60 Years of NWR Anniversary Magazine (Summer 2020)

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S REGISTER SUMMER 2020

1960 2020

60 YEARS OF NWR SPECIAL DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

Get in touch Editor: Judith Charlton General enquiries: office@nwr.org.uk Membership and press enquiries: office@nwr.org.uk Website: https://nwr.org.uk Twitter: @nwruk Facebook: facebook.com/nwr.uk Telephone: 01603 406767 Address: NWR, 23 Vulcan House, Vulcan Road North, Norwich, NR6 6AQ Registered charity number 295198 OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S REGISTER SUMMER 2020

1960 2020

Cover photo: Laura Ockel on Unsplash

60th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Your Diamond Day celebrations u Back to the start u 60 years of change u What next?

A huge thank you for all your submissions!

Please keep them coming — group news, travel news, personal journeys, short stories, poems. If we can’t fit them in the magazine, look out on the website. For the next edition, please send your contributions to office@nwr.org.uk by 31 August 2020 (copyright of material is transferred to NWR on submission unless otherwise requested).

Care about the environment, care about NWR Don’t be the only one to read this magazine. Instead of putting it into your recycling bin, spread the word! Recycle it at hairdressers, libraries, vets, dentists… anywhere you find other women who might be interested in knowing about our much loved NWR. If you would prefer to receive an electronic copy only, please let us know.

Audio version NWR Magazine is available in an audio version for people with visual impairments. Please contact the NWR office on 01603 406767 or office@nwr.org.uk, or find it on our website at https://nwr.org.uk/magazine

What’s On? Below is our new online programme. All of these events can be booked at https://www.eventstop.co.uk/organisation/29/events or contact the NWR office for more details at office@nwr.org.uk or 01603 406767, or visit www.nwr.org.uk 9 July 2020 Unusual British customs Howard Slater Most of the counties of Britain have at least one ancient custom or traditional festival at some time during the year. This talk covers some of the more unusual ones and looks at the history of our Christmas traditions.

6pm

16 July 2020 Wedlocked – women, know your place! Towse Harrison Most women in the past had few choices about life and marriage partners.

Usually they found themselves in a position of dependence on a man: father, husband, brother, guardian. This is the story of how some came up with drastic and novel solutions when this arrangement went wrong, displaying remarkable resilience in a society that was stacked against them.

6pm

21 July 2020 Protection in the medieval period Elaine Perkins Elaine delivers her talks in the character and costume of a medieval cunning woman, with a range of found and made objects to help you see life through the eyes of ordinary medieval men and women. In this time, if the church couldn’t help, you turned to the local cunning woman. From ancient spells, such as the Nine Herb Charm, to Flying Ointment and mandrake root, Agnes Peterkin has the knowledge to help.

2pm

23 July 2020 Quiz night A quiz for those who are playing as individuals

6pm

30 July 2020 A courageous and skilled shot: Montenegro’s photographer Princess Ksenia Elizabeth Gowing Princess Ksenia’s father, King Nikola, was nicknamed ‘The Father-in-Law of Europe’ having successfully married off daughters to the royal houses of Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and Russia. His eighth daughter chose a different route, carving out a place for herself as secretary and advisor to her father, and developing a particular talent for photography (though a contemporary also described her as ‘a courageous and skilled shot with a pistol’).

6pm

14–25 September 2020 Online Conference Event and AGM We are planning an online conference event which will take place over two weeks in September, starting with the AGM on Monday 14th September and followed by a programme of talks, quizzes, workshops and, hopefully, a murder mystery evening!

Printing

23–25 April 2021 Diamond Anniversary National Conference Burlington Hotel, Birmingham We are delighted to announce a new conference date. All of our key speakers, speakers, the venue and schedule remain the same but some workshops may be changed. We hope that those of you who have already booked will be happy with the new date but, if you are unable to attend, please contact office@nwr.org.uk to cancel and request a refund. If you haven’t booked, you can do so at https://www.eventstop.co.uk/event/3599/precious_gems#/

NWR magazine is printed on Cocoon Silk recycled paper by Greenhouse Graphics, Hampshire.

Not a member? NWR could be for you!

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80.1 GRAMS

Have your children just left home? Have you moved to a new area? Have you experienced some other big life change? Come and meet other women to share and explore thoughts, ideas and experiences. Enjoy lively, stimulating conversation, broaden your horizons and make new friends. We offer a range of activities, from book clubs to walking groups. Join us!

01603 406767 office@nwr.org.uk 2

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

https://nwr.org.uk

What next for NWR? For the first time we are producing an extra magazine for members to celebrate this anniversary year and I wanted to write to you about my vision for NWR in the future.

The immediate future was Diamond Day and a year-long celebration by groups of our 60th anniversary with walks, tree planting and other events planned. Well, how my ideas of the future have changed! Who could have foreseen this hugely impressive quality of agility and adaptability shown by members, volunteers and staff?

Within weeks of lockdown, groups and members have adopted digital technologies in place of meetings in each other’s homes. Lively minded women have moved from email to chat via WhatsApp to video conferencing with Zoom. Confidence in digital communication has grown. Programmes have been rearranged, book groups reconvened, and virtual coffee mornings instituted. Most importantly, that sense of connection with other women that NWR represents has been revived and reinvigorated. And that sense of connection has eased the potential for isolation for many members. Recent publicity and events have brought enquiries and new members to invigorate discussions and groups. Independent members are always welcome and can enjoy all the benefits of current membership while still having the option to join local groups in the future.

In a similar way, our staff, like many working people, have all now moved to home working. We have the smallest staff now for many years and are eager to recruit once lockdown eases. We see the future as establishing new groups with more area and regional support. We also need more digital partners and support in order to automate systems and processes, so that we can focus on members. We are looking forward to a new website and more self-service for members. Such is the speed of change, it is most likely that this will be renewed again within the decade.

To keep our minds active during lockdown, Natalie, our National Organiser, has set up online talks,

In this special anniversary issue CELEBRATIONS

4 Diamond Days A look at your celebrations around the country, back in the days when we could still meet, eat and be merry together.

7 Maureen gets her cards performances and quizzes. These have been hugely popular as a member benefit and as a way of linking members nationally. For the future, we can see regular online speakers as an offer to members to supplement the area events that groups organise.

This year staff and trustees are planning for the possibility of an online conference and AGM as, even if lockdown is eased, our members are mainly in the vulnerable category. Having already adopted online conferencing for trustee meetings and discussions, we can see how a virtual conference might work this year. But rest assured – we all know how valuable it is to meet up, so hopefully we will be able to return to our usual national conference next year, though perhaps with digital additions to extend the offer to more members.

It is incredibly reassuring to see that members can have a different sort of NWR in unusual times and know that NWR can quickly adapt and rise to different situations. As for what the next decade might bring, well it is anyone’s guess. A few months ago I might have been confident about a broad plan for development over the next five to ten years but, as we have seen, disruptive change happens – it’s how you deal with it that is important.

The only thing I am confident about in the future is that women who are “interested in everything and talk about anything” will continue to be innovative, adaptable, open to new ideas and ways of being a member. What more could we ask for in this anniversary year?

