0:00:29 > 0:00:32Although the war ended in 1945,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35it was still another nine years before rationing was stopped.
0:00:37 > 0:00:38For many young people
0:00:38 > 0:00:43the austerity that had seeped into everyday life was stifling.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45By the late '50s,
0:00:45 > 0:00:51the majority of youngsters who'd left school at 15 had jobs and money in their pockets,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55and were keen to break away from the conformity of the austerity years,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59forming a subculture, which became known as Mod.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Mitchell is 15 and from Walsall near Birmingham.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Two of his family were mods.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Darts has always been my main sporting passion.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15My grandad was a great darts player, but never actually went into it.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19It's pure skill and if you're good, you'll win.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21My other passion is probably music,
0:01:21 > 0:01:23which has been passed down from my dad.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Some of it has really sunk in on me and had a real impact on my life.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29I know my nan was a mod in the '60s.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32And I'd like to know about the original mods and find out more about those.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35MUSIC: "Keep on Running" by The Spencer Davis Group
0:01:35 > 0:01:37# Keep on running
0:01:38 > 0:01:40# Keep on hiding...#
0:01:40 > 0:01:43In the late '50s, groups of youngsters in London
0:01:43 > 0:01:49were influenced by modernist architecture and jazz and Italian and French fashions.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55They started to call themselves modernists, later shortened to mod,
0:01:55 > 0:02:00as what began as an in-crowd cult developed into a mass movement.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04The original mod movement
0:02:04 > 0:02:07ran for about a decade until the late '60s.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Mitchell's Grandma Jackie was a Walsall mod
0:02:13 > 0:02:17and a regular at Bloxwich Baths dances where local bands played.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20POP MUSIC
0:02:22 > 0:02:23Looks...bigger now.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27You've got to remember when we used to come and it used to be packed.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32You aren't just going to an ordinary dance hall, you'd go in
0:02:32 > 0:02:34and there'd be other mods and that there.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38- Do you know what I mean?- Yeah. - So...yeah. Yeah. God!
0:02:40 > 0:02:42I think I was about 15 there.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47I used to do her hair and me own hair, cos I used to enjoy it.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50I wanted to be a hairdresser, but I never did.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53And me hair, now that's what they call the bob, you know?
0:02:53 > 0:02:55And now the bob's still about today.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Vidal Sassoon done that and Mary Quant.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03It's quite a weird hairstyle, was that like the norm back then or...?
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Oh, yeah, that was... Whatever was in,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11whether it was long or short, I used to have it.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14I mean, one time I went out with me hair all on me shoulders
0:03:14 > 0:03:18and I came back with blonde hair and cut very short.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21So you imagine me going out with hair all down here
0:03:21 > 0:03:24and then coming back home and I've got none on me head!
0:03:24 > 0:03:25SHE LAUGHS
0:03:25 > 0:03:31But me dad, he said I'd made a mess of it. He said to me mum, "You shouldn't have let her done it."
0:03:31 > 0:03:33Me mum said, "I didn't know she was having it done!"
0:03:33 > 0:03:36But after...after a bit of time,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39- they got used to it and they liked it.- Yeah.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41- And then I let it grow! - SHE LAUGHS
0:03:43 > 0:03:45# It's in my soul
0:03:45 > 0:03:49# Yeah, yeah, yeah! #
0:03:49 > 0:03:51You wouldn't bother, you wouldn't care!
0:03:51 > 0:03:55You wouldn't bother whether you looked soft or whether you looked... You wouldn't bother.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58It was just that you was in that moment of enjoying yourself.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01That's what it was, it was enjoying yourself.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Mitchell wants to know how Jackie,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08who left school at 15 with no qualifications,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11was able to finance this lifestyle.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18On leaving school, Jackie found work immediately in a local factory.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21For a time she worked at the family-run Crabtree's,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25which employed thousands of local women making light switches.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28With a thriving post-war economy,
0:04:28 > 0:04:34unemployment nationally stood at just 1%, compared to over 8% today.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43Mitchell's looking into the Wolverhampton Express and Star's archives
0:04:43 > 0:04:45to find out just how plentiful jobs were.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49I was initially sceptical.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53You look at them and you go through especially Monday articles,
0:04:53 > 0:04:57cos it's the start of the week, you see pages and pages of jobs.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59And not just the same jobs, different jobs.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Jobs for absolutely any...work or trade you like.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07You've got draughtsmen, you've got salesmen, you've got clerks,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10you've got cleaners, absolutely anything.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14So I think really, they are right, you can walk into one job
0:05:14 > 0:05:17any day you like, in all fairness.
0:05:17 > 0:05:18So...
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Next, Mitchell tracks down another Walsall mod, Dave,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26who travelled slightly further afield than Jackie.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I was working at the time as a warehouseman.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I was doing a 42.5 hour week.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34It wasn't interesting work, cos you knew
0:05:34 > 0:05:36what you was going to do from day to day.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Some days you'd think, "Oh, why am I here?
0:05:39 > 0:05:41"Why am I here? Why am I doing this?"
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Yeah, but if you was going somewhere at the weekend,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46or you was going to see a group or something, you'd think,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49"Oh, I'll be glad when the weekend's here!"
0:05:49 > 0:05:51It was an escape, weren't it?
0:05:51 > 0:05:55- When did you buy your scooter then, in '65?- I bought it in '66.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01You've got your independence.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04You don't have to wait on buses and that, you just go outside your house,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07start it up and you're away, aren't you?
0:06:09 > 0:06:12So what attracted you to be a mod, then?
0:06:12 > 0:06:15It's being an individual. You know, everybody can wear a uniform,
0:06:15 > 0:06:20everybody can look the same, but to be something slightly different.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24I come into modernism probably '65.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27So what were your main interests at the time as a mod, then?
0:06:27 > 0:06:29- Basically, the clothes you could wear.- Yeah.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33Cos I used to like to wear updated fashion, shall we say.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Every so often we'd go down to London
0:06:35 > 0:06:39- and get what you could afford down there.- Yeah.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Carnaby Street.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Lord John was a big fashion shop down there.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47- It was like a different world.- Yeah.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51You'd look around and some of the clothes you'd see, "I ain't seen that before!"
0:06:51 > 0:06:55- Yeah.- And then sometimes you'd go and ask somebody, "Where did you get that from?"
