Welcome to our siteThis site is for anyone who is remotely interested in the culture and history of Wolverhampton, particularly during the period of 1950's and 1960's. Do you remember Preedys, the Home and Colonial or the Royal hospital or the Art college or been able to drive the full length of Dudley street? If so you probably think as we do that the town lost more than it gained in its search for progress. I was lucky, i lived in the town before it was virtually destroyed by the Ring road and other stupid ideas by the local authority of the time. I, like most of my generation grew up in a relatively safe town, a town we were proud of. A town where we could work and play, wanting for very little. This is a new site so please let me have your memories, photographs etc On this site you will find pictures, video and music of the time plus memories contributed by friends of the site. Frank Batkin A facebook page has opened about the town, "does anyone remember the club lafayette" this can be found at www.facebook.com just type in the name in the facebook search box.
May i express my sincere thanks to all contributers to this site, if you recognise anyone in the town photo's or video's please let us know. this is a non profit site, we exist purely to keep memories of the town alive and to remember where we came from. The towns people One of todays "buzzwords" is Multiculturalism. To the good folk of Wolverhampton this is nothing new. The first influx of a wider population came during the Industrial revolution. The population grew rapidly to fuel the need for workers in the new factories that were springing up in the town. During the second world war the town played host to many displaced people, Poles, Dutch and many others, who stayed on afterwards finding work in the town and contributing to its character. The town has always had a Jewish population too. There is also quite a large Irish population, the Irish having their own club in the town. Over the years they have made a sizeable contribution to the town. Some were descendants of the "Navvies" who built the canals and railways, others came to escape civil unrest in their own land or simply seeking work. Amongst this mix was a strong Welsh community, most having arrived to work in the mines and steel works of the town and surrounding areas. With independence on the Indian sub continent and parts of Africa, the 50's and 60's saw a massive increase in immigration, an issue greatly debated by the towns then MP, Enoch Powell. The above You tube video shows the Wolves winning the 1960 FA cup final. At the end of the film you can see Wolverhampton town centre as it appeared in 1960. Remember to disable the song playing on this page by hitting the pause or stop button on the audio player. Were you in the crowd or at the match? Anyone who can provide pictures or memories for these pages would be most welcome. I have only just begun this site and need all the help i can get. Of course i will give full credit for photographs and memories submitted. I have included music of the period on the site, please let me have suggestions for what you would like to hear. I can handle most file types so if you can send me music files, video or any other files they would be welcome. Below, the old GWR low level station  |
 Above, the coat of arms of Wolverhampton. Motto "out of darkness cometh light' Life in post war Wolverhampton was very different to today. In 1950 the second world war had only been over for 5 years and we were the first post war generation. Our families were still getting over the effects of the war. Until the mid 50's sugar was still rationed and most work was not well paid. In 1965 the average wage was 20 pounds a week. I remember there were some men who were so badly affected by the war that they never fully recovered, for instance there was a character who would be walking along the road and begin to throw imaginery hand grenades. For ordinary people the 50's were a time of Austerity, a time of low expectations despite prime minister Harold Macmillan's saying "you never had it so good". A time when you learnt not to ask for more as you knew you had as little or no chance of getting it. No A such things as i pads, mobile phones, facebook or atime when we were probably healthier as a nation. It was only a few years since the birth of the health service and nationalisation of the railways. A time when there was just one tv channel, the BBC, in glorious black and white on channel 4, channel 8 been reserved for ITV which would come later. In those days TV was on the VHF band with 405 lines making up the picture. Despite these difficulties, i think people were far happier with their lot than today. Wolverhampton with its many industries was a town of full employment and apart from the odd drunk on a friday night, relatively crime free. Social engineering A certain amount of "social engineering" went on during the 50's and 60's. The cost of building housing estates like Castlecroft, Finchfield and Tettenhall Wood were pretty expensive so someone took the decizion to build upwards instead of outwards resulting in the Graiseley, Dudley Road and Heath town flats. It is noticeable that with the exception of Heath town (which was modified) the other flats were either demolished or partly demolished within 40 years of their being built. Social engineering also took place in Schools of the town with the acquisition of places like the Regis school (which originally came under Staffordshire) the governments "Comprehensiive" system was brought into play. Now i am not saying all these things were bad for us but i wonder how the people of the town would have been without this interference in their life or town. Interactive Map of today's Wolverhampton from Google. |
|
build 01.3/8/`11.fdb. Mod 11/2012, updates, page added plus error correction. |
||