NWR members show their appreciation for founder Maureen Nicol

OUR HISTORY

10 60 years of NWR How did it start, and what happened next?

12 Our back pages From news sheet to magazine, how this publication has evolved FEATURES

8 Lockdown lives How are women being affected? Support networks like NWR can be a huge help.

14 Changing times Your thoughts on how life has changed since 1960, and a look at three generations of women in rural Lincolnshire

18 Fashion revolution A decade that changed women’s – and men’s – fashion forever

Josephine Burt, Chair of Trustees NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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CELEBRATIONS

Diamond Days!

Groups around the country gathered on 26 February to celebrate 60 years of NWR with fun, food, drink and good company. Here is a round up of your events.

Left: East Anglia region held a very successful event at the Athenaeum, Bury St Edmunds, attended by 130 members from 13 local groups. There were two speakers, Catherine Buchanan who spoke about birthday presents through the ages and Paul Stanliffe who spoke about his job as Media Manager for the British Trust for Ornithology, followed by lunch in the beautiful ballroom, and workshops and tours in the afternoon. Below left: The organising committee – the people who made it all happen.

Below and bottom left: The Nantwich celebratory lunch was a great success.

110 members attended and were hugely entertained by speaker Lesley Smith, curator of Tutbury Castle.

Lesley came as Margaret Thatcher, and stayed in character throughout. Other highlights of the day were local member Lee Egerton’s reading of her poem about NWR, and top raffle prize of a day out in a chauffeur driven, 1930s, open topped Lagonda.

The venue was the Crown Hotel, which provided fantastic food, decor and service.

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NWR Magazine 1960–2020

Below: Glasgow area thoroughly enjoyed their Diamond Day celebrations with 100 members from the West of Scotland attending a three course lunch in a Glasgow city centre venue. Speaker, Amanda Tyrrol, who is Wardrobe Mistress at the National Theatre, is the daughter of one of their members, which made it a very personal occasion. Her talk, and the costumes she brought to show, was much enjoyed, as was the live broadcast of Maureen Nicol’s interview.

CELEBRATIONS South East region celebrated at Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking with a talk on diamonds from speaker Dominic Sakakini. Far left, top: members enjoy lunch. Bottom: Examining a case of diamonds!

Left: Gillian Gatehouse (speaking) is in her 52nd year of membership, and the longest standing member at the event.

Left and below: Canterbury Group Two display their 2020 vision

Below and left: Eastern region held their Diamond Day celebration at International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln. Members enjoyed lunch and heard from guest speaker Sue Stennett about how women’s lives have changed since NWR was founded in 1960. You can read excerpts from her speech on page 14. Pictured here are the Deepings group members who attended the event.

Above and left: Tadley NWR held a Diamond Tea Party for neighbouring groups, and Sherfield on Loddon, Bramley, Basingstoke and Woolton Hill all joined in with the festivities.

They watched a video link of an interview with founder Maureen Nicol, drank endless cups of tea, ate copious quantities of cake, and took part in a Diamond Quiz. At the end, amongst the thank yous, reminiscences and chat, it was decided that they should all meet up again in the near future!

Above: Droitwich Spa enjoyed a 60s-style retro buffet and reminiscenses of life in 1960, and of NWR over the years – many have been members for over 30 years. Inset: Earlier that day four members attended Central Region’s wonderful lunch in Birmingham.

Gloucester group’s event was a big success, thanks to Pat Price and the rest of the working party. Below: All eyes and ears on the interview with Maureen Nicol – what a relief that the streaming went so smoothly! Inset: Raising a glass to 60 years of NWR, looking forward to the future and, of course, enjoying our cake.

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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CELEBRATIONS Below and left: Knebworth House was the venue for Central region’s very successful Diamond Day. Drinks were served on arrival, followed by the screening of Maureen Nicol’s interview. Members were struck by how youthful she seemed, and how the principles upon which NWR was founded are just as important to her as ever. Next came a delicious afternoon tea, with much talk and laughter, followed by a talk on The Lytton Ladies of Knebworth House, in the same family for 500 years. Thanks to the organising committee, the event ran smoothly and efficiently from start to finish.

Below and right: North East region had a great Diamond Day at the Priory Street Centre in York. Almost 100 members attended for talks, quizzes and lunch. In the morning they heard about the history of diamonds from Robert Bolton, and were able to see some beautiful examples. Next there was a lovely lunch and the live link to Maureen Nicol’s interview and, in the afternoon, a fabulous talk on The Rebel Woman’s Wardrobe. Lucy Adlington spoke about women from the 19th century to the current day who were pioneers in their different ways, and showed some wonderful clothes from the time. The day concluded with tea and cake!

Perth’s Diamond Day Do was an afternoon tea at the historic Black Watch Museum. There were 70 members from groups in the east of Scotland, from as far north as Bridge of Don to Saline in Fife, and west to Stirling. Below: Perth members on the day.

Right, from left to right: organisers Gillian Syme, Margaret Nicol, Diane Amphlett and Wendy Birse, who, as one of Perth group’s founders, opened and closed the proceedings and read her anniversary poem penned for the occasion.

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NWR Magazine 1960–2020

Below: Wantage members drank Prosecco and ate cake whilst discussing what NWR meant to each member present.

They also learnt some interesting facts about diamonds.

CELEBRATIONS If your Diamond Day event hasn’t appeared here, please send us your photos for the Autumn issue.

The deadline is 31 August 2020 and the email address to use is office@nwr.org.uk Below: North West area held their Diamond Day at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle. 35 members from Carlisle, Egremont and Kendal groups celebrated with afternoon tea and Prosecco, and took part in the live streaming of Maureen’s interview.

They were also treated to a talk from Tullie House curator Claire Sleightholm on Women in the 60s, and a tour of the museum and gallery.

Facing the front from left to right: Rosemary Morrison, Audrey Slight and Carol Robertson of Carlisle group.

Left to right: Margaret Whitham, Eileen Dixon, Anneliese Froom and Beth Dell from Egremont group.

Left to right: Ali and Sara Duffy, both members of Kendal group.

Christmas comes early 60 years on, and NWR founder Maureen Nicol is once again deluged with post. Lynn Welsher explains.

When NWR celebrated its Golden Anniversary in 2010, we were delighted to welcome our founder Maureen Nicol to join us at the national conference for the Saturday night celebratory meal. The room looked wonderful with golden balloons, and every table denoted by different golden flowers.

At the dinner Maureen was presented with two books. These were full of members’ thoughts, feelings and memories of NWR over the years and included photos and poems. She was delighted with them, and it was a great opportunity for people to express their thanks to her.

Fast forward ten years and here we are in 2020 celebrating our Diamond Anniversary. All over the country we held Diamond Day lunches and tea parties to celebrate our sixty years of existence. In Birmingham we had 180 women, including some from Kenilworth, the group that Maureen still belongs to. The interview between Natalie and Maureen was screened: very enjoyable and a great way for us all to hear about the start of it all!