0:06:55 > 0:06:58You know, and you'd just be... And most of the time, they wouldn't tell you,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01- cos they wanted to be individual theirselves!- Yeah.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03- That's a very mod neck.- No.- No?
0:07:03 > 0:07:06No, a rollneck's all right. It's got a suede front on, it's different.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09- Yeah, that's true.- This is great. I like this.
0:07:09 > 0:07:15- If I left a deposit for that, John, can I come back next week?- Yeah, certainly.- Is that OK?- Yeah.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Mitchell's meeting Professor Keith Gildart
0:07:18 > 0:07:22to find out what happened to the movement.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Commercialisation was a crucial aspect of the development of the mod movement.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30And you can trace this through the way in which mod
0:07:30 > 0:07:33becomes more prominent in the media.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37So using the term "mod" to sell things and trying to exploit it,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40because they see this as a way of making money.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42Once mod becomes national,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45some of the original mods begin to break away from it and say,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48"How can it be an individual fashion statement
0:07:48 > 0:07:51when there's thousands of people involved in it?"
0:07:51 > 0:07:53I'm not a mod myself, I wouldn't call myself a mod.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56- Would you call yourself an ex-mod? - An ex-mod, certainly, yeah.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59- Ex-convicts.- I would say that.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01We've sort of progressed out of that stage.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Well, what was a mod when he existed, then?
0:08:03 > 0:08:05- Well, he was someone...- A person
0:08:05 > 0:08:07who wanted to be different from somebody else.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Wanted to show a rebelliation against something, you know, and he wanted to be different.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13But now, he's the same as everybody else,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16so he's sort of grown out of that stage and looking for something new.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21So what is your personal opinion on movements like the mod movement?
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Well, historians take kind of two sides to this.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29And some historians have argued that commercialisation
0:08:29 > 0:08:35and the way in which the capitalism of popular culture develops after the Second World War,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37saps the energies of young people.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42They would argue that they're less likely to rebel if they're listening to records in their bedrooms.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45MUSIC: "Green Onions" by Booker T & The MG's
0:08:45 > 0:08:48Other historians think that mod
0:08:48 > 0:08:52acted as a kind of alternative education to many young people,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56who might have felt failed by the education system,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58might have left school at 15 or 16.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02But through involvement in a youth subculture like mod,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06that was a kind of alternative type of education.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Now when I look at somebody in their 60s or 70s,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14I won't just think that their life has been boring.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18I'll look at them and I'll think, "They could have been a mod."
0:09:18 > 0:09:22I can look at my nan now and know that she's had an amazing life
0:09:22 > 0:09:25and that she's done something for herself.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28And I know she's got so much potential that hasn't been tapped into,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31but she's had a great time in the '60s
0:09:31 > 0:09:34and she's been part of something national.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37And that's an amazing thing to be able to stand back and say.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56In the 1960s, people in the East End of London
0:09:56 > 0:10:00were still living with the consequences of the Second World War.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06The East End had been badly bombed because the Port of London
0:10:06 > 0:10:10handled most of the goods that came in and out of the country.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17By the 1960s, much of the bomb damage had yet to be cleared,
0:10:17 > 0:10:21and thousands of families struggled in sub-standard housing.
0:10:22 > 0:10:2415-year-old Nicole
0:10:24 > 0:10:27has a special reason to want to know more about the area.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32My grandfather grew up in the East End of London,
0:10:32 > 0:10:37he became a photographer and I'd like to find out a bit more about his job
0:10:37 > 0:10:39and the history of the East End of London.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Nicole's grandad, Steve,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46worked as a photographer on the Ilford Recorder.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51In those days thriving local newspapers like The Recorder
0:10:51 > 0:10:53campaigned for social change.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59So what sort of things were happening at that time
0:10:59 > 0:11:01that you found interesting?
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Obviously, being in the East End of London, there was a lot of what we'd call "hard news".
0:11:05 > 0:11:08There were bank robberies, there were murders,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10there were all sorts of things like that.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Although you weren't working on a national newspaper,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17some of the stories we did were very hard hitting.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Housing was a big problem.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24It says here that there were 23 men, women and children
0:11:24 > 0:11:27were living in that one house.
0:11:27 > 0:11:33The headline, "Close down these awful homes," that's what we were trying to get them to do.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38"This lady here, pictured with her five children in the bedroom,
0:11:38 > 0:11:43"she has to share with three of them and she's hoping to be rehoused."
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Now, that particular place, we actually got that closed down.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52We did the last families that were living in Nissen huts.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56They'd been built by the Italian prisoners of war.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01Nissen huts were temporary homes made from corrugated iron sheets.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Could you imagine a bomb hitting your row of houses,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and then the council coming along and they put you in a Nissen hut,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11saying that you were only going to be there for a short time.
0:12:11 > 0:12:1525 years later...these people were still living in there.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20And this was an area that we were always going back to in West Ham
0:12:20 > 0:12:23called Manor Road Buildings.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28We were trying to show there that these families were trapped families who just exist,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32because there was just nowhere for them to go.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36And right next to there...was this bomb site
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and that was their playing area.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Nicole has come to speak to Ann and her daughter Debbie,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47who were photographed by Steve in 1968,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50when Debbie was just four years old.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53They still live in the East End.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55What jobs did you and your husband have?
0:12:55 > 0:12:59My husband worked down the dock, it was the Royal Albert Dock.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03And you could only get in the docks if it ran through the family,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07cos you had to have the docker's card to get a job in there.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Everyone in this area of sort of East London,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12all the men were dockers.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16They used to have to stand on the cobbles early in the morning and wait to be called out.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19And if you weren't called, then you didn't get no work.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22- You didn't get no work.- You know, that's how it worked.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Employment in Britain's ports was casualised,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31which meant workers were employed on a daily basis
0:13:31 > 0:13:36and dockers received no compensation for industrial accidents or death at work.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Dad thought that was unfair,
0:13:40 > 0:13:44so he set up what they called like a distress fund for the dockers.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46So like everyone was entitled to it.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49And my dad done that for years and years.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53- It was a close community the dockers, Deb, wasn't it?- Yeah.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55All the dockers always stuck together.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59- Can you remember what you said this day?- Not really, no.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02- What did I say?- It says here that you said,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06"How can you bring up kids properly in a dump like this?"
