Chris Helme Presentation

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.

Bomb damaged house in Cliff Side Gardens Leeds

The same Cliff Side Gardens in 2007

Bomb damaged house in Easterly Road

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.

Rationing started8 January 1940

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

Some Leeds ladies sorting out the new ration books

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?

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

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

Wartime parade in Thornton Square Brighouse

How many of you can remember wearing a gas mask?

How many of you can remember the Anderson Shelters ?

The War Is Finally Over

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

Typical end of World War 11 celebration (Edmonton)

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

Declaration

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

Typical end of World War 11 celebration (Edmonton)

Now the war was over the world as we knew it was about to change

Would these changes in the work place continue ?

Women in work

Did your mother have a job ?

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

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

Inside a 1940s early 50s kitchen

The 1950s kitchen cupboard

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

Bath time for some children in the 1950s

Bath time for some more children in the 1950s

The old tin bath is back in fashion

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.

Ladies can you remember the first washer you had ?

OR the first modern domestic appliance ?

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

Can you remember the prefabs ?

Chapel Croft Rastrick

The 1951 prefab and its front garden at Collingham

Major new housing developments were cut through green field sites

Once the builders started other council areas soon followed building there own new estates only this

time they to be homes fit for heroes...

You could even go and look at a model of the new houses

that were being built

Within no time at all the open

green fields had all gone

and the building work

started.

New housing estates saw the building of new schools - Cliffe

Hill School Lightcliffe

Looking back at the

street games of the 1950s

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

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.

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

More Street Games

...or even hop scotch and hoopla

Leeds children from the 1950s playing on a swing with the all too familiar mill chimney in the back

ground bellowing out black smoke.

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

Muffin the Mule with Annette Mills

Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men with Little Weed

The television started to pull children away from the street games to watching to what many called ‘The Goggle Box’

Television programmes we grew up with

With 432 30 minute episodes it ran from 9 July 1955 – 1 May 1976

Ran from 1957 to 1967 Ran from 1955 to 1967

Ran from 1955 to 1961 Originally ran from 1955 to 1959

Cinema – Memories of the 1940s and 50s

1940s 1940s

1950s

CINEMA NAMES

Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation

Essoldo – what does this mean

Odeon – what does this mean?

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...

Esther, SOLomon and his daughter, Dorothy Sheckman

Short names - the illuminated sign outside was cheaper

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

The Changing City Centre (Leeds) 1950s

Lower Woolshops, Halifax – early 60s

1951. View from Albion Street looking along Boar Lane.

Boar Lane – 1950s

Briggate Leeds – 1940s

Remember the corner shop in your area...?

Corner shop memories

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

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

Canal Gardens, Roundhay Park Leeds – 1950s

Your spiritual needs as well as your social needs were taken care of at the Church and

Chapel as seen here in 1949

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.

Easter events, concerts and

Christmas pantomimes were events that all the

Sunday School children looked forward to each

year.

All the Sunday School children pose for this 1953 chapel photograph – did you have as coat like these

children are wearing ?

Sunday School Whit-Walks – 1950s

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

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

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.

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.

The End