1.3 Social developments, 1951-64

Question 1

When was the Festival of Britain? What did it symbolise?

Answer 1

1951 - modern world + edge of technological and social progress

Question 2

Men’s weekly wages 1951 to 1961

Answer 2

£8.30 in 1951 –> £15.35, 1961

Question 3

How did farmers do in the 50s? why?

Answer 3

very well economically - encouraged by continuation of generous state subsidies

Question 4

When did food rating completely end?

Answer 4

1954

Question 5

Between 1957 and 1959, how did the number of households owning a television rise?

Answer 5

rose by 32%

Question 6

By 1960, how many televisions sets were there in use?

Answer 6

10 million

Question 7

by 1960, what percentage of the population were estimated to watch television in the evening?

Answer 7

50%

Question 8

Boom in car ownership - how did car ownership rise between 1957 and 1959?

Answer 8

rose by 25%

Question 9

When did construction of the motorway system begin? What was it called?

Answer 9

1958, with the Preston bypass

Question 10

Between 1957 and 1963, how many miles of new or upgraded new roads were completed?

Answer 10

1200 miles of new or upgraded main roads

Question 11

Holiday camps reached their peak of popularity in the 50s - how many people holidayed each week with Butlins?

Answer 11

60,000

Question 12

What percentage of people went on foreign holidays?

Answer 12

2%

Question 13

at the 1951 election, what percentage of working class voters voted for Labour?

Answer 13

65%

Question 14

at the 1951 election, what percentage of middle class voters voted for Conservative?

Answer 14

80%

Question 15

What did the Suez Crisis help to cause?

Answer 15

1956 - exposed blatant lying + manipulation from government –> loss of deference

Question 16

What did the rise of the CND from 1958 help to cause?

Answer 16

encouraged tendency to challenge authority - Britain becoming more individualist and less conformist society

Question 17

How did the press coverage of the Profumo affair show the loss of deference?

Answer 17

popular press investigated sexual + private behaviour of prominent figures

Question 18

by 1960, ‘satire boom’ - examples of satire

Answer 18

stage show: Beyond the Fringe
magazine: Private Eye
1962, BBC That Was The Week That Was

Question 19

example of ‘angry young men’ writers

Answer 19

Look Back in Anger play by John Osborne, staged in 1956

Question 20

What was the average age of marriage in the 50s?

Answer 20

21 years old

Question 21

what percentage of all women were married?

Answer 21

75%

Question 22

how many women went out to work in 1951?

Answer 22

1 in 5

Question 23

What was the family allowance?

Answer 23

a weekly benefit paid for each child in a family (renamed child benefit in 1977)

Question 24

What was family allowance supposed to ensure?

Answer 24

paid to women, supposed to ensure that women did not need to work

Question 25

In whose names were mortgages and bank accounts in?

Answer 25

men’s names - making women largely financially dependent on husbands

Question 26

Improvements in law for women working

Answer 26

equal pay for teachers (1952)
and for civil servants (1954)

Question 27

Between 1957 and 1959, how did the number of households owning a washing machine increase? refrigerator?

Answer 27

1957-1959
washing machine: +54%
refrigerator: +58%

Question 28

from 1948, how many immigrants arrived in Britain from the Caribbean and other parts of the New Commonwealth?

Answer 28

about 250,000

Question 29

By 1958, how many Commonwealth immigrants had settled in Britain?

Answer 29

about 210,000 - largest number from Caribbean, numbers from India and Pakistan beginning to rise

Question 30

immigration vs emigration in the 1950s

Answer 30

received total of 676,000 immigrants
1.32 million Britons left

Question 31

immigration vs emigration in the 1960s

Answer 31

immigration: 1.25 million
emigration: 1.92 million

Question 32

where and when did white youths target black people in attacks

Answer 32

Aug 1958 in Nottingham

Question 33

When were the Notting Hill riots?

Answer 33

late August 1958

Question 33

what extreme right wing politician encouraged hostility towards African-Caribbeans

Answer 33

Oswald Mosley

Question 34

When was the Commonwealth Immigrants Act?

Answer 34

1962

Question 35

what did the Commonwealth Immigrants Act do?

Answer 35

• to regulate the number of Commonwealth immigrants
• to give the courts power to recommend deportation of those immigrants of less than five years’ standing convicted of offences and subject to a term of imprisonment.

Question 36

When did National Service end?

Answer 36

1960

Question 37

survey in 1959 - how many teenagers in Britain?

Answer 37

5 million - about 10% of the population

Question 38

youth subculture in early 1950s

Answer 38

Teddy boys

Question 39

youth subculture in later 1950s

Answer 39

Rockers, then Mods

Question 40

what social taboos did A Taste of Honey, a play by Shelagh Delaney, break down?

Answer 40

told story of young unmarried women who becomes pregnant after relationship with a black sailor

Question 40

When was The Lady Chatterley Trial? (R v Penguin Books Ltd)

Answer 40

1960 - high-profile court case under the Obscenity Act - Penguin won the case and 2 million copies of the book were sold

Question 41

What figure led the backlash against the new ‘immorality and depravity’?

Answer 41

Mary Whitehouse