0:14:06 > 0:14:11- Did I really? Hm. Is that what I said? - SHE LAUGHS
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Well, it was rough round there, Debbie, wasn't it?
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Yeah, it was rough, but as kids we enjoyed it.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20CHILDREN'S VOICES
0:14:20 > 0:14:25Downstairs was the back yard where everyone...hung their clothes,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27but we used to play down there.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31We used to have ropes hanging from the balconies, so we could swing at the bottom.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34We used to play Tim Tam Tommy, that was with an old tin.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38- We used to find old mattresses and pile 'em up.- And jump off 'em.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42And we used to jump from the shed onto the mattresses and do somersaults.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46We used to play in derelict cars, there was always dumped cars.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49We made our own play.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Ann had a job as a barmaid
0:14:53 > 0:14:56and was able to leave the children with her neighbour.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59And that was our next-door neighbour, Hazel.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01They used to run in and out of her house.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04- Hazel sort of looked after yous, didn't she?- Yeah.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07When I was at work. I didn't just go out and leave 'em.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Hazel...Hazel was the main one that used to look out for us.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14If we wanted anything, we'd go to her.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18- She gave 'em something to eat. - And she'd give us something to eat and drink.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24And, you know, if we happened to fall over or hurt ourselves or anything, she was there.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26She was our mum while our mum was at work.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32The only ones that was overcrowded was with people that had loads of kids.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35So, obviously, they felt they was overcrowded
0:15:35 > 0:15:40and it weren't fit enough for them to live in, but we lived fine.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42I mean, I can remember our house being nice,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44- it was always nice and clean.- Yeah.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46You was a very clean person.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48But then you had the families that weren't,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51but they were the families with loads of kids.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Nicole wants to know more about the campaigning role of local papers
0:15:58 > 0:16:01and has come to meet her grandad's colleague,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04former news editor, Geoff Compton, to find out more.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Geoff was born in West Ham,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12where half the houses, including his own, were bombed.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16This was probably the most pressing issue,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19it's one that we returned to week after week.
0:16:19 > 0:16:25We were constantly beating the drum for better accommodation,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29for action by the local authority to...to do more.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Of course, their hands were tied,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33because they in turn were receiving money from the government.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36And although Britain was on the winning side in the war,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38the country was pretty broke.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Ann, who I met who lived in one of these flats,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45it said that she said that the place was really bad,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47but when we asked her about this,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51she actually told me that the housing was actually all right.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Well, this particular building,
0:16:54 > 0:16:58Manor Road Buildings, they had a very bad reputation.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01I mean, they were fairly poor these families,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04had very little of anything.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07The accommodation itself probably wasn't that bad,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11but there was a kind of stigma attached to actually being there.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Ann talked a lot about the docks,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20- she mentioned that you wouldn't know if you were going to get a job.- No.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24You'd queue up and they'd pick people for the job.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28That's right. And my grandfather was one of those men.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30It was a very, very tough system.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32They used to call it "the lump".
0:17:32 > 0:17:35And men would actually turn up in the morning,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39they'd form a crowd and the overseer would come out and he would say,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44"Right, I want you, you, you and you. And the rest, you can go home."
0:17:44 > 0:17:47So there was a terrible, terrible uncertainty.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51You know, the families at home wouldn't know whether the father,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56the husband, was going to bring home a wage that day or that week.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58It was a very precarious existence.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03The conditions in the docks were very, very hard.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05Men worked manually,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09they did very, very long hours lifting very, very heavy weights.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14There wasn't very much attention to their safety, their health,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17so it was a very, very tough life.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22As a result of this, there was a lot of union activity in the docks,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24there were lots of disputes.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27There was a famous union leader called Jack Dash,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30who I spoke to on many, many occasions,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32who was really fighting for better conditions
0:18:32 > 0:18:34for the working man in the docks.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37This didn't make him very popular with the government,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41but he was certainly a champion of ordinary working men.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46The things I've found out from my grandad and Geoff
0:18:46 > 0:18:50were more negative things about the East End,
0:18:50 > 0:18:55like the poor housing conditions and bad conditions for the dockers.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Before, I'd been told stuff like The Swinging '60s,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03and they made me think differently from that.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Ann and Debbie, they told me a lot more positive things,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11like helping out to look after children for free,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15like setting up a dockers fund...just to help the community.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20They are forgetting some of the negative things,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23but I do believe that the community was close
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and people did a lot of things for each other.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42Woman of 1950.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47What does it mean in 20th-century Britain to be a woman?
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Can she develop her individual talents?
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Can she help to create the kind of society she wants?
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Or does she still look upon marriage
0:19:55 > 0:19:57as the sole purpose of her existence?
0:19:58 > 0:20:02After the war, the British economy required women to work
0:20:02 > 0:20:08in low and semi-skilled jobs due to the boom in British manufacturing.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11However, for most women in the 1950s
0:20:11 > 0:20:13the role of homemaker and mother
0:20:13 > 0:20:16ranked higher than that of career woman.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20Amba's 15 and from Isleworth in West London.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22BIG BAND MUSIC
0:20:23 > 0:20:25I've learnt about women
0:20:25 > 0:20:27and what their lives were like during this period,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29but I'd like to learn more about their work.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36I'd like to start by speaking to my great-grandmother, Betty,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39about how she lived during this time.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42# Straighten up and fly right!
0:20:42 > 0:20:45# Straighten up and fly right! #
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Betty Dodd was born in 1921.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52She left school at 14 and worked almost continuously
0:20:52 > 0:20:56until she was 55 in two processed-food factories.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03- I was about 15.- Oh, my age.- 15, yeah. Yeah, about your age, yeah.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06- Imagine me working in a factory! - Yeah.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Yeah, 15.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14That's where we done the cheeses, little portions of cheeses.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Oh, and we done salad cream there as well, I'd forgot about that.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20We done salad cream.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Yeah. And you had to be very quick at it or the bottles used to break.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27They were all friends there.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31You got a little bit more money than what you did in a shop.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35What did you make in the Wall's factory?
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Erm...in Wall's, we done sausages and bacon...pies.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45We weighed them and then scaled 'em, linked 'em,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48and then, you know, wrapped 'em up.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53When Betty married at 17 in 1938,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56she continued to work full-time.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59She returned to work part-time in 1947,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02when her son was five years old.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04We wanted things for the home,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09so I went to work to get a little bit extra for the home.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12What was the biggest thing you bought with your money that you earnt?
