1950s: Refugees stir up emotions

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Nicola Rippon reviews the year 1956 when immigration and homelessness were topics of concern for Derbyshire people.

BRITAIN’S weakening influence in the Middle East, a sudden influx of foreign refugees causing resentment, problems of homelessness and plans for the expansion of the nuclear power industry: sounds familiar?

Yet, these were all issues capturing headlines 50 years ago.

More mundane matters also made big news in the Derby Evening Telegraph in 1956. On March 28, the front page of the newspaper featured a picture of actress Ann Kennedy as she examined the charred remains of her professional home – the Derby Playhouse.

In the early hours of that morning fire had swept through the theatre, leaving the venue all but devastated. PC Albert Smith, who had first noticed smoke filling Sacheverel Street, had raised the alarm. As flames “shot through the roof” of the former Baptist Sunday School building, residents of neighbouring properties were hastily evacuated.

Derby Playhouse had moved to the site in 1952, from its first home in a former schoolroom on Becket Street. The Playhouse, and its predecessor, the Derby Little Theatre, had become well known for their popular and acclaimed weekly rep.

With the stage, stalls and circle entirely burnt out and the roof collapsed, plans were immediately under way for repairs, although it was clear it would be many months before any further performances could be staged. The Telegraph noted, with irony, that that week’s performance was called The Wick and the Wax, and the following week’s High Temperature.

While theatre was still very popular with Derbyshire audiences, it was the new medium of television that really captured the average Derbeian’s attention.

From February, local viewers become the first outside of London to receive the new commercial television station, ITV.

Midlands Television, as it was known locally, was based in Birmingham and was broadcast on Channel 8. To view the new programmes an up-to-date set, or at least one which had been adapted, was required.

Mr W E Webb, chairman of the Derby Centre of the Radio and Television Retailers’ Association, told the Telegraph: “Most people seem to have left conversion late...In the last fortnight we have had quite a rush and we now have a waiting list. All my own staff have been working every night during this period. From our experience in Derby most viewers will definitely need a new aerial to receive ITV...using the proper aerial, you get an ITV picture three times as good as that received with a Band I aerial.”

Across the county, the clarity and strength of the signal varied considerably. In Ripley, it proved very strong, but in the valley around Matlock it was very disappointing. In Derby, the signal was clear and bright, and one Derby television dealer took great delight in pronouncing: “Reception was absolutely astounding. We got a marvellous picture, every bit as good, if not better, than BBC.”

The first night’s viewing began with an official opening ceremony, before an evening of news and sport, followed by a variety show featuring established stars like singer Barbara Lyon – the daughter of radio veterans Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels; actor Tyrone Power; children’s entertainer “Mr Pastry”; and comedian Bob Monkhouse. Following this was an episode of I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Most of the local households fortunate enough to own a television, among the one million viewers across the region, declared the channel was well worth the investment in new equipment.

From May, a nightly Midlands News was introduced.

However, for many people the cost of a television set was quite out of reach. The Evening Telegraph carried an advertisement for the latest Sobell Seventeen, a 17in set with a “handsome walnut veneered cabinet”. It was on sale for 69 guineas – almost £73.

That was a staggering amount considering that Derby jewellers Joseph Golding were advertising an engagement ring at £7 10s (£7.50) and a 22ct gold wedding ring at £3 5s 0d (£3.25).

Many people chose not to invest because they had heard scare stories that watching television was dangerous. The county ophthalmologist, however, tried to put their minds at rest.

Several Derbyshire clinics had been seeing increased numbers of children suffering from nasty headaches after watching television, which had alarmed parents.

It was pointed out, however, that this was caused by sitting too close to the set and could be remedied by sitting a minimum of 6ft away. Television, the Telegraph reassured readers, was “not injurious to children’s eyes”.

Luxuries like televisions were far from the minds of the many Hungarian refugees who had sought safety in the county after the Soviet military had smashed their uprising. Donington Hall, just over the border in Leicestershire, but only a few miles from Derby, had been converted into a reception centre for the refugees.

Once the home of the Earl of Moira, and later the property of the Gillies Shields family, the hall had been converted for use as a prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War. Four decades later, ITV news showed staff and volunteers cleaning and repairing the building in preparation for the refugees.

Most Britons were very welcoming to the initial influx of 11,000 refugees. There was great sympathy for their situation and their cause and, according to some commentators, considerable guilt at the inaction of the British Government on their behalf.

A letter to the Telegraph from the Gillies Shields and Joyce Pearce of Donington Hall thanked all those who were providing clothing, books and toys for the children. It promised that, once the immediate crisis was over, it was their intention to turn Donington Hall into “a home and school for children of all nationalities who now live without hope in the displaced persons camps in Germany, their parents were our allies, their sufferings caused through loyalty to our cause”.

Other local residents, however, considered these newcomers were a problem. One such critic, writing under the pseudonym “Chaddesden”, objected strongly to Shardlow Rural District Council’s decision to offer a council house rent-free to a Hungarian family for six months.

“No matter how many people of other nationalities seek refuge in this country, they always thrive at the expense of our own people.

“Vast sums of money are collected, help given to buy houses and disused buildings turned into first-class homes for them – first class, that is, in comparison to the homes of thousands of our own countrymen,” the writer complained. “What a welcome change it would make to hear of such large sums of money and houses being given to our own old age pensioners and needy couples with a family trying to start a home going.”

And this correspondent was clearly not the first to complain. Another writer, who signed themselves “Live and Let Live”, wrote to express astonishment at “a contribution from ‘Alvastonite’” a few days earlier. “I cannot think how a person could be so selfish as to begrudge the poor people a house. I would welcome any foreigner into my home as I have never met such kind, clean and unselfish people...Just think yourself lucky you have a home and a country.”

Derby Town Council, meanwhile, was trying to lessen some of its own responsibilities in relation to the burden of caring for the local homeless.

Following a recommendation from its welfare committee, the council planned to petition that the provision and maintenance of what the Telegraph called “hobo reception centres” be transferred to the National Assistance Board.

The newspaper reported that during October, 60 men each night were using the centre, and that it had taken 1,127 admissions, with only 22 placed in work.

As the year drew to a close, the Telegraph assessed the state of local industry. Although it was conceded that “international uncertainties and their effect on Britain’s economy make it difficult to look into Derby’s industrial future”, the paper was able to point out several reasons for optimism.

Of particular note was the likelihood of Derby’s role in the somewhat controversial expansion of Britain’s nuclear power “which in the next decade is likely to underpin Britain’s economy”.

International Combustion was named as one of three members of the British Atomic Group, which had been formed to construct several nuclear power stations.

Another member was Crompton Parkinson, whose Derby Cables were expected to assist in construction.

Aiton & Co had already installed important pipework at Calder Hall “A” Nuclear Power Station in Cumberland. And Rolls-Royce was researching the various applications of nuclear energy. At the behest of their chairman, Lord Hives, a small research team had been created to investigate nuclear power as a possible source of power for engines, in particular in ships, aircraft and submarines.

They were working from their Advanced Research Department at the Old Hall, Burton Road, Littleover, where a laboratory and rig shop had been built.

The firm’s aero-engine division was also prospering, having received many international orders. Rolls-Royce products were now operating in 543 countries from the Arctic Circle to New Zealand.

Royal Crown Derby, meanwhile, had been asked to create a 750-piece banqueting service for the Royal York Hotel in Toronto – the largest and most distinguished hotel in Canada.

If the international situation was still giving cause for concern, the people of Derbyshire, it seemed, could look forward to a more settled year ahead.

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