This time, instigated by some chats on one of our many Facebook groups, we decided to ask groups to send thank you cards to Maureen. Time was tight to get it organised as well as keep it a surprise: being a member, Maureen would read any emails sent out to everyone. I joined in talks with Heather de Lacey and Jenny Lee, who had come up with the original idea, and we thought of using the scrapbook organisers! Between them they could cover the whole country, so all groups could be included.

We then wondered how to get them to her in an ordered way, so that it would not be too overwhelming. Luckily, Maureen had an NWR friend close by, Sue Bowman, who was very happy for cards to be sent to her.

So, the plan was hatched. I emailed the scrapbook organisers, they emailed their groups, and the cards started arriving at Sue’s around Diamond Day. She took a few each day to Maureen and very much enjoyed her part in the process!

Maureen was once more delighted and surprised at all the lovely and appreciative comments. She had so many cards that she had to get out her Christmas card holder, as well as using every shelf and window sill!

Since then, 2020 has not turned out to be quite the year we imagined we would enjoy, and we have little idea of how it will proceed, but there is no doubt that we are all lively minded women brought together by Maureen’s brilliant idea in 1960. Yet again, our thanks go out to her!

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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CHALLENGING TIMES

Women’s lives in lockdown While women everywhere are facing new challenges in these troubling times, NWR members are lucky to have a ready-made support network, writes Judith Charlton.

As NWR members celebrated Diamond Day on 26 February, coronavirus was unlikely to have been uppermost in their thoughts. There were just 13 recorded cases in the UK, none of them home grown, and the first recorded British death two days later took place in Japan, onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Yes, cases were surging in the far east and there was lockdown in Lombardy, but we still couldn’t quite imagine it happening to us.

But by the time the World Health Organisation confirmed the virus to be a pandemic, on 11 March, we were left in little doubt. Supermarket shelves were being stripped bare, theatres and cinemas emptying and sporting fixtures and festivals being cancelled. The lockdown announcement on 23 March was to some extent a relief: at least we knew where we stood.

What now for NWR? Well, 60 years’ experience of women supporting women would not go to waste. Across the country people were scrambling to form networks to support their neighbours: we had one ready-made. Formed in the days of snail mail and landlines, now we also had technology on our side.

One of NWR’s strengths is that, as well as being a national organisation, it is also a collection of small autonomous groups which can rapidly change and adapt in whatever way best suits their members. Soon many groups were mastering video communication software such as Zoom, and continuing to meet virtually. Others use email to stay connected, or Whatsapp, while, for those who prefer traditional methods, several telephone trees have been established.

Topics for meetings range from astronomy to limerick writing to bucket lists for 2021, and members are mindful of the need to look for the positive aspects rather than the limitations of NWR members around the country enjoy a virtual quiz night

their new situation, by sharing photos of beautiful garden flowers, or anecdotes about their daily walks. At least one group has declared their meetings a COVID-free zone, in the same way that talk of children and housework was discouraged in the early days. Book groups continue – we have plenty of time to read – and members exchange tips about online exercise classes, where to buy seedlings and soil, which restaurants are offering takeaway food, and numerous other services that might make isolation more bearable.

Staff and trustees were also well placed to adapt to the restrictions of lockdown: being spread out around the country, they are used to working and meeting remotely. Soon a Clothing historian Lucy Adlington giving an online talk for NWR members on the history of knitting

programme of virtual events was being rolled out, including a subscription to an online theatre offering, and online quizzes and speakers, which have been much appreciated.

However, it is probably fair to say that, in some ways, NWR members have less to lose from the coronavirus crisis than many women. Our age profile means that the majority of us are not having to reinvent ourselves as home educators at the same time as endeavouring to hold down a job – indeed, retirement means that, for many, loss of employment and income is not a fear.

So, what of women in the wider world? Although we have learnt that women are less likely than men to die from the virus, there are other ways in which they are disproportionately affected.

To start with, women are more likely than men to do jobs that put them on the front line of the battle against COVID-19: World Health Organisation figures show that, globally, 70% of workers in the health and social sector are women. In Europe, 84% of nurses are female.

In addition, women are much more likely to be unpaid care givers: according to the International Labour Organisation

A virus called Covid-19 Is all around though quite unseen Our lives have changed We are all deranged But our houses are sparkly clean 8

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

CHALLENGING TIMES Photo by hello-i-m-nik on Unsplash

Ladies in isolation Are full of consternation What to do?

No paper in the loo And no chance of a summer vacation

Limericks courtesy of Morpeth NWR Sources: The Atlantic https://bit.ly/3eOygJA BBC Future https://bbc.in/3eUEbN3 Center for Global Development https://bit.ly/3782PHw Institute for Fiscal Studies https://bit.ly/2Ugxqxn The Lancet https://bit.ly/2MC7xnA World Economic Forum https://bit.ly/2XDcjHH Send us your lockdown experiences for the Autumn issue: how have you coped, what have you missed, what have you enjoyed? The deadline is 31 August 2020 and the email address to use is office@nwr.org.uk Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

they perform 76.2% of the total hours of unpaid care work worldwide. In some countries this will also put them at greater risk of infection as health systems become overburdened and relatives have to be cared for at home.

And the structure of the workplace is such that this imbalance is likely to be exacerbated as working couples are now faced with decisions about who will look after the children while schools and nurseries are closed. In the UK, government figures show that 40% of employed women work part-time, as opposed to just 13% of employed men, and that the gender pay gap for all employees stands at just over 17%. Thus, for many heterosexual couples, economic priorities will dictate that it is the woman’s job that is the more expendable.

For single parents, the situation is even more difficult. There is no partner with whom to share the juggling act of earning and caring, and other sources of support, such as grandparents, may be out of bounds due to social distancing measures. In the UK, there are around 1.8 million single parents, making up nearly a quarter of families with dependent children, and around 90% of them are women.

Research also indicates, perhaps surprisingly, that more women than men work in jobs that cannot be done from home.

In the UK, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), women are around one third more likely to work in a sector that has been adversely affected by the pandemic, such as retail, hospitality or travel.

It is too soon to know for how long some women’s economic and career prospects may be disadvantaged by these changes, but we do know from studies of the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa that, while income fell for everyone, income for men returned to its previous level faster than for women.

These studies also found that maternal and reproductive health suffered as resources were diverted to the emergency response. Between 2013 and 2016 in Sierra Leone, one of the countries worst affected by Ebola, more women died of obstetric complications than from the disease itself. Access to contraception is another service likely to suffer and, again in Sierra Leone, school closures were held to be partly to blame for a rise in teenage pregnancies during the outbreak. In countries

where women have less decision-making power than men, their needs are less likely to be met during an epidemic.

Early reports from the UK appear to bear out some of these theories. On 27 May, the IFS released a report on how parents have been balancing work and family during lockdown which found, amongst other things: ■■ Mothers are one-and-a-half times more likely than fathers to have either lost their job or quit since the lockdown began.

They are also more likely to have been furloughed.

■■ Mothers combine paid work with other activities – almost always childcare – in 47% of their work hours, compared with 30% of fathers’ work hours.