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Ooh, blimey!
0:22:14 > 0:22:18Well, it was like washing machines and...fridges and that,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21cos they were very expensive in those days.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24They were like an electric washing machine,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28but then they had a wringer and you had to wring that by hand.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Then it'd go in the sink and you had to rinse it. Yeah.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36We both sort of helped to pay for the car.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Did you purchase it from hire purchase?
0:22:39 > 0:22:43No, cos we didn't believe in...getting in debt.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46So we used to save up and then buy it.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Why did you choose to go part-time?
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Well, it was handy for me,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57cos him going to school and then I was home when he come home.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01Hm. I didn't want to work full-time, it was too much,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05looking after a house... and a family.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Did you get paid the same as the men?
0:23:08 > 0:23:11No. Men got a little bit more than what women did.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Do you think that was fair?
0:23:14 > 0:23:17That was the way it was in those days, yes.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19BIG BAND MUSIC
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Amba wants to know how typical her nan's experiences were,
0:23:24 > 0:23:29and is meeting a specialist in women's studies, Dr Claire Langhamer.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34For most women, the expectation was
0:23:34 > 0:23:38that they would work once they left school for a period of time,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42but then they would marry, have a family,
0:23:42 > 0:23:44and that that would be their primary job.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47So, as you say, your nan thinking that her job was being a housewife,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49- a housewife and a mother.- Yeah.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51I think that was the expectation.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55And that doesn't mean that they didn't work outside the home,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57as your nan's experience shows,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01but that that was something they did to benefit the family.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Amba's interested to know about the challenges faced by women wanting a career,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10so she's going to see 82-year-old Patricia Barrett,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13who left school to work as a clerk in a city bank
0:24:13 > 0:24:15and chose not to marry.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19I really wanted to be an architect,
0:24:19 > 0:24:25but my father was all for having a safe job for his daughter,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29because he had come through the depression years
0:24:29 > 0:24:33when lots of people lost their jobs and he kept his.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38And so he felt that to go into a similar bank to the one he was in,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41would be much better for me.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48- Did you stay in banking? - Yes, for 34-and-a-half years.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52- So erm...- Was that what you'd wanted to do or was that just...?
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Well, it became so. You got used to it
0:24:55 > 0:25:01and felt that perhaps the aspirations to be an architect receded,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03but it took a bit of time.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07When you're not very happy you think, "Well, never mind,
0:25:07 > 0:25:12"when I get out I'm going to play tennis or be on the river."
0:25:12 > 0:25:16So you thought about that when you were filing or doing something boring.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23Were married women treated any differently to single women
0:25:23 > 0:25:26in the bank where you worked?
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Yes, they most certainly were,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31because once they went away to get married,
0:25:31 > 0:25:38they either resigned or they were re-employed on a temporary basis.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43I stressed to the management that I was making it a career
0:25:43 > 0:25:45- and it wasn't just filling in time. - Yeah.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47I mean, by then they must have realised
0:25:47 > 0:25:49I wasn't going to go away and get married.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53But, even so, I didn't want to have a sort of dead-end job,
0:25:53 > 0:25:59I wanted to...well, ascend the ladder, however high I could get.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02Though Patricia did ascend the ladder
0:26:02 > 0:26:07to become a section head within the bank's securities department,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10her gender caused her to be overlooked for foreign postings.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15This is a garden party...for the Mercantile Bank,
0:26:15 > 0:26:16which was my first bank.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19There were wives and children, as you see,
0:26:19 > 0:26:24and the building in the background was actually a rather posh hostel
0:26:24 > 0:26:27for all these young men who were going east.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31And so they had, you know, they'd come from different parts of the country,
0:26:31 > 0:26:33they could stay there.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37And so they had grounds. There we were, that's me.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39- There's my best summer frock! - Oh, yeah.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42- Nice dress!- Yes. - PATRICIA LAUGHS
0:26:43 > 0:26:49They had to be trained in London and then they had to do their banker's exams,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53which the girls didn't have to do, it was not a compulsory bit.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57I cheerfully thought, "I'll be doing my banker's exams!"
0:26:57 > 0:27:00But I was told not to worry about that and so I never did.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Did men get paid the same amount?
0:27:03 > 0:27:06No, it was not equal pay in those days.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09- Was that something you were upset about?- No.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13No, you accepted it, because that was the norm.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16In every field...men got more than women.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20- For the same job?- Yes. Yes.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22I think we were fairly...
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Well, I think...happy with our lot, shall we say?
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Women who left to have children,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34was it quite difficult for them to get jobs?
0:27:34 > 0:27:36It was extremely difficult for them.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39In the years before the Second World War, in a lot of jobs there were
0:27:39 > 0:27:42- actually formal marriage bars.- Yeah.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45So as soon as you said, "I'm going to get married," that was it, end of your job.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48And that kind of suspicion of married women
0:27:48 > 0:27:51and this idea that they're just going to go off and have children
0:27:51 > 0:27:55persists into the years after the Second World War.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57But, as your nan's experience suggests,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59- that doesn't mean that women weren't working.- Yeah.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04But they invested different meanings in the work that they did.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09And I think women were always seen as different types of workers.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13I mean, Patricia's experience is a less usual experience.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16Most women did marry in our period.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Some people have called it the golden age of marriage
0:28:19 > 0:28:20and there was that expectation.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Then, in the early '70s, it just stops
0:28:24 > 0:28:28- and the marriage rate starts declining quite rapidly.- Yeah.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31And, I think for me, that's the key shift.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34That says that you don't have to marry, you know?
0:28:34 > 0:28:38And you might find all sorts of other ways of organising your life.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44It was quite surprising finding out about my nan,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47knowing this younger version of her was quite strange,
0:28:47 > 0:28:52but it was quite good to find out about her past experiences
0:28:52 > 0:28:55and things that happened to her in her lifetime.
