the growth of communism. Austerity was compounded by devaluation.
A DECENT WAY OF LIFE
On the radio came Wilfred Pickles and his Have a Go. I remember it well as it went on for years. Variety Bandbox was live on Sunday Evenings with Eric Sykes, Frankie Howard. Listen with Mother also started on the radio. Among the extracts from diaries, a young Czech woman on a visit was amazed at the drabness, bomb damage, poor clothes and food and very little in the shops. In 1949, 6,000 people were struck down with polio. An awful disease. In 1950 the first TV transmitter outside London started up in the Midlands.
A General Election took centre stage in February 1950. We hear about the campaigns and election parties held in big hotels, Tony Hancock performed at Claridge's and there were 2,000 at The Savoy. Labour held on to power but with a very reduced majority after that 1945 landslide.
A NEGATIVE OF SNOWFLAKES
The author paints a picture of the grim industrial landscape, the mines and the slag heaps. But not in the south. He quotes Hunter Davies from his youth: "my whole memory is of dust and dirt, industrial noise and smoke". (We were lucky to live in Totley and then Alton). The huge consumption of coal added to the smoke and smog. (Now that I do remember when we lived in London).
PART OF THE MACHINERY
Heavy industry was a hard place to work. Even car plants had their serious injuries and deaths. (I never met my maternal grandfather who was pensioned off when he broke his back down the mines. I did know my step maternal grandfather who was missing an arm after a mining accident.)
One of the author's main sources in this section was Ferdynand Zweig, a social anthropologist who recorded numerous conversations with workers. He compared the working class with office workers, the difference in pay and job security. In 1952 he published "The British Worker" with hundreds of interviews.
STIFF AND RIGID AND UNADAPTABLE
There is a series on the radio called What is wrong with the British Economy. Almost everything? However, British exports in 1950 were 50% higher than in 1937 and it's share of world trade was up from 21% to 25%. Only because the rest of Europe and Japan were so much worse. But then I skipped through much about the financial sector, business, the city, the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange. We hear about the newly nationalised industries and the unions. All quite boring stuff.
TOO HIGH A PRICE
How dismal for the country were the railways, roads and telecoms, all in desperate need of investment. They stumbled along compared with other countries. Then the restrictive practices run by the unions held everything back. Just look at the newspaper industry. To criticise a union official could lead to discipline or even the sack. Sixteen year old Norman Tebbit swore he would break them. The author tells us "Neither side of British Industry was willing, when it came to it, to follow the American gospel of productivity, with it's persuasive emphasis of new methods and new techniques of doing things".
PROPER BLOODY PRODUCTS
I enjoyed the part about motor car manufacturing. "By 1950 the British motor industry enjoyed a staggering 52% of world motor exports". In terms of overall production, that in France, Germany and Italy combined "only just exceeded Britain's 476,000. Japan only made 2,000 cars in the year. But the reliability (or should I say unreliability of British made cars) was a big problem. "A disastrous trail of breakdowns and unavailable spare parts". The industry was blighted by strikes and go-slows. It was filthy work in the factories. I was less interested in the part about mines and miners, ports and dockers.
ANDY IS WAVING GOODBYE
Hurrah! We have something about TV. But first there are the comics. The first edition of The Eagle came in 1950. I now remember that we had a newspaper delivered to us every day in the mid to late 1950's. And inside once a week was The Eagle. With Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, and PC 49. My brother John had The Swift and Paul's was the Robin. At the time these were all hugely popular and were a great success story. Then there were the other D.C. Thomson comics such as The Beano, Hotspur, Wizard (those two were my favourites), Dandy, Topper and Beezer. Grown up magazines also did very well.
So much for some entertaining reading. A correspondent tells us that London was a "decaying, decrepit, sagging, rotten city". But eggs acme off ration and so did petrol. But the Whitsun weekend brought out every car resulting in massive traffic jams in the south. The 1950 World Cup was held in Brazil. England did eventually send a team, but they were a disaster.
On the radio came two new shows: Educating Archie (a huge success) and Andy Pandy for children. I didn't realise how big an issue was the annual cricket match at Lords between The Gentleman (amateurs) and Players (professionals). The hierarchy at the MCC were awful. Supermarkets started up around this time, but there were still the small shops. In the summer holidays of 1950, Butlins was going strong.
THE HEAVIEST BURDEN
Back to February 1950 and the General Election. A narrow Labour victory but with a massively reduced majority. There seemed now to be very little strategy for the country. But then the government decided to support America in their war in Korea. Just when the country is recovering from the last one.
A KIND OF MEASURING ROD
There is very little in this book about the Royal Family. I wonder why. But here they are at The London Palladium for the Royal Variety Performance. Even the rude Max Miller was on the bill. He overran so much that he held up the visiting American stars of the show Jack Benny and Dinah Shore. Completely different was a part about the Eleven Plus and how schools all gave out the results in different ways. Ten excerpts from (now) famous theatrical stars who wrote about their times at school. Then the horrors of teaching in secondary modern schools and "a pioneering survey of how the 1944 Education Act was playing out".
Back to rationing and that for meat was truly awful (Argentina was to blame), 4 to 5 ounces for a whole week. Sausages were no substitute as nearly all fat. "A meat shortage, a fuel crisis, a flue epidemic, a hastily conceived and over ambitious re-armament programme having a sharp impact on the consumer".
On New Year's Day of 1951 (I'm just six years old) comes a trial run of The Archers on The Light Programme that came after Mrs Dale's Diary. The former still going strong! TV was only provided by the BBC, but at least it was not confused by commercial aims. There were plays in the evening on the radio. In the theatre in London it was all classics, no room for modern writing or contemporary issues.
THEIR OWN PRIVATE DOMAIN
In the April of 1951 came the first census for twenty years. The quality of housing was truly abysmal. So much was very old and dilapidated. (Even when I visited my grandmother's newer 1930's council house when I was not much older, the lavatory was outside, and toilet paper was torn up newspaper). The government was desperate to build new house but were struggling to do so. There was much argument about whether flats were the answer. This was one of the best parts of the book recounting how housing policy was left to local councils. One huge success was Churchill Gardens, 1600 dwellings in London's Pimlico on the north bank of the Thames between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. The 32 blocks included nine storey flats, four storey maisonettes and three storey terraced houses. A mixed development conceived by the young architects Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya that gained a big reputation. The London County Council handed over all housing development to it's architect's department.
A vast new estate in Glasgow called Pollok came to house residents from the slums of Govan and The Gorbals. for the first time they had an inside toilet and bathroom. But as ever, not everyone was impressed by living in a flat.
THAT DUMP?
The huge Quarry Hill Estate in Leeds was the subject of a radio programme on Friday 6th April 1951. When anyone was asked what they thought about it, the reply was usually "What, that dump?". Sunday 8th April was census day. The following day the England touring cricket team arrived back, yes, by boat! Judy Garland performed at The London Palladium. The Tuesday was Budget Day delivered by Hugh Gaitskell. Nothing exciting, but it did lead to the resignation of Aneurin Bevan who was minister for health that was followed by two other ministers, Harold Wilson and John Freeman. Preparations were underway for The Festival of Britain on the south bank of The Thames. Intrepid correspondent Gladys Langford visited and told us it was a muddle. There were 100,000 at Wembley for the FA Cup Final with Stanley Mathews on the Blackpool losing side to the winning Newcastle. But the reference to "the Mathews final" was two years premature as this was when Blackpool beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in 1953. The cup final this year takes place four weeks later on 25th May.
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