■■ In families where the father has stopped working, the parents share childcare and housework equally, but the mother also does five hours of paid work a day.

But there is reason to believe that some good may emerge too.

With employers being forced into embracing work from home schemes and teleconferencing, there is the hope that a more flexible business culture will result, with all the advantages this could bring to women who wish to combine career with family.

And for a small but significant number of couples, that difficult decision about whose job is the most expendable will have led to a reversal of traditional gender roles which may well persist after the crisis is over.

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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NWR 1960– 2020

So many women feel like I do, I ought to do something about it HOUSEWIFE MAUREEN NICOL, pictured left, reads Betty Jerman’s article in the Guardian Women’s page in which she muses on the fact that “Home and child-minding can have a blunting effect on a woman’s mind. But only she can sharpen it.”

This strikes such a chord with Maureen that, for the first time in her life, she writes a letter to the newspaper, suggesting that “Perhaps housebound wives with liberal interests and a desire to remain individuals could form a national register, so that whenever one moves one can contact like-minded friends.” The letter is published on 26 February.

In the fifties, women just did not go back to work, it just wasn’t expected.

From Maureen Nicol’s anniversary interview

Within a week, much to the postman’s surprise, she has received over 400 letters from women who wish to join. Although her original idea was to compile a simple list of names so that women would be able to contact each other, she realises that there is a need for something more. With the help of friends, she selects the most enthusiastic sounding enquirers from each area and asks them to take on the role of regional organiser.

Members begin to form themselves into groups which meet in each other’s homes for conversation and discussion, and soon start to organise activities as well. Groups are encouraged to make their own decisions about programme planning. Members want to know what other members are doing, and in July Maureen sends out the first national newsletter.

The organisation is named the Liberal-minded Housebound Housewives’ Register, soon shortened to the Housebound Wives’ Register, and by the end of the year it has 2,000 members.

However, Maureen is now considerably out of pocket and, knowing that other organisers are similarly affected, she suggests an annual subscription fee.

THE ORGANISATION becomes known as the National Housewives’ Register (NHR).

‘A BANKRUPT, DISORGANISED SUCCESS’ is how Brenda PrysJones describes the register when she takes over from Maureen as National Organiser, determined to put it on to a sound financial footing.

1960

1962

SO FAR THERE have been occasional local meetings between groups, but now 300 members attend the first National Conference in Buxton.

THE FIRST OVERSEAS groups are formed in Australia and Canada.

1965 1966 1967 1968

Within a week or so I got 400 letters and the postman was amazed. In fact, the letterbox fell off.

From Maureen Nicol’s anniversary interview

1970

IN ITS EARLY DAYS, the register is mentioned frequently in the press, with occasional radio and even television interviews.

Enquiries pour in and by 1965 membership has reached 6,000.

The first professionally printed newsletter appears.

NOW WE ARE 10! Membership rises from 10,000 to 15,000 as a result of widespread publicity. Until now, the National Organiser would be a volunteer working up to 60 hours a week and receiving only the reimbursement of their expenses. In 1970 two National Organisers are appointed and paid a small honorarium in recognition of the responsibility.

A standard national subscription of five shillings is introduced.

15,000 members 10

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

NWR 1960–2020 These were Maureen Nicol’s thoughts following the huge response to her letter to the Guardian Women’s page in 1960. Luckily for us, she did do something. Here’s how it turned out.

THE FIRST NATIONAL GROUP is elected at the Bristol Conference.

This follows a great deal of research and investigation in to how to limit the financial liability of the National Organiser and put the organisation on a more professional basis. NHR needs a constitution, which also requires the appointment of trustees, an elected team of officers and an annual general meeting. The officers are appointed from the National Group and include National Organiser, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor and Public Relations Officer.

NHR IS GRANTED charitable status and three trustees are appointed. They are founder Maureen Nicol, journalist and author Betty Jerman, and former Guardian Women’s page editor Mary Stott.

Membership is 22,000 and the number of groups reaches 1,000.

An International Conference is held in Buckinghamshire, and affiliation introduced for overseas groups.

There are now 800 groups and 19,000 members.

THE FIRST FULL-TIME Office Administrator is employed. The office becomes the administrative hub of the organisation allowing members of the National Group to spend more time on their specific jobs and personal help and advice.

25TH BIRTHDAY. Widespread publicity leads to 2,500 enquiries and the formation of over 50 new groups. A record 540 members attend the Silver Jubilee National Conference in Southampton. Past members organise a celebratory luncheon at the House of Commons.

21 TODAY! The LivelyMinded Women, a history of the first 20 years of NHR by Betty Jerman, is published

by Heinemann. A European conference is held in Brussels, and an anonymous birthday present of a computer means that the register can finally be computerised.

These reporters would come and ask mostly stupid questions, really.

The famous one was… will this lead to the breakup of the home?

From Maureen Nicol’s anniversary interview

Photo by Luke Tanis on Unsplash

1976

1978

1980 1981 1982

18TH BIRTHDAY. National and international publicity produces an overwhelming number of enquiries and both membership and the number of groups increases.

I wanted it always to be a loose organisation so anyone could join, with any views, any background, any size of house…

FALLING MEMBERSHIP – 17,600 – prompts the appointment of management consultants to analyse NWR and identify possible future directions.

WE BECOME WOMEN! Feeling that the term housewives no longer accurately describes the membership, a postal ballot of members is held and results in a change of name to National Women’s Register.

1984 1985 1986 1987

NATIONAL ORGANISERS have thus far worked in their own homes, somehow accommodating all of the material and equipment they needed, but now office premises are acquired to cope with an ever-increasing workload.

Membership reaches 24,000 and there are affiliated groups in 28 overseas countries.

1989

NHR BECOMES a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee. This transfers financial liability from the trustees to the membership, so that, in the unlikely event of NHR being wound up in debt, each member would be liable up to a guaranteed limit of £1.

From Maureen Nicol’s anniversary interview

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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NWR 1960– 2020 THE BIG THREE ZERO! Again, the publicity brings many enquiries.

Members decide that NWR should build on its original aims, update its image and investigate a regional structure. The national office moves to Norwich.

Photo by Andrew Hurley

1990 1991

MAUREEN NICOL RETIRES as trustee and is given Honorary Life Membership.

The magazine, renamed ‘The Register’ is now mailed directly to members.

1993

Photo by Miryam León on Unsplash

AN OBE FOR ‘services to women in founding NWR in 1960’ is awarded to Maureen Nicol in the Queen’s Birthday honours.

231 groups take part in the first National Telephone Treasure Trail, organised by Abbots Langley group.

1995

NWR’S NEW IMAGE is launched, and the strategic plan is published. This includes the introduction of Area Organisers to improve communication between members and the National Group, and the creation of Regional Organisers within the National Group. Regional Organisers are to work with Area Organisers to increase members’ awareness of the national organisation, encourage new groups, and help existing ones to form closer links with other groups in the area and take full advantage of their membership.

Mary Stott retires as trustee and is made the first Honorary Life Member.