0:28:56 > 0:28:57The most surprising thing
0:28:57 > 0:29:00was that women didn't stand up against anything.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04It was kind of like they put their view lower down,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07like it kind of wasn't about what they wanted at that time.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09And I think as time progressed,
0:29:09 > 0:29:14they realised that they could speak out and...campaign for change,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16which they eventually did.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34Britain was still in shock after the Second World War finished in 1945.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Much of the country was suffering from the effects of bombing,
0:29:40 > 0:29:41food was still rationed,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44and half a million men had been killed in combat.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48As a result of this loss of life
0:29:48 > 0:29:50there was a huge shortage of workers.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54A Labour government swept to power in 1945
0:29:54 > 0:29:56with a promise to rebuild the country,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00and they needed immigrants to come to Britain to help.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05MUSIC: "London is the Place for Me" by Lord Kitchener
0:30:05 > 0:30:09Elliot is the grandchild of one of those post-war migrants.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11He's 15 and lives in London.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14It's always good speaking to old people
0:30:14 > 0:30:19because they always have interesting stories in their life.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22When my grandma tells me stories about their life together,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25it makes me want to ask questions to my grandad as well.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Elliot's Grandfather Philip arrived in London in 1949.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36Unlike the majority of newcomers, he stowed away on a ship from Ghana
0:30:36 > 0:30:38in West Africa, looking for a better life.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44They're visiting London' Docklands to see if Philip can remember
0:30:44 > 0:30:46the place where he arrived, 64 years ago.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52All these buildings are new, all these buildings.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58What was there then? Do you know?
0:30:58 > 0:31:02No, it was all a big harbour, you see a lot of ships.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Before we landed, in the night, very beautiful,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09the lights, you know?
0:31:09 > 0:31:13Everywhere, lights, beautiful.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Were you excited? Or nervous, or...?
0:31:15 > 0:31:16Yeah, we were excited.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Although Ghana was a British colony,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24and many of its citizens had been welcomed here, Philip had
0:31:24 > 0:31:28travelled here illegally and on arrival, spent two weeks in prison.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34Once released, he was given an identity card to help him find work.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37However, even though work was plentiful,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41Philip was surprised that not everyone was well off.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44So you thought everyone was going to be rich when you came here?
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Yeah, we saw people begging.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51I went to a Tube station for the first time...
0:31:51 > 0:31:57a Tube station and it was written, "Beware of pickpockets".
0:31:57 > 0:31:59So I thought, "pickpockets"?
0:31:59 > 0:32:02We thought, "White man don't steal," you know?!
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Elliot wants to know why thousands of people left their homes
0:32:10 > 0:32:14to get here. He's come to see Dr Charlotte Riley,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17an expert on British post-war immigration.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20What made people come to Britain?
0:32:20 > 0:32:22Britain has been physically destroyed by the war.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25There's been lots of bombing, it needs lots of rebuilding.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29The British government tries to get people to come over to Britain
0:32:29 > 0:32:32to do lots of manual labour jobs, lots of building.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34Certainly people from the Caribbean were encouraged to come over
0:32:34 > 0:32:37to do building work, and things like that.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39The new NHS, which was set up just after the war,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43that was a really big employer of people as well, so in 1949
0:32:43 > 0:32:47the British Government started to do campaigns in the West Indies and
0:32:47 > 0:32:50in other places around the Empire to try and get nurses to go over.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52And lots of people came over for an adventure as well,
0:32:52 > 0:32:54they wanted to see what Britain was like.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57# Well let me tell you Ladies and gents
0:32:57 > 0:32:59# I enjoyed myself to my heart's content
0:32:59 > 0:33:02# I could not follow the procession
0:33:02 > 0:33:06# But I was there to see the Coronation, I was there... #
0:33:06 > 0:33:08Gloria Bailey was another immigrant
0:33:08 > 0:33:10who arrived from Jamaica with her husband.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15She became a prominent member of the local community and Elliot
0:33:15 > 0:33:19wants to find out how her experience compares to his grandad's.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21What did you do for work?
0:33:21 > 0:33:27At first I went and got a job in a nursery,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29looking after some little children.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31They were all white children,
0:33:31 > 0:33:36who were very petrified, wondering why we looked different.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41And my husband had a job at London Transport.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45What were you expecting of England, when you came?
0:33:45 > 0:33:49We thought that there would be lovely houses
0:33:49 > 0:33:53and the streets were all sophisticated,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57but we were all rather disappointed when we came.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01It took a very long time to get used to the weather.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Ages, as a matter of fact.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08And the food, there wasn't much of West Indian foods at that time,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12so we were chiefly eating the English food -
0:34:12 > 0:34:16fish and chips was something we were very excited about.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21We were quite lucky, probably because we were a couple.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25But many people just came on their own, most of them men.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29With the felt hats and their suits, you know?
0:34:29 > 0:34:33And I've seen big men cry,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36because they're not used to being on their own.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42The arrivals brought with them new cultures, food and music
0:34:42 > 0:34:46and helped create a rich and vibrant post-war scene.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50The Notting Hill Carnival was first held in 1964,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54and was based on Caribbean carnivals of the early 19th century,
0:34:54 > 0:34:56which celebrated the abolition of slavery.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04It started with a very small number of people,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08the West Indians and Africans.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11People were sort of curious and even the white people were
0:35:11 > 0:35:17sort of a bit nervous about going there, not knowing what to expect.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20But the numbers increased over the years,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23and there were so many people going there.
0:35:23 > 0:35:28Everybody dressed up in their original or tribal clothing.
0:35:28 > 0:35:34And more and more white people, all nationalities were uniting,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36people were bringing their children there.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Britain has always had lots of people migrating to it,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44so British culture has always been constantly evolving through history.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47But this big influx of migration after the Second World War changed
0:35:47 > 0:35:51British society quite dramatically and quite quickly in some areas.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55And then that changed wider British culture, so Britain got
0:35:55 > 0:35:59more interested in things like Jamaican music, or Indian food.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08After ten years working in England, Philip met and fell in love
0:36:08 > 0:36:10with Elliot's Grandma, June.
0:36:17 > 0:36:18They've been married for 53 years,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and first met in a fish and chip shop.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29When I got my cod and chips, I didn't have my money with me,
0:36:29 > 0:36:34so I stood there and a voice from behind me said,
0:36:34 > 0:36:36"Oh, I'll pay for you".
0:36:36 > 0:36:40So when I turned round it was Opa. Well, I didn't know him then,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44so I said, "Oh, no, it's all right, Oh, no."
0:36:44 > 0:36:46I was quite bristly!
