Shropshire Magazine

Vehicle ownership has revolutionised our roads. A view west along the old A5 at Ketley around 1950 shows a rather different picture to the familiar logjam regularly enacted nowadays on the M54 just a few hundred yards to the south of that scene.

Clearly, many things have changed for the better over six decades, says Neil Thomas. But then again . . .

Shropshire’s bucolic beauty is often referred to as timeless. Yet the county of today has changed a good deal from the one which saw the birth of The Shropshire Magazine in 1950.

An obvious difference is that there are simply far more people.

The 1951 census revealed that there were just under 290,000 people living here whereas next year’s count is likely to show a figure climbing beyond 450,000.

Many of the adults in that figure drive cars, whereas motorists would have been in a distinct minority back in 1950.

Many roads in the county take volumes of traffic that were never envisaged when they were built. New highways have been constructed to help take the strain. In 1950, for instance, there was no M6 or M1, never mind an M54. There were no bypasses at Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Market Drayton or for villages like Hodnet and Nesscliffe. But, then, none were really needed. Not only were family cars a rarity but much freight was still transported by rail.

Ah, the railways. In 1950 it would be 13 years before Dr Richard Beeching, chairman of the Railways Board, published his controversial report which led to the scrapping of thousands of miles of track across the country. Thus, in 1950 there were still stations at places like Oswestry, Market Drayton, Ellesmere and Much Wenlock.

Whether by rail or road, no one would have talked of travelling to Telford — because there was no such place.

The new town which was to encompass places as diverse as Wellington, Ironbridge, Dawley and Madeley, would not be created until the following decade and the  indoor shopping mall we know today did not take shape until many years beyond that.

Across the county there were pubs, post offices and schools that have disappeared into the mists of time. Conversely, though, there are also many schools that are here now but weren’t around then, for free universal education was a relatively new concept following the 1944 Butler Act.

Many small shops have gone, unable to compete with giant supermarket chains and out-of-town retail parks. Today we load our shopping trolleys from shelves stacked high with food from across the globe and we never imagine it could run out, yet in 1950 housewives (for women predominantly did the family shopping) still had ration books and would until 1954. Now we source ingredients from all over the world and cook the cuisine of countless countries — back then,the war had seen cooking replaced by making do.

Credit card

Today, of course, many of us pay for the weekly shop by credit card but, although they were introduced into the USA in 1950 it would be another 17 years before Barclaycard rolled out the first scheme in the UK.

In 1950 people were still getting used to the idea of free acute medical care, for the National Health service was only two years old. Many towns still had their own cottage hospitals while Shropshire’s main emergency and general hospital was The Royal Salop Infirmary in the centre of Shrewsbury, nowadays a shopping mall and apartments.

A picture loaned by Peter Morgan of Hope Bowdler shows a local agricultural scene from around 1950.

Despite being the birthplace of the industrial revolution, Shropshire would have been a largely agricultural county in 1950. Commerce, industry and the professions were largely male dominated, for the women’s movement would not start to gather pace until the following decade. The trend was for girls to stay at home and raise the family, rather than seek out careers. The women of today who juggle both would have been a rarity back in 1950.

Culturally, there was Shrewsbury Flower Show and the West Mid Agricultural Show but no Ludlow Festival.

On the sporting front, fans of Shrewsbury Town were still watching their football at homely Gay Meadow — though in the early part of 1950 it was non-league football. Town were to win the Midland League that year and and enter the Football League where, for all but a season, they have been ever since.

Football at Shrewsbury’s Gay Meadow is no more . . .

In 1950, Telford United was known as Wellington Town and was a hugely successful Cheshire League side, having won the championship in 1946 and 1947 before going on to win it again in 1952.

In 1950 the national anthem was God Save The King, for George Vl was on the throne and our Queen would not begin her long reign for another two years.

As today, a London Olympic Games was two years away, though in 1950 it was looking back to 1948 rather than forward.

And just like now there was a General Election. In the poll on February 23 — where the turnout was just under 84 per cent compared to around 61 per cent in 2005 — the incumbent Labour government, under sitting Prime Minister Clement Atlee, won an overall majority of five seats. This was clearly unworkable as the nation went to the polls again in the autumn of 1951, where the turnout was just under 83 per cent. The Conservatives won a majority of 16 seats and formed the government, despite polling fewer votes overall than Labour, a clear indictment of the first-past-the-post system.

There were, of course, no television debates. In fact, the ability to be good on television was largely irrelevant since few people owned a set. The new Prime Minister in 1951 was 76 years old, overweight and bald and with very little of what today passes for showbiz charisma. But when it comes to statesmanship, would today’s candidates for the role of premier stand comparison? The country knew exactly what it was getting in 1951 — a man who had led and inspired his nation through its darkest hour.

Sir Winston Churchill.

The 1950 shopper would be bemused by today’s out-of-town shopping developments.