1997

AS INSUFFICIENT THE NWR ARCHIVE VOLUNTEERS come is professionally forward to maintain catalogued and can the National now be viewed on Group, a ballot of request at the Women’s members decides Library, at the London on the creation of School of Economics. two new paid staff In memory of Mary – a membership Stott, who died in 2002 coordinator and aged 95, the annual a marketing NWR Woman of the coordinator. The Year Mary Stott Award National Group is is instituted. dissolved.

1999 2000

2003

GROUPS AROUND THE COUNTRY celebrate NWR’s ruby anniversary. An article in the Guardian commemorates our origins. There are nearly 1,200 enquiries and increasing interest in NWR. NWR GOES DIGITAL. Member and former National Group Treasurer Jackie Harber creates NWR’s first website.

The first full colour magazine is published, and the first colour version of the Annual Report.

News and views FROM THE BEGINNING, members wanted to exchange news and ideas with other members. Some areas produced local news sheets, then in July 1960 Maureen Nicol sent out the first national newsletter, run off on a borrowed duplicator, giving news of group activities, spread of membership, profiles of members, and booklists. At first these appeared every few months, but eventually a regular pattern of spring and autumn newsletters was established.

The first professionally printed newsletter appeared in 1965, its format changing as the register developed.

Building Bridges and Crossing Boundaries - Bristol 2014

Inspiring talk on forced marriage

J

asvinder Sanghera CBE received a standing ovation after her passionate speech on the subject of forced marriage and honour-based abuse.

An advocate for the rights of those experiencing forced marriage and honour based abuse, she is the founder of Karma Nirvana (peace and enlightentment), a campaign born out of her own experiences, and shared her strong feelings on this most horrifying of ‘customs’ with a rapt audience.

...and Bristol fashion Shockingly and sadly it is often the family women who are the main problem, but Jasvinder emphasised that, in order to initiate the demise of the tradition, it is also essential that religious leaders say firmly that there is not, in fact, any written part of their religion that legitimises forced marriage.

At the time of her own challenges, there was no law that could be enforced against this practice as the government had said it did not want to oppose any community traditions. Jasvinder has been a leading light in the campaign to criminalise forced marriage and was able to announce that, since this year, it is now a specific criminal offence in England and Wales – a fact that warranted a huge round of applause.

Born in the UK of Indian Sikh parents, she fought against her family’s tradition whereby girls are taken out of school at the age of 15 and married to men they had never met. Her older sister was one such victim. At 14, she herself was shown a photo I was on the sixth floor of the Tate Modern, surrounded by a fantastic view o of man she was going to marry, but emphatically refused. Her London and ten minutes into a preparatory workshop a week before ‘Silver Action mother padlocked her in her room but she managed to escape Amid twenty-five other participants and two facilitators, all around 60, sporting and was found by police who actually (and unusually) believed varying her when she said she was being forced into marriage by hershades of grey hair, assertive, excited and exuding ‘woman power’ I felt a little uneasy.

I had read the circular from about ‘Grey Hair Action’. I took in the word own parents. The outcome was that her parents disowned her ‘grey hair, an art work, inclusion and social relevance, the Tate Modern because her obstinate action affected their perceived ‘family conversations, participation’ and ‘400 women’. I skimmed the word ‘activist’ bu honour’. Her first book Shame resulted in threats to her life.

What the heck am I doing here?

12

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

Silve

noted ‘Housewives Register’. So I had only myself to blame if I felt uncomfortable.

In 1993, Jasvinder set up a helpline for teenage girls, as exercises at tables of five were focused on activism. There was a time line on accusing their family is very difficult. It gets 850 callsThe a month.

NWR 1960–2020

2020, NWR’s Diamond Anniversary!

I got it started, and that was the main thing, really

Diamond Day lunches take place as planned on 26 February (page 4), then the year loses its sparkle with lockdown in March. NWR and its members learn new ways to support each other (page 8). We find ourselves back on the Guardian Women’s page, and National Organiser Natalie Punter and Trustee Jo Thomson are interviewed

by Jenni Murray on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Listen at http://tiny.cc/n3kpk

From Maureen Nicol’s anniversary interview.

You can listen to the whole of Maureen’s anniversary interview with Natalie Punter at https://youtu.be/EIeNfG9M_xo

2010 2012 2014 2019

HALF A CENTURY! Members gather for a variety of golden events countrywide and two ‘Golden Gatherings’, one in York and the other in Reading.

THIS YEAR sees the introduction of the Big Read, and we venture into social media with our first Facebook page, and several discussion groups.

nwR TechnoLogy

is where it’s at, The digital classroom

so fire up that brain with lifelong learning

Recovering a

O

FEATURES – Mark Rothko, The

Tiger’s Eye, 1947

‘On ce you stop

nwR NWRaRTS Life

Write to us learn ing you start dying’

Photo by Piotr

Rachel Barker Paintings Conservator at Tate

‘a picture lives by comp anionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. it dies by the same token. it is therefore a risky act to send it out into the world. how often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfee ling and the cruelty of the impotent who would extend their infliction universally.’

NWR TechNology fellow students and tutors. disconnected from your your progress but no exams, There are quizzes to check Futurelearn for pleasure. e Central perfect when learning Jenny Dudley | NWR Harborn History to Science, from You’ll find courses by international The courses are offered more. and Health to Creative Arts institutions, when universities and cultural may be addictive. Just One word of warning, it with a suggested time course catches my eye another each lasting a few weeks break, a I think I will take a week. adventure. another commitment of a few hours on work and and I am off again and place to go online You can choose the time Tablet Mobile are interactive with learners Desktop/laptop at your own pace. The courses of the course. questions at each stage posting comments and you are but you never feel that www.futurelearn.com You may be working alone

ash n Sessler on Unspl Photo by Jasmi

Rothko

The restoration of Untitled (Black on Maroon )

NWR MAKES A COMMITMENT to become and remain carbon neutral, and to improve our accessibility as an organisation.

Photo by John O’Nolan on Unsplash

Successive editors widened its scope to include informative or controversial articles by members and regular policy articles, confirming it as the accepted forum for discussion of the organisation’s affairs. Advertising – strictly controlled – was first accepted in 1986.

In 1993 the magazine was given the title The Register, and mailed directly to members. Apart from the cover, it was still black and white only, but in 2000 it became a full colour publication. Eventually, in 2014, it moved away from the newsletter model and adopted the magazine format that we have today, aiming to provide publicity for NWR as well as a space for both the organisation and members to air their views and exchange information.

NWR aRTS nwR ARTS

BOTH THE WEBSITE and the magazine get a new look.

The magazine moves away from a newsletter format and is renamed “NWR Magazine”.