0:36:46 > 0:36:51And he said, "No, no, it's OK", and he put the money out, you know.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56And from then on, you know, we just struck up a friendship
0:36:56 > 0:36:59and we just became a pair, you know.
0:36:59 > 0:37:05We had a lot of difficulties, of course. Unfortunately we found
0:37:05 > 0:37:10that people weren't happy to have mixed race couples in the house.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Black people had houses,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16and because of the prejudice that they suffered,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18they would say, no white people.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24No whites, and then white people who had houses to rent
0:37:24 > 0:37:28didn't want black people, so we were sort of stuck in the middle.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30There was a sort of card outside
0:37:30 > 0:37:34saying, "No blacks, no children, no animals".
0:37:35 > 0:37:37So you were treated like dogs?
0:37:37 > 0:37:39Well, you were...
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Put in the same categories?
0:37:41 > 0:37:46Exactly, yeah. It was very hurtful, very upsetting.
0:37:46 > 0:37:52But what can you do? That was the life I chose, or we chose,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55so we had to get on with it, basically.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58It would be strange walking past seeing signs...
0:37:58 > 0:38:03Well, yeah, it definitely would be against the law now.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05Took quite a lot of courage.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13I've learnt a lot of things that I didn't know before,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17like they were judging them on the colour of their skins.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19It's really shocking.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21They grew up quite quick, I would say, actually.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25Nowadays you tend to be a child a bit longer.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28You don't mature as quick.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31They were so brave because they put up with a lot of things.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Why would you want to travel, on a boat, to a different country,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41when you're quite young, just for the adventure?
0:38:41 > 0:38:45That kind of, yeah, surprised me.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57On July 5th, the new National Health Service starts,
0:38:57 > 0:39:01providing hospital and specialist services, medicines, drugs
0:39:01 > 0:39:04and appliances, care of the teeth and eyes,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06maternity services...
0:39:08 > 0:39:12After the Second World War Britain changed dramatically,
0:39:12 > 0:39:14and so did the lives of its people.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18One of the most significant developments was a new
0:39:18 > 0:39:22National Health Service, which began in 1948.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26It meant that for the first time, anyone who was ill could be treated
0:39:26 > 0:39:30for free, and the health of the nation improved dramatically.
0:39:33 > 0:39:3715-year-old Kirsty from High Wycombe has good reason
0:39:37 > 0:39:39to be grateful to the NHS.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42It saved her life when she was rushed to hospital
0:39:42 > 0:39:44with suspected meningitis.
0:39:45 > 0:39:50That made me realise quite how amazing the doctors were,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53so that's when I decided I wanted to be a doctor.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Kirsty wants to investigate what impact the NHS had
0:39:58 > 0:40:00on people's lives.
0:40:00 > 0:40:0360 years ago Eileen, Kirsty's grandmother,
0:40:03 > 0:40:06owed her life to the new service.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11Oh, this one is taken over at Pepwood with my mother.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13To me, you look quite healthy!
0:40:13 > 0:40:18Well, I don't think I've ever looked ill, when I am ill.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Back in 1952, although Eileen felt healthy,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27she took up the offer of a free test
0:40:27 > 0:40:31by one of the new NHS mobile X-ray units set up across Britain
0:40:31 > 0:40:33to indentify individuals who were sick.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40They just took a small X-ray. About a couple of weeks later,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45I had a letter saying, would I attend the chest clinic
0:40:45 > 0:40:51at Wycombe Hospital? That there was a shadow on my right lung.
0:40:52 > 0:40:58The X-ray revealed that Eileen had TB, or tuberculosis -
0:40:58 > 0:41:01a highly contagious disease that was responsible
0:41:01 > 0:41:02for 10,000 deaths a year.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08She was forced to spend the next six months in isolation in a sanatorium.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Many of the patients in these long-term hospitals were children
0:41:13 > 0:41:16who ended up missing months, or even years of school.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20Of course, once the NHS came in,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23well, you didn't have to worry about paying.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25So you're thankful, obviously.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30Yes, I mean, I didn't have any idea when I went
0:41:30 > 0:41:33that there was anything wrong with me.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39Kirsty has come to meet three former nurses who worked for the new
0:41:39 > 0:41:44Health Service, to find out how the NHS changed Britain.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47Families were very poorly off,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52because they used to save up for the doctor to come, no doubt about that.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56Money was put on the shelf in the kitchen just in case
0:41:56 > 0:41:58the doctor had to be called.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01Prior to the Health Service, you know, some people sort of
0:42:01 > 0:42:04paid in kind rather than... if they didn't have the money,
0:42:04 > 0:42:06that sort of thing.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08A dozen eggs, or whatever they could afford,
0:42:08 > 0:42:12vegetables for the garden, all came our way.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15I think vast amounts of the population fell through the net,
0:42:15 > 0:42:21and were not treated, and therefore this was why
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Mr Attlee decided that really, a National Health Service for all
0:42:25 > 0:42:28was the one thing that he strove to produce.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33The new Labour Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, and his government
0:42:33 > 0:42:38had established the NHS in the face of considerable opposition, and it
0:42:38 > 0:42:42wasn't long before he too required treatment from the new service.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48I nursed Clement Attlee in Amersham, he wouldn't go into a side ward.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51He said, "Oh, no, I'm very pro-the Health Service!"
0:42:51 > 0:42:56So this long 25-bed in Nightingale Ward, and he was about
0:42:56 > 0:42:58four beds down on the right on this ward,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01chatting to all the other people and so on.
0:43:01 > 0:43:07He felt very strongly that he had pioneered for the NHS and he wanted
0:43:07 > 0:43:11to be like every other patient, and be treated like everybody else.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Kirsty wants to find out more about life before the NHS
0:43:17 > 0:43:22and has come to see medical historian Dr Carole Reeves.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25So, what were people's health expectations?
0:43:25 > 0:43:27Obviously, people who had money,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32and they tended to be the upper class and the middle class people,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35they didn't have to worry too much about being ill,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39because they knew that they could always afford to pay
0:43:39 > 0:43:42for doctors or hospitals.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46But, if you were a working class person, it was very different.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50And your expectations, generally, were quite low.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54You didn't expect to feel well all of the time.
0:43:54 > 0:44:00As soon as 1948 happened and the NHS happened, all the patients
0:44:00 > 0:44:05who previously couldn't afford to come to the doctors
0:44:05 > 0:44:08came and saw doctors or hospitals.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10So were people generally grateful?
