Published in Windlesora 20 (2003)
© WLHG
The Golden Jubilee celebrations were the catalyst for a project undertaken during 2002 by the Royal Borough Museum Collection, called Glory Days. Rather than put on an exhibition of the Queen’s life over the past 50 years, it was decided to focus purely on the 1950s, and gather stories and anecdotes from local residents with a view to building up an archive of memories. Due to the lack of adequate museum facilities, and as a way of raising the profile of heritage in the borough, we decided to go out to residents and interview them using objects either in the collection or loaned to us specifically for the project. With the information gathered I hoped to put on small displays in the various cases around the borough or perhaps put together a publication or booklet. I had not carried out reminiscence (oral history) projects before so this was something of an experiment, although several of the volunteers involved had had direct experience of interviewing people in the past.
After making contact with most of the local groups and societies, and forming a team of volunteers, I put out a plea for 1950s items. I was surprised and delighted at the amount of material that was offered on loan or donated — from copies of contemporary newspapers, children’s toys and coronation souvenirs to an original polka dot dress, domestic appliances and currency. We started to approach people willing to be interviewed and this proved to be one of the hardest parts of the | project. Many people were happy to chat about their memories of the 1950s but understandably did not want to be recorded on tape! It was also quite difficult gauging the interest of potential interviewees and following up the initial enthusiasm on their part did not always result in a recorded interview. There was some ambiguity as to what we were going to do with the material and indeed the whole point of the project, which in hindsight we should have made clearer. We did, however, learn a great deal and we made contact with many people who enjoyed reminiscing enormously.
Peggy’s Story
One of the project volunteers, Norman Oxley, contacted an Irish lady called Peggy who was willing to talk about her memories of the 1950s and she had a particularly interesting story to tell. Peggy and her fiancé emigrated from Ireland in 1955 and found work at Cooper’s Mechanical Joints in Slough. From the moment Peggy and her fiancé visited Windsor on their first weekend they fell in love with the town and Peggy said that it became ‘home’ to them. They married at the end of 1955 in Slough and soon after moved into a one room flat in Trinity Place, Windsor. Peggy found the English a little suspicious at first and told Norman that life as a young Irish woman in a foreign country was hard. She described how difficult it was living in the flat when she had her first child: ‘there was no family back up and the flat in Trinity Place was on the top floor. There were 24 steps to the toilet on the second floor and 50 steps to the bathroom in the basement. There was a gas boiler for hot water and the bath always needed a good scrub before you could use it.’
In 1959 Peggy and her family moved into a flat on Dedworth Road and she said that ‘it felt like living in the country as there were fields everywhere. The Roman Catholic church was then in a tin hut and the old All Saints church was on the corner of Dedworth Road, but other than a garage near the present site of Tesco’s it was all open countryside.‘ Peggy told Norman how they would go to Windsor Castle every Sunday when it was free to wander round, and they enjoyed family outings to Alexandra Gardens and picnics on the Brocas. Much use was also made of Windsor Library in St Leonard’s Road and in the absence of television they spent their time listening to the radio and reading. Holidays to Ireland were once a year when they could afford to go; Peggy’s husband would do an evening job to put money in a holiday fund. He was paid each Thursday but ‘if the money ran out you just managed. Family allowance was only for the second and subsequent children.‘ Peggy taught her children ‘to be confident, to be decent citizens and to reach out to other people … [This was] more important than getting qualifications to be financially better off.’
As well as interviewing several people in Windsor, I also talked to residents in Maidenhead, Cookham and Cheapside. A member of the volunteer team, Valerie Bosley, introduced me to a group in Maidenhead and we talked to them about their memories of life 50 years ago. Joan, Gordon, Phyllis, Gladys and Ursula chatted to Valerie and me about the shops in 1950s Maidenhead, such as Joy’s and World’s Stores and how you would get cups of tea or coffee whilst you were waiting in the butcher’s for your Sunday joint! Gordon reminisced about the 12 years he spent working in the cinema in Bridge Street, Maidenhead, and said that ‘those were the happiest days of my life.‘ They all remembered celebrating the coronation, either by watching it on a broken television at their in-laws or attending a street party. Phyllis remembered the street parties: ‘jellies were the posh food and they came in crinkly wax cups.‘ She remembered oranges and ginger in a jar and a wooden bucket used to make the most delicious ice cream. ‘We appreciated things a lot more’ was a common phrase echoed by everyone.
In Cookham, Beryl and Lucy talked to us about their young days in the village and their weddings in 1950 and 1939 respectively. Lucy recalled moving into a prefab from her parents’ house before moving into a new house in Cookham in 1956 or 1957: ‘that was wonderful. We saved up for everything – you had to then – and eventually I could buy new carpets and curtains. We saved up for a television for 2 years – not like now when you can buy one straight away!‘ Beryl said that ‘shopkeepers such as the butcher and baker would give you food to top up your rationed amount, and we grew vegetables like most people did then.‘ Another lady in Windsor called Alice who was interviewed by volunteer Beryl Hedges said that ‘we would exchange food at shops – a rabbit for a piece of bacon and we all grew our own vegetables. We would do cooking on a Sunday and eat the leftovers cold on a Monday. I used to buy pease pudding from a shop in Oxford Road, Windsor. A week’s groceries would cost 4/11 (four shillings and eleven pence) and I did my shopping on Saturday morning. I cooked things like meat pies and treacle sponge. There were dumplings with most meals.’