Khan Academy

Editor’s picks y, if you only

NWR

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S REGISTER

Duolingo

AUTUMN 2019

easy way to learn Duolingo is a quick and this daunting task

Tate

Dame Esther Rantzen gets candid about loneliness image: Jaap Boon ©

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were made at the

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exploring diversity and reconciling our differ ences all images on pages 12—14 (except fig1): Rothko painting © Kate and christopher Rothko Rothko prizel / DacS 2016; photography © Tate 2016

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n 7 October 2012, artist As I was already familiar with Mark Rothko’s Untitled team received offers of the technique and materials support (Black on Maroon), of from colleagues in other the paintings, I was asked UK to be from 1958, was vandalised and international museums the project conservator but whilst on display at Tate . Although also from industry such Modern. the circumstances that as the led to this her friends got to Woodstock, saysThe bottom right corner of the painting opportunity Dow Chemical Company. were was tagged with black hugely regrettable, ink. Tate’s nine I considered The search for the right ic song of that name, ‘We were half the reversing of this Seagram murals have iconic solvent status Little was known about vandalism to be the most the graffiti ink, important but I wasn’t one of them. Still, thewithin the collection and although its properties and, most challenge of my career only importantly, one of them was targeted, to date. their its reversibility. We had Other members of the utdoor music festival was alluring, interrelatedness caused received treatment team the effect of the included a photograph of the bottle Bronwyn Ormsby, one damage to be particularly of ink which was invented. By the time I was able of devastating. Tate’s Conservatio the vandal had been carrying Intreat n Scientists and the days following when he was arrested. It was called Patricia Smithen, Head e American continent, (a very bigdiscussions focused the incident, ‘Molotow’ of Conservation on the most likely for ink and research into its Programme (to Sept 2015). method for reversing the characteristics g the first in my family to graduate damage. ensued, enabling the selection Also, a committee was As set a conservator up my of a at to oversee refined list of potential the project which included ged to skive off from domesticityin the conservatio specialising solvent systems members n of modern and that the of might Rothko’s family, conservator be used to remove the da. Somehow, I did get myself tocontemporary paintings at Tate, s, ink. However, testing and conservation scientists, I had application been art It historians part 1973. of a team that surface of these systems couldn’t and Tate curators. In the h happened at Watkins Glen in cleaned the murals be carried days that back in 2000. out knew on followed I the delicate painting and so the incident, the treatment ainly remember losing everyone a testing surface would have to be a caravan of departing

WOMEN Connect

TALK Learn DISCOVER GROW

support SHARE JOY WALK CELEBRATE DANCE

BEFRIEND DISCUSS RESEARCH

2020 VISION

came to accept, respect and become part of the chaotic, sometim es unruly, middle Eastern way of life...

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

13

Members of the Women’s Land Army harvesting beets, circa 1943.

Country journeys As part of their Diamond Day celebration, Eastern Region NWR members heard from speaker Sue Stennett about how her experiences as a young woman in the rural Lincolnshire of the sixties differed from those of her parents and grandparents.

When Betty Jerman wrote of women “squeezed in like sardines in suburbia”, she obviously wasn’t thinking of those in the farming communities that I grew up with but, although not physically squeezed in, they too had to deal with the assumptions of others about how their lives should be conducted.

For far too long it was thought that women’s brains couldn’t cope with intellectual thoughts, both by men and by quite a few women. My great-great-great-great-grandmother, born in 1751, was somewhat unhappily married to an increasingly dour Quaker Minister, who banned music in the home and thought all art frivolous. This is part of a poem she wrote to a friend: Alack the poor husband how woeful his case, Who marries a woman of genius and taste!

Instead of a pudding you would make him a poem; Forgetting perhaps the observance you owe him; Be writing an elegy, an ode or a sonnet When you ought to be making a cap or a bonnet.

Instead of attending affairs in your kitchen And minding your business of darning and stitching, Perhaps you’d be reading some book so bewitching.

So, you see, I wonder if women haven’t always found domesticity alone frustrating! And suspect that, although your 14

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

amazing organisation was only formed 60 years ago, women have sought the friendship of others with whom to discuss and share experiences throughout time, as she clearly did.

I was born in 1946, and was therefore 14 when NWR was founded. My brain then was just full of trying to get out of doing homework, spending time with my pony and being excited about the new music of the time.

I’m sure my mother would have joined an organisation such as yours if she had had the time or the energy. Born in 1919, Mum was 18, and her sister Marjorie 12, when their mother died in 1937. Their father was an engineer in Ceylon who visited his family every five years. He had come home at my mother’s request when she realised how ill my grandmother was.

Were it not for an amazing PE teacher at her high school, I feel Mum might have had a very different life. She was very good at games of all sorts and it was the games mistress who took her for her interview at Bedford PE college.

Three years later, before starting to teach, she volunteered for war work in the summer holidays and was put on a farm near Lincoln, to help bring in the harvest. At the end of her employment the boss said to her, “Please come and see us tomorrow, we have something for you.” She cycled four miles out to South Carlton to be given a jar of jam for her six weeks work – would they have done that to a man? However, her reward was not just the jar of jam, she had also met her future husband. He was soon to join the army and any thought of marriage had to be put off for another four years.

City girl Mum had to adapt to pumping water from the well In fact, his parents disapproved of Mum: she lived down the hill in Lincoln and was the daughter of an engineer, while Dad’s father was a well-respected doctor and they lived in Minster Yard with maids and a chauffeur. Yes, times have changed!

Mum taught at Howell’s School for Girls in Denbigh, North Wales. Her best friend was fellow teacher Rosie, a Cambridge geography graduate – although she had to wait until 1998 to receive her full degree. As a university graduate, she was paid £226 per annum, and Mum, with her college qualifications, £183. Out of this, both paid £70 a year for board and lodging.

Rosie, who was to become my godmother, was the first teacher at the school to be allowed to stay on and teach after marriage, and Mum the second after her marriage in 1944. Both, however, had to leave once pregnant.

My dad had been brought up to inherit money but, by the time he was demobbed in 1946, the money was largely gone.

He spent a year at agricultural college before becoming a farm

CHANGING TIMES

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore!

Congresbury group remember their home lives in the 60s, not always with affection!

There were some of who were still (just) of an age in single figures back in the 60s, but most were teenagers, and all remember the decade with a fond nostalgia tinged with a little groan about the chores.

There were several recurring themes during our online reminiscing, the main one being the weekly wash! Many remember the arrival of a twin tub, to the delight of their mothers, and one of us remembers still having a UDB in 1960 – a single tub washer stored Under the Draining Board.

This monstrosity was dragged out every Monday to wash the clothes, which were then lifted into the sink with huge wooden tongs before being taken laboriously to the mangle, often outside the kitchen door, to be wrung out. Imagine that with all the heavy cotton sheets we had at the time. This always seemed to take an age so Monday supper was invariably cold meat, potatoes and pickles, or salad from the garden in summer. Immersion heaters not only gave us the hot water for laundry but also for baths. The cry of “who’s used all the hot water?” was common. Who else remembers handkerchiefs boiling in a pot on the stove?

Cold slabs with metal mesh covers were an attempt to keep our food fresh in the pantry or scullery and, as time went on, we remember the domestic fridge gradually coming into more homes. No one had a freezer at that time, so slightly off food was consumed anyway, as long as it wasn’t too bad! Waste not want not was the mantra!