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Yes, hugely grateful.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15But although patients welcomed the new Health Service,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18many of the doctors who were treating them
0:44:18 > 0:44:20were less enthusiastic.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22They thought they wouldn't get paid as much money,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26because all of their patients were private and they could pretty much
0:44:26 > 0:44:27charge what they liked.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31So that was something they didn't want to lose.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35And what the NHS said to them was, "We'll let you
0:44:35 > 0:44:40"keep your private patients, and you can treat them in NHS hospitals,
0:44:40 > 0:44:45"and we'll just give you some salary,
0:44:45 > 0:44:50"but we won't stop you treating private patients."
0:44:50 > 0:44:52So they actually did very well out of it,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56and what Aneurin Bevan said, the Minister of Health at the time,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00he said he was going to choke their mouths with gold,
0:45:00 > 0:45:05in order for them to agree to the National Health Service.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07- A bit of a bribe. - A lot of a bribe!
0:45:10 > 0:45:13The public now had access to all kinds of health professionals,
0:45:13 > 0:45:17including doctors, opticians and dentists.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23Kirsty is meeting Rachel Bairstow from the British Dental Association
0:45:23 > 0:45:27to find out about the state of the nation's teeth in 1948.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30This might be an extreme example, but we can certainly say that
0:45:30 > 0:45:33people's teeth were not in a good state of repair.
0:45:33 > 0:45:34Not at all!
0:45:35 > 0:45:41The average person could not access dental care, prior to the NHS.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45I think we can say people weren't smiling!
0:45:49 > 0:45:53Ordinary people flocked to receive free dental treatment,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56and the system fought to catch up on the years of neglect,
0:45:56 > 0:45:57starting with false teeth.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02Basically, in the first nine months of the NHS
0:46:02 > 0:46:06they're making 33 million sets!
0:46:07 > 0:46:09It's a lot.
0:46:09 > 0:46:15I think from a service that set out to help mothers
0:46:15 > 0:46:18and children, and to carry out conservation of teeth,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21that's what they wanted to do, that was their ideal,
0:46:21 > 0:46:26actually, they ended up treating a backlog, if you like,
0:46:26 > 0:46:28of a nation's awful teeth.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32And so this is really what made the NHS have to stop and say,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35"We need to introduce charges".
0:46:35 > 0:46:37There was always controversy,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41if you like, over how that was going to work, how dentists were paid,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45so these were the initial problems that the NHS had to face.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48'It will be a long time before she'll need false teeth.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51'Yet many children are among the people in Britain -
0:46:51 > 0:46:54'nearly half the population - who do wear false teeth.'
0:46:54 > 0:46:59Over the years, governments have introduced charges in the NHS,
0:46:59 > 0:47:01including paying to see the dentist.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05But the basic principle of the National Health Service -
0:47:05 > 0:47:08that you can go and see a doctor without paying,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11whenever you are ill - remains.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18It was a complete change of the way people thought about themselves,
0:47:18 > 0:47:22and they began to have much higher expectations of their health.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26They began to demand good health, as their right,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28which of course we all expect now.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32I thought it was very shocking,
0:47:32 > 0:47:37that before the establishment of the NHS, most people expected to be ill.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41I think the government realised that there was a big issue that
0:47:41 > 0:47:45needed to be sorted. I think the Prime Minister at the time was
0:47:45 > 0:47:49very enthusiastic, pushed it through, and so did Bevan.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54People today do criticise the NHS,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58but I think that they need to look at what happened before.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Yes, they do have to pay for it in taxes,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06and it's not the quickest thing, but overall,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09you're getting treated when you need to get treated.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12I really realise now quite how lucky Grandma was
0:48:12 > 0:48:16that she had TB after the NHS was established.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21She might not have been able to afford the treatment before the NHS.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27It's really made me want to fight for being a doctor.
0:48:43 > 0:48:44During the Second World War,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47coal production was crucial to the war effort.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53High demand continued after the war, when coal supplied both
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Britain's re-emerging industries and people's homes.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01In 1947, when the Labour government
0:49:01 > 0:49:04nationalised 800 private coal companies
0:49:04 > 0:49:07to create a state-owned industry,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11miners hoped they'd finally be safer, better paid
0:49:11 > 0:49:13and more secure in their jobs.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17But the boom wasn't to last.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21The 1960s saw the start of the gradual shutdown
0:49:21 > 0:49:25of Britain's mining industry.
0:49:25 > 0:49:2915-year-old Sophie from York has a particular reason to want to know
0:49:29 > 0:49:32about this boom, and later decline.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36My grandpa, Roger Hampson, was an industrial artist
0:49:36 > 0:49:40in the post-war period, painting pits and mills.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44I'm interested to find out more about what was inspiring his work
0:49:44 > 0:49:47and what happened to the pits after he finished painting.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54Roger Hampson is part of the Northern school of British painters,
0:49:54 > 0:49:56who were inspired by LS Lowry.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03He captured a way of life that by the 1960s was slowly dying.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07Sophie never knew her grandad,
0:50:07 > 0:50:11so she's meeting art historian Peter Davies, who did.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16How was he affected by the area that he grew up in?
0:50:16 > 0:50:20When you look at the artists from this area,
0:50:20 > 0:50:25who were all working after the war, in the shadow of LS Lowry,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28they all pursued that industrial landscape as a theme
0:50:28 > 0:50:31because it was true to them, it's what they had grown up with
0:50:31 > 0:50:34and it was the immediate environment.
0:50:34 > 0:50:40And despite the kind of poverty, there was a kind of beauty there,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42you know, wild beauty.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46This kind of amazing industrial architecture of the colliery,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and the structure silhouetted against the sky,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52it's almost like an industrial cathedral.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56He definitely has a strong connection and respect for the miners
0:50:56 > 0:50:59and the industry that's happening at the time, I'd say.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Do you think these paintings are good at reminding people of a time
0:51:02 > 0:51:04like that, then, in the 20th century?
0:51:06 > 0:51:10I think it's a very faithful documentary recording
0:51:10 > 0:51:14of the visual beauty of this environment
0:51:14 > 0:51:17and the people that were conditioned by that environment.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25Sophie has come to Tyldesley, a former cotton and mining town
0:51:25 > 0:51:26where her grandad was born.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34She's visiting Burt Wilcox, who first went down a mine in 1951,
0:51:34 > 0:51:35at her age.
