1950s

Players wade into the water to jostle for the ball in the annual Shrovetide Football match at Ashbourne.

Movie magic: an old photo of The Ritz in Belper in 1952.

This view in Derby of Corporation Street from the Market Place, taken in around 1958, shows Morris House, which was demolished in 1986.

The 62nd Osmaston Scouts pictured in the 50s. The group used to meet in the grounds of Sir Clive Bemrose’s family house in Grayling Street, Derby.

After World War II the United Kingdom made a slow return from post-war rationing of food. The economy was also rebuilt slowly but thanks to abundant oil fields as well as geographical separation from the European continent it experienced more post-war prosperity than the rest of Europe.

The incoming Conservative Party in the 1951 general election, decided to retain the Welfare State and National Health Service that had been established by the previous Labour administration establishing a post war consensus that would last a generation.

National Service began properly in 1949 and saw more than two million young men serve time with the Army.

In the aftermath of World War Two some rationing was still in place as production levels still had to gear up again after the war effort. All rationing was over by the end of the decade.

The coronation of a young new Monarch with Elizabeth II instilled a sense of national revival in 1953 but the debacle of Suez triggered a sharp decline of national confidence linked to the withdrawal from colonial possessions in Asia. Many people had their first experience of television-watching sitting in fron of a screen to view the ceremony. Over the rest of the decade the popularity of TV steadily increased.

There were big changes in popular music with rock and roll sweeping in from America and the first real appearance of the "teenager" as a stage between childhood and adulthood.

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