A faithful fridge
Most people did not have a fridge at the beginning of the 1950s, though by the end of the decade they were becoming much more common. After putting out a plea for 1950s items in the local newspaper we were contacted by a gentleman called Keith who had lived in Maidenhead all his life and who wondered if we wanted an Electrolux fridge which had been brought by his parents in 1950 and which had only recently packed up! Due to the lack of space we were unable to accept his offer but we did take some photographs of the fridge and talked to him about it. Keith said that ‘the fridge turned out to be a faithful friend – it only needed to be repaired once, in about 1970. It stopped working in January 2002 after 52 years of service!’
A lady called Winnie who lives in Cheapside told me about moving into her first house: ‘We moved into our new house in Hilltop Close, Cheapside in 1958. The estate was built in the 1950s on a site previously occupied by Nissen huts. This was the first time I had lived in a house with electricity. My three children were so excited by the novelty of electric lights that they opened their presents at 2am on Christmas morning!’
A fifties childhood
Many people we interviewed spoke of how happy and carefree their childhoods had been, and contrasted the freedom they had then with life for children today: ‘All children played outside in the 1950s. We left our front doors unlocked and we played in the streets and on the Brocas in Windsor. We invented games, and collected things like marbles. Children were much more imaginative then, well there was very little to watch on television, not like now.’ (Iris, Bubbles and Kathleen). In Old Windsor, Alan remembered his childhood in the village: ‘In the early 1950s I started at Eton Porny school – I must have been about 6 or 7 years old. My grandparents lived in Old Windsor and I used to spend a lot of time playing in the village. Things were very different then, there were open fields where the Straight Road is now and far fewer houses. The cornfields belonged to the manor. There was the baker’s on what is now the roundabout who used to deliver to everyone in the village. We used to play on the river a lot.’
In Windsor, Reg remembered ‘…front doors would be left open onto the streets…as front doors became locked, a key would be left on a piece of string, accessible through the letter box: originating in the term “latch key children”. Some children would climb through a window. Streets became play areas with pavements marked out in chalk for hopscotch. Window panes were replaced more often, partly through more active games. Catapults, missing the target, were still about.’
The age of the cinema
Many long-term Windsor residents reminisced about the cinemas: Reg wrote that ‘the newest and best with balcony near the river, the Playhouse. In Peascod Street the smallest with some internal décor, quite pleasing, the Empire: and the long narrow Regal. The word “cinema” said by few people. Instead it was “taking the girl to the pictures” (or “flicks” because earlier films used to flicker.)’ Peggy said she went to the Playhouse every Sunday and once a month she and her husband would go to a dance at the old Upton Hospital. Iris, Bubbles and Kathleen remarked on how much easier it was to get around: ‘In the 1950s it cost tuppence to go by bus from Windsor to Slough. But there were far fewer buses and cars generally. There were lots of pubs in Oxford Road and Peascod Street, but they were only for men, not women!’
The results of the project
In June 2002 we were able to display some of the memories collected so far and pictures of many 1950s items at Windsor Arts Centre’s Fabulous Fifties Film Night. We were very pleased to be able to collaborate with Debbie Stubbs and the staff of Windsor Arts Centre by holding a small display of the Glory Days project in their foyer on the night of 22nd June, when they showed The African Queen. The 1950s dress kindly loaned by a member of the RBMC Friends was on display and those who came that evening enjoyed reminiscing before and after the film, prompted by some of the memories on show and of course the film itself!
A small number of items such as the Morphy Richards electric iron and coronation souvenirs were exhibited in the Local History Room at Town & Crown from September to December 2002, inspiring a drawing event in October as part of the Campaign for Drawings nationwide ‘Big Draw’.
The display panels with photographs shown at Windsor Arts Centre were loaned to the Charteris Day Centre in Eton briefly in October, which proved to be popular. We now have a number of tapes of recorded interviews and plenty of written information, which forms a fascinating archive from this project.
A key outcome from the Glory Days project has been the formation of a school loans box. The Royal Borough Museum Collection is currently making loans boxes of museum artefacts in collaboration with Reading Museum, who will administer their delivery to schools all over Berkshire. It was decided to put together a box on the 1950s as Reading Museum identified a lack of post war resources in their handling collections. A tape of 2 interviews with residents – Peggy (Windsor) and Valerie (Maidenhead) has been put together with a number of key objects given to the RBMC or already in the collection. We hope this box will provide a useful resource for teachers doing the national curriculum topic “Britain Since 1930”. Schools will be able to book our loans boxes online at Reading Museum’s website (www.readingmuseum.org.uk) from April 2003.
Working on the Glory Days project has been immensely enjoyable but it would not have been possible without all the volunteers who helped with interviewing people, loaning objects, making contact with groups, providing memories themselves and helping to promote the Royal Borough Museum Collection. I would like to thank the many people involved and hope that we can carry out a similar project in the future.
Olivia Gooden
Heritage Development Officer, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
Windsor Local History Group 