Everyone remembered the freedom we had as children, when we could be out playing with friends with instructions from our mothers reminding us of our limits. These were often forgotten or ignored, as together we played chasing and

foreman, then a farm manager, and finally taking on a tenanted farm of 200 acres at Hackthorn. Mum and I followed him around the county, living in very cold, old-fashioned cottages and farm houses. City girl Mum had to adapt to pumping water from the well, and lighting paraffin lamps and those black coal-fired ranges. As the years went on we got mains water and progressed from lamp-lighting to a windmill generator, and then to a big, smelly, noisy engine, which often refused to start!

This was the only time I remember Dad swearing. Electricity finally arrived in the late 50s.

Mum and the other farmers’ wives of the time would never have been called a farmer. Yet they were responsible for PR, HR, administration, and the nutrition, health and hygiene needs of the workforce, with family members and often others drafted in to help. Cooking then was not just bunging a pizza in the oven: even on the very busiest of days it was cooking from scratch, as well as bottling, jamming and baking.

Dad was not a bad farmer, but he was a hopeless businessman and the farm foundered. My amazing Mum went back to teaching, as well as coping with three children, helping

hiding games in the woods for hours on end during school holidays. A good old-fashioned country life! As one member said “From the age of about six I was able to take a 20-minute walk to primary school on my own, past woods and down deserted country lanes. So different for our grandchildren, 60 years on”.

In 1960, aged 16, one member went to Germany to live with a family and attend school for a term. At home her parents had no telephone, and so had to wait three days for a postcard to let them know of her safe arrival. In fact, few had telephones, and all remembered exactly how long it took them to walk or run to the nearest telephone box. Few cars and limited transport options was the norm. Another remembers the long journey for a school trip to Switzerland when she was 13. She had been back at home for a week when her parents got

Few really thought at the time about how life was for their mothers the postcard they had given her to post on arrival. Only five words were allowed, otherwise it was deemed a letter and the postage went up!

Our mothers coped with all the laundry, housework, shopping, cooking, ensuring children were immaculately turned out for school every day, often taking part-time jobs to help make ends meet. Usually, the men went to work and came home expecting dinner on the table. Some were more willing than others to help with chores, but that would be perhaps peeling potatoes and cleaning shoes. Sadly, not many women had much time to garden, so that was done mostly done by the men.

Individual circumstances will determine whether these were remembered as good or bad times, and few really thought at the time about how life was for their mothers, but we now think our mothers were amazing. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore!

Hilary Hiscox, Congresbury NWR

with farm duties – including the daily egg washing – and managing a five-bedroom farmhouse.

I can see her now after our high tea, sitting down with a cuppa and falling asleep for 10 minutes before getting up and working on until bedtime. She was a strong woman, and definitely kept the family afloat.

As a teenager in the sixties I loved every aspect of the farm and farming, but it never occurred to me that I would farm.

At Lincoln Christ’s Hospital Girls’ High School we were given a decent academic education which, lamentably, I didn’t appreciate. At that school you were either a success and went to university, or you weren’t and went down the hill to the tech college to learn shorthand and typing – and become some man’s secretary.

Mum, after her experiences, was determined that her daughters just as much as her son should have training, a role, and a means of financial independence. I was lucky: I have several school friends who were not allowed to have a job – mostly, I have to admit, in the farming community. They had been sent to the sort of school that taught them the social NWR Magazine 1960–2020

15

CHANGING TIMES

A what?

In 1981 I went to the NWR National Conference at Warwick University. The topic was ‘What Price Progress?’ While we were chatting over coffee before the conference began, one lady rather proudly announced that they were getting a computer. This was before home PCs or the internet. Everyone looked at her with amazement.

How things have changed. Most homes have a computer now, although not all. If I had written this in 1981, it would have been on a manual typewriter or even by hand!

Daphne Williams, Shrewsbury NWR graces, flower arranging, Cordon Bleu cookery and so on, and then had to come home, help mother, and make a financially suitable marriage. They are angry to this day.

So, after some family negotiations, in October 1964 I set off to swinging London to become a student nurse at The Royal Free Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road. My grandfather had wanted me to train at Lincoln County Hospital, where he was quite a bigwig – which is precisely why I didn’t want to go there!

London in the sixties! Yes, it seems that was where everyone wanted to be. But, although our skirts were shortened, music filled our leisure time, and we patrolled the Kings Road, Carnaby Street and Biba, it felt at the time as if we never really got the chance to be involved with the swinging sixties. We bought very little, because we had very little money – £11 a month after our board and lodging was paid for, and getting into debt was not an option. Hospital rules meant we had to be in by 10.30pm, although they didn’t notice if you were out all night. Several times we slept in deck chairs in St James’s park, The former Royal Free Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road

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NWR Magazine 1960–2020

and the poor girls who had rooms with windows onto the fire escape suffered very interrupted sleep!

We had our transistor radios, ginger biscuits and each other, that much needed sisterhood after a bad day, the death of a patient one had grown fond of, or seemingly continual criticism from Sister. There was no counselling in those days and little praise. Many left before the end of training, and pregnancy meant you were out immediately. When I went to the family planning clinic before I was to be married in 1967, I needed a letter from the vicar confirming the date of my marriage before I could have contraception – the pill, surely the most massive gamechanger for women over the last 60 years.

However, that training taught me a resilience, the ability to prioritise and a very practical approach to coping with life that I am grateful for, and which helped with my new role as a farmer’s wife, although I had difficulties with my motherin-law, who was horrified that I continued to work as a staff nurse. Of course, that stopped when I became pregnant. Child care was extremely limited and the prevailing culture – and my mother-in-law – would not have tolerated my working. I did, however, become more involved with the farm and especially the pedigree suckler herd of cattle that we had. I became pretty good at calving cows and the after care of mother and baby, and had some good years. Eventually I became quite good friends with mother-in-law too: she softened, and I think I became a bit less threatened and a bit more understanding. And she taught me all I know about gardening!

Things have changed since then, and the world of agriculture has many more women involved in all aspects of farming and the associated industries. Many are running the family farm, or at least taking an equal part in the decision making, although they may still recognise the situation in which someone arrives on the farm and asks them for ‘The Boss’.

So let’s carry on improving the lot for ourselves, our fellow women and men, and here’s to NWR, carrying on being involved in that improvement, as Maureen Nicol wrote in that first letter to the Guardian ‘supporting housebound and working wives with liberal interests with a desire to remain individuals’. Well done Maureen, and thank you!

CHANGING TIMES

The house I grew up in

Glastonbury Tor

I spent my childhood in a Somerset village called Street, which is where Clarks shoes were made and which is two miles from Glastonbury.

In 1960 I lived with my parents and brother and sister in a newly built semi-detached house on the edge of the village.

The house was at the bottom of a cul-de-sac at the end of a row of private houses built behind a council estate. We lived on the edge of open fields with views across the Somerset Levels to Glastonbury Tor. The house was a standard three bedroom semi with a bathroom, and a shed in the garden. The bathroom had a sink and a toilet, but no shower. We had no car and no telephone.