0:51:37 > 0:51:43Coal seam would have been a yard high, about that high.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49It were on your shoulder, and you had ten yards of that to get out.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53When Burt worked underground,
0:51:53 > 0:51:58controlled explosions were used to extract coal from the seam.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01And I used to go in, make myself as small as a mouse.
0:52:03 > 0:52:09It'd fall, whoosh, and it'd nearly blow your face.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13Terrible, and I dream about that yet.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16And waking up, sweating.
0:52:18 > 0:52:19That was a miner.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Burt left mining in 1962.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27Shortly after, the local pits began to close.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32So, how is it different now in Tyldesley, to how it was?
0:52:32 > 0:52:35It was a really nice place.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40It's a shame, really, Tyldesley - everybody knew one another.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43If you worked down the colliery, you knew everybody.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47There were 500 people, you knew them all.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50You know, because you saw them every day, you went down the shaft
0:52:50 > 0:52:54with them, have a break and come up the shaft with them every day.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57You know, like, you go in a pub, any pub you went to,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01"Aye, aye, Burt." "You all right?"
0:53:01 > 0:53:03"Having a drink?" "Yes."
0:53:03 > 0:53:07You were made welcome. Even strangers were made welcome.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12There's not now, nobody goes out.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Every club's closed, even Tory club's closed!
0:53:19 > 0:53:22Since Roger Hampson's day, all the mines and cotton mills
0:53:22 > 0:53:26have gone, along with the communities that surrounded them.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30You could stand in the middle of my allotment
0:53:30 > 0:53:33and count about 23 big tall chimneys,
0:53:33 > 0:53:38there were factories, coal mines, engineering, brick works, the lot.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43What is there today? Nothing. Only trees and grass.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Would you rather be surrounded by the factories, then?
0:53:47 > 0:53:51No, but I'd rather be surrounded by people working!
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Sophie wants to find out whether the experience
0:53:56 > 0:54:00in the northern mining communities is typical.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03She meets with historian Selina Todd.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07For people in the 1950s, looking back to the 1930s,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11the '30s were a decade of poverty, of mass unemployment,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14of hunger, of uncertainty.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16And the 1950s and the 1960s,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20in contrast to that, were a period of great prosperity.
0:54:20 > 0:54:25That said, life didn't change all that much for everybody.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28And the kind of improvement that Macmillan's speech was
0:54:28 > 0:54:31alluding to - all the "never had it so good",
0:54:31 > 0:54:35and the kind of images of the motorcar for every family
0:54:35 > 0:54:39and new fashions and so on - many of those innovations
0:54:39 > 0:54:43were confined to towns and cities in south-east England.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48Which then, as now, were far more prosperous than the cities and towns
0:54:48 > 0:54:52in the north that were reliant on old industries, like coal.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57So it was certainly still a very divided country
0:54:57 > 0:55:00in the 1950s and the 1960s.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06A few miles from Tyldesley was the Astley Green colliery.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10The workforce fought to keep the pit open
0:55:10 > 0:55:13but found it impossible to meet the production targets
0:55:13 > 0:55:17imposed by the National Coal Board, and it was eventually closed.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Sophie's speaking to mechanic Cliff Graham,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25who serviced the steam engine which produced the power that
0:55:25 > 0:55:30brought the coal and men up from the ground.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34So I've got a picture with me, of my grandpa,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37and he's actually drawing the colliery.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41And the caption says that it's under threat of being closed.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43So do you remember when this was?
0:55:43 > 0:55:44Oh, 1969.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48They were closing it in the end of 1969 but we were reprieved
0:55:48 > 0:55:51for six months, on a target which we couldn't reach,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53and they closed it in 1970.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57What exactly was it that you did, working here at the mine?
0:55:57 > 0:55:59I was a colliery mechanic.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03I used to service all the machinery, on the surface and underground.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07A lot of the collieries in the Manchester area were still steam.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09I still love steam.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11Was it a good job, did you enjoy it?
0:56:11 > 0:56:13I thought it was, it was interesting.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16There was always a variety, and you were never in the same place twice.
0:56:16 > 0:56:17And I used to like it.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Most of the local mines were closed in the '60s and '70s.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29Dr Stephen Catterall has researched the reasons behind the closures
0:56:29 > 0:56:30in South Lancashire.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33The colliery was closed because it didn't meet its targets.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37Do you think this was the right decision to make?
0:56:37 > 0:56:39I think that the government could have done a lot more
0:56:39 > 0:56:43in the 1950s and '60s than they did.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45The government was wedded to two ideas -
0:56:45 > 0:56:47one was for mines to be profitable,
0:56:47 > 0:56:52and also this idea of modernisation was never fulfilled in these areas.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56So it talked about bringing industry into this area,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59both parties did, both Labour and Conservative,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03but it never actually came to fruition, never happened.
0:57:03 > 0:57:08So with coal production declining, Britain was reliant on imported oil.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10This left the UK vulnerable
0:57:10 > 0:57:15when oil-producing countries greatly increased the cost of oil in 1974.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21By the 1970s, that idea of "we've never had it so good"
0:57:21 > 0:57:24begins to fall apart completely.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28Overseas competition becomes a much bigger factor.
0:57:28 > 0:57:34Countries like Germany are forging ahead, and so when the crunch came
0:57:34 > 0:57:38in the early 1970s, there was really nothing for British industry
0:57:38 > 0:57:42to fall back on because they hadn't really undertaken any innovation.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45And British industry, ordinary British workers,
0:57:45 > 0:57:47really suffer as a result.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52There was such a strong community there,
0:57:52 > 0:57:55and they all did lots of things together,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and even though I wasn't there at the time, just from speaking
0:57:58 > 0:58:01to people who were, you really do feel that sense of community.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09From going to the places my grandpa lived and seeing what he saw,
0:58:09 > 0:58:13I feel like I can relate more with his paintings and see why
0:58:13 > 0:58:17he chose to paint certain streets, and certain subjects...
0:58:18 > 0:58:21..how the industry closing down affected the miners
0:58:21 > 0:58:23and the community around here.
0:58:23 > 0:58:25It's not something I'd learnt before.
0:58:50 > 0:58:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.