Misconception of the Fifties in the Famous Five Books

[Anita Bensoussane]

In the early 1950s, my maternal grandparents lived in a tiny tied cottage in Devon (my grandad did gardening, farming and maintenance on a country estate). They had two young children at the time and were to have two more later, but the cottage didn't even have a water supply - my grandad had to dig his own well. My mum has happy memories of playing in the large garden and eating home-cooked meals of stew and dumplings, etc. but it must have been a tough life for my grandparents, involving a great deal of physical hard work. They too had happy memories of that cottage though, and even went back to visit it when they were pensioners.

I've just found the account of his life that my grandad wrote. He has this to say about the tied cottage where he lived in the 1950s:

On leaving the submarines I started work on a farm in Devonshire for a very well off farmer called English who would not allow a tractor on the farm. It was all horsepower. I always laughed when she said you can't breed a tractor from another tractor, but you can breed a horse from another without any further expense. We rented a tumbledown cottage from her for 5/- per week. No water, no electric, no gas, no phone. I told her if she bought the straw reed I would get the local thatcher to learn me to thatch. I dug clay from a nearby stream, brought it to the cottage in a wheelbarrow. Within two weeks a complete new straw thatched roof. No stove to cook with, just a giant open fireplace seven feet wide. A crook up the open chimney. I bought a hot water boiler and three bradises [braziers?] to rest the cooking pots on over the open fire. I bought a cast iron kettle for making tea, cast iron saucepans and frying pan...

...In my garden I found a deep spring after testing with a hazel and willow twist stick. I dug a hole 17 feet deep in to the clay 6 feet by 6 wide. With stones from the river bed I stone walled the inside from bottom to top, made a very large oak frame to go over it, made two hinged doors from galvanised [sic] and covered it to protect. Dirt and leaves blew in. The waterflow so strong, I dug a ditch and the well water that overflowed day and night kept a large duck pond full and then overflowed into a stream at the bottom of the garden which then flowed into the River Torridge. Duck eggs for breakfast, rabbit for dinner...

...Our eldest two children were born in that little cottage a half a mile from any other person. Birds and wildlife, trees and hedges were all so lovely and the peace was so wonderful. No cars or aeroplanes to disturb the peacefulness of this area, heaven on earth.

I don't think many people living in the UK these days would dream of digging their own well, or know how to use hazel and willow to locate water. So much has changed in the last seventy years. Things have been gained but also lost, which I suppose is inevitable.

[Anita Bensoussane]

An interesting film, Viv. I've seen similar ones in the past, but not that exact one. At around 11.07 we see a woman cleaning the doorstep and hear a voice (her voice, I presume) talking about her family sleeping five to a bed when she was a child - "and the night men'd come and knock at the door, and if that man found three of us in that bed, my mother was brought to the court and fined five shillings, and you'd have to go out in the back yard, in the shivering cold, and sit in the lavatory till he went." The woman is talking about an earlier time, perhaps the 1910s or 1920s, but I hadn't heard of that before. Does anyone know anything more about these "night men" who apparently came into people's houses and checked their sleeping arrangements?

I think that is a reference to housing or child welfare inspectors, looking out for overcrowding

Because everyone knows that taking money away from struggling families is the best way to help them move into a larger home??

That's if they were lucky, because it could get far worse.

As I recall, the inspectors wouldn't see a crowded home and help the family find something bigger; rather, they could remove a couple of the children into 'care'.

This was an era when orphans could be relocated to Australia!

My grandad's account of his life contains some information about his childhood (he was born in 1924). The last part of what I'm quoting relates to what Viv said above:

Born in Devonshire in the 20's. My dad was a small farmer, mother a daughter of a racing family from Newmarket, Suffolk. Poor and humble, a poor start to life. Dad was a farm labourer, mum took in washing and did domestic labour at big houses and hotels.

Both lovely and caring parents. I am one of eight children. My mum and dad worked very hard seven days a week. I can't remember the right wages my dad received, I think it was £1-17-6. I know my mum got 11/- for all her jobs. The rent was 2/6 which if not paid by Saturday the owner gave us just one week to find another place to live...

...Hunger was the worst pain, no proper bedclothes on the beds, old coats, maybe an old army blanket. Water from an old lead pump in the middle of the village with a pipeline going down into a deep well...

...We had three bedrooms, we slept two at the top and two at the bottom of a cast iron bed which had a straw mattress on it...

...Dad grew all the vegetables needed for the family. He had two ferrets and lots of rabbit snares and a few gin traps. Rabbit was the main meat dinner. Most farmers would let two or three rabbit warrens for 5/- a year but if you gave the farmer half of what you caught he would give you 10/- each Xmas. We sold the skins on the market, also mole skins and any spare rabbits. There was no fridges or freezers in those days so everything was fresh killed meat. We used to have a double pig sty down the bottom, they was fatted and killed three weeks before Xmas. All the offal was turned into sausages and brawl hayslips [brawn haslets?] The meat treated with salt peter and salt, hung up the chimney and smoked. When completely cured it was hung on hooks on the ceiling ready for use when needed.

...Dad died when I was ten years old. Mum struggled to keep us on parish relief money, I think it was £1 5s 0d a week, but poverty took charge and we all were broken up and sent to different welfare homes all over the country. I called them poor kids work houses.

I know that my grandad was sent to a Dr. Barnardo's Home where he had a miserable life and was fed an extremely poor diet. Some of his brothers and sisters who were at different children's homes ended up in Australia and he never saw them again. I've read other accounts of children's homes, workhouses etc. and I hate the way families were broken up. It must have been absolutely heartbreaking.

[Debbie]

The price for groceries has tripled since the pandemic over here in the US.

I don't think things are quite as bad here, but food prices in the UK do seem to have gone up a lot more than the inflation rate of 10.7 - 11.1% that one hears about on the news. Obviously, the overall rate takes into account other goods such as clothes, stationery, household appliances, etc.


I prefer the look of older cars too, IceMaiden and Chrissie - especially ones with chrome features.

It's more than doubled for us.
In 2020 our normal supermarket shop we need to get to £40 to do click and collect. We rarely were much above that and often were on about the £38 mark and wondering what we could get to bump it up to £40.
Now our weekly shop is never under £80, and often will be around £100 mark. Part of that is that special offers (that we always tended to get a lot of) are a lot worse (things that used to be 3 for 2 are more like 3 for 50p off) but that isn't the only thing.

[GloomyGraham]

The price for groceries has tripled since the pandemic over here in the US.

I don't think things are quite as bad here, but food prices in the UK do seem to have gone up a lot more

Down here in Australia I would estimate supermarket prices have risen 30% since pre-covid days. For years I have checked out the weekly 'specials' of the major stores and usually only bought some items when they were half-price and (if long-life) stocked up them.

Covid/freight issues (and floods down here) have also meant some items have disappeared from the shelves of every store for numerous months.

I now feel I can empathise a little with those who suffered from war-time rationing in the past.

[Irene Malory Towers]

ON the whole I think the 50's were better for many people than for now. But there are some technology advances which I do love. My kindle for one even though I still prefer reading paperbacks or hardbacks where possible. But the kindle for me has opened up loads more reading as we just do not have the room to store books and although I will try and get them at the library they cannot always obtain them. And the internet is very much a mixed blessing. The quality of TV is so much worse now. I love the old programmes but i find the hey day of comedies was more in the 70s with the 2 Ronnies, Stanley Baxter etc. Perhaps it is because this is what I remember. As for music, don't get me started. Most pop music now don't have good tunes ! Yes I think going back to a previous comment one of the reasons I love Famous Five, Find Outers etc is that it portrays a nicer way of life.

[GloomyGraham]

ON the whole I think the 50's were better for many people than for now.

Yet thousands and thousands of Britons were emigrating to Australia, Canada and other Commonwealth countries (at least).

Even into the 60s where rationing had ended, shortages were lessening, TV was becoming more commonplace and the death of friends/family in WWII was not so fresh, the exodus continued.

[Chrissie777]

Personally, I'd say the best eras, for that balance, were around the 80's and early 90's. I'm aware, being born in the late 70's, that that was also my childhood so I may be biased, but I'd also say it was the time when technology reached a level for the average working class person that really improved the quality of life but without overly dominating it, and taking away jobs, etc, as it does now. And I'd say it was also around the point when the balance between moving away somewhat from the strict and middle / high class values being the societal norm was still at about an acceptable level of balance, before the inevitable swing too far the other way in this overly dumbed down, anti-traditional era we've got now.

Bertie, you are right. The 80's and 90's were very prosperous years with lots of raises and lots of long vacations for me.
After the millennium the economy went downhill and even the 35 hour work week didn't help with that.

[Chrissie777]

So let's face it, things aren't much different as far as diseases/illness are concerned. They will always happen.

And all research still hasn't found a cure for cancer.

[dsr]

Perhaps the greatest threat to a comfortable and prosperous future is overpopulation. The human population passed 8 billion last month, whereas there were only 2.5 billion of us in 1950!

And this is so hard for me to understand, because I took the birth control pill from December 1973 on for 30 years until I was 48 and had to stop taking it due to high blood pressure.
I wonder why so few women take advantage of the pill and still get 3 or 4 children?

The biggest single reason why people in poor countries have lots of children is because they have little or no old age pension and because they need children to look after them in their old age. And, of course, many of them die in poorer countries. As people and nations get richer, the population increase drops or turns into a decline.

And, of course, some women like children!

[dsr]

So let's face it, things aren't much different as far as diseases/illness are concerned. They will always happen.

And all research still hasn't found a cure for cancer.

To be fair, research has found lots of cures for cancer. not yet 100%, and it never will be, but survival rates are far higher than they were.

[dsr]

The price for groceries has tripled since the pandemic over here in the US.

I don't think things are quite as bad here, but food prices in the UK do seem to have gone up a lot more than the inflation rate of 10.7 - 11.1% that one hears about on the news. Obviously, the overall rate takes into account other goods such as clothes, stationery, household appliances, etc.


I prefer the look of older cars too, IceMaiden and Chrissie - especially ones with chrome features.

It's more than doubled for us.
In 2020 our normal supermarket shop we need to get to £40 to do click and collect. We rarely were much above that and often were on about the £38 mark and wondering what we could get to bump it up to £40.
Now our weekly shop is never under £80, and often will be around £100 mark. Part of that is that special offers (that we always tended to get a lot of) are a lot worse (things that used to be 3 for 2 are more like 3 for 50p off) but that isn't the only thing.

Food inflation to November 2022 is 16.4%. The previous year it was between 4 and 5%.

In the 1950's, the average household spent 33% of its income on food. Pre-covid, it was down to 8%. Now perhaps 9-10%. Food prices (or perhaps food prices relative to wages) are one of the areas where we are vastly better off now than then.

[Katharine]

And this is so hard for me to understand, because I took the birth control pill from December 1973 on for 30 years until I was 48 and had to stop taking it due to high blood pressure.
I wonder why so few women take advantage of the pill and still get 3 or 4 children?

I can only speak for myself, but I had 3 children because I WANTED them. I would have had a 4th, but sadly it wasn't meant to be. My ideal would have been 2 boys, 2 girls, and if a 4th pregnancy had been twins and I'd ended up with 5 then I wouldn't have minded. Personally that would have been my limit, but I know several families with 6 children and I always think how lovely it must be to have a larger family, especially now when I'm at an age where many of my friends are becoming grandparents, and so are enjoying the delights of babies and small children in their lives once again.

I don't remember a time in my life when I didn't want children, it was something I'd looked forward to from my childhood, motherhood for me certainly wasn't something to try and avoid.

[Boodi 2]

I agree Katherine,
and think you are lucky to have three children. We wanted a second child (and I know that my husband would have liked a daughter), but unfortunately it was not to be and I suffered a miscarriage, which was very upsetting and after that we did not try again, especially as we were already well over 30 years old when our son was born.

[Katharine]

Sorry to hear that Boodi, I know a lot of people in your position, and know how upsetting it is.

I do try and remember how lucky I am that I was able to have my 3 ok, rather than wishing I could have had another one (or two).

[Boodi 2]

Thanks Katherine!

That was a very grim time and it makes us treasure our son all the more. Ironically, the baby I lost was also a boy, so no doubt had I not suffered a miscarriage we would have tried for a third child in the hope of having a daughter.