Cooking was by electricity: there was no gas. We had coal fires to heat the downstairs front and back rooms, but no other heating – the first thing my father did when we moved in was to build a coal bunker! The bedrooms had lino on the floors, and the front and back downstairs rooms had lino too, with a square of carpet in the middle of each room. How I longed for fitted carpets!

Apart from a sweet shop at the top of the estate, the main shops in the village were at least a fifteen minute walk away, but we were well served by mobile shops: a butcher and a

My life as a child was very restricted and I was often bored fishmonger called weekly and a van from the Co-op came every Friday – this van was big enough to walk into so that we could browse the shelves of (mostly tinned) goods.

In the smallish garden my father grew flowers and vegetables. He also planted fruit trees.

We walked to our secondary school and usually came home for lunch. From the centre of the village we could get buses to Bristol, Wells, Taunton and Bridgwater – if we could afford the fares. There was also a local train station near Glastonbury from which we used to go on a tortuous journey involving two changes and much waiting around to visit my grandmother in Southampton.

We had moved into that house two years previously. Before that we lived in a rented terraced house on the High Street

within walking distance of the shops. This was an old house with no bathroom and an outside toilet. There was no running hot water. The kitchen had a stone flagged floor. There was a range in the breakfast room and open fires in the front room and dining room – only lit on Sundays – where we burned turf.

The bath was in the kitchen and at one end there was a gasfired copper geyser which heated the water. The geyser was only fired up once a week: at other times we had a bath in a tin bath in front of the range. My mother cooked on a gas cooker and there was an electric light in the centre of the ceiling of each room, but upstairs there were no power sockets: we had little oil lamps as night lights.

This house had a very long garden where we loved to play and where my father grew fruit and vegetables.

While we lived here, we went to junior school in Glastonbury: my father would take us to the bus stop in the morning and put us on the bus, then we would walk the short distance to school.

After school we would catch another bus to Street and my mother would meet us.

My parents took out a mortgage with the council to pay for the house. My mother was determined that we should not spend our lives in rented accommodation, although I know my parents found the mortgage repayments very onerous.

In 2020 I live with my partner in a large Edwardian semidetached house in a south west suburb of Sheffield. The house has four bedrooms, a study and two bathrooms – which include two showers! We have gas-fired central heating and fitted carpets. There is a garage which could accommodate two small cars. We have a fairly big garden, but we don’t grow vegetables. Around the corner there is a pub and a Tesco Express with a garage. Over the road there is an Indian restaurant, and other restaurants and takeaways are within walking distance. We have a car, but the bus stop is very close and we can easily get to other parts of Sheffield and to the train station by bus, using our bus passes. We own the house – we have both paid off the mortgages we had on other properties.

Life is very different for me now from what it was in 1960. I live in a city with easy access to everything I need, including many different forms of entertainment. I would not like to go back to living in the country. My life as a child in Street was very restricted and I was often bored. It was difficult to maintain contact with my friends during the school holidays.

A strange legacy of living in the two houses of my childhood is that I much prefer to live in older properties. My mother hated the rented house on the High Street because of its stone floors and lack of facilities. She loved the new modern semi with its bathroom and running hot water. My sister and I hated the new house and loved the old one because it had more character. Now when we get together, a lot of our conversation consists of reminiscences about the ‘old house’.

Eilis Coffey, Sheffield/Fulwood NWR NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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WOMEN AND FASHION

New found freedoms Fashion conscious young women of the 60s found a new world opening up to them, writes collector and speaker Ruth Lowe.

Remember the drab and dutiful 1950s, when teenagers all looked like ‘mini mums’? Fast forward to the 1960s, when everything changed. It was a time of education for all, which enabled teenagers to take advantage of new opportunities and attend art colleges and universities. Now designers hailed from all parts of the country and all walks of life, and haute couture was strictly for grown-ups. Full employment meant teenagers had money in their pockets to spend on clothes, magazines and make-up. And make-up was revolutionised thanks to Mary Quant – sometimes even men wore it.

The austerity of the post-war years was drawing to a close: clothes rationing had ended in 1949, and the young baby boomers reaching their teens in the 1960s demanded fashions that they actually wanted to wear. So, when Mary Quant opened her King’s Road boutique, Bazaar, fashion was redefined forever.

Mary Quant was the first to design specifically for the teenage market. She was born in Blackheath, London on 11 February 1930, and started her career making hats for the milliner Eric of Brook Street. When she opened Bazaar in 1955, it was the first boutique in the country. Goods were filtering very slowly back into the stores after the war and, as it was hard to obtain fashionable clothing and accessories, Mary concentrated on items such as scarves, gloves, bags, belts, hats and false collars to enhance our appearance – a best seller at 2/6d each was a men’s plastic collar, they sold in their thousands. We all used these collars, scarves, gloves etc to dress up our outfits.

From Ruth’s collection, clockwise from right: Mary Quant Afoot shoes, Samuel Sherman Dollyrockers dress, Mary Quant make up set, Laura Ashley Boho dress

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NWR Magazine 1960–2020

Mary started by making her clothes herself, working from her bedsit and adapting her designs from paper patterns such as Butterick, Style and Simplicity. Later, she produced her own range of home sewing patterns – we will all remember using such patterns to make our dresses, inspired by photos of the models we idolised in the numerous contemporary magazines: Petticoat, Vogue, Honey, Nova, Queen, Cosmopolitan, Jackie. Young women waited with bated breath for the next issue to see the changing fashions Mary Quant, and the “five-point cut” that these publications brought us.

Which brings us on to the young photographers of the time, Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy, David Bailey, Terry O’Neill, Antony Armstrong-Jones and others too numerous to mention here. They enjoyed iconic status, becoming almost as famous as the models and film stars they photographed for the fashion magazines.

Who would have dreamt that within a decade there would be a man on the moon? This proved a godsend for designers, who could make use of the new silver materials that had been developed for space exploration, together with numerous other wonderful fabrics now swamping the market – rayon, viscose, silk, heavy twills, sequins, beads, denim, plastics, Corfam (fake leather), transparent tulles, chiffons and jersey fabrics. These became all the rage, and designers such as Pierre Cardin, Paco Rabanne and Mary Quant used them copiously in their designs.

The 1960s were an age of fashion innovation – drainpipe jeans, hipster trousers, capri pants, cravats and unisex clothing.

Designs were straighter, less fussy and easy to run up in a few hours. Footwear was comfortable: we had flat shoes, pumps, knee-high pull-on boots, slingback shoes and chisel toe shoes, loafers and moccasins.

We wore berets and floppy hats – now fashion items – beads, denim, fake fur: we even dressed ourselves in PVC and had paper dresses and knickers. Underwear was revolutionised in this decade with bras, pants and slips in lovely silky materials and oh so comfortable – who remembers liberty bodices, horrid things? There were pretty empire line dresses, both full-length and mini, little cardigans and jumpers: we were no longer the twin set and pearls brigade. Bow ties for women, fashion wigs, chokers, three quarter-length sleeves, smock dresses, baby doll dresses, pinafore dresses, patterned and coloured

Photo by Ryan Moreno on Unsplash

WOMEN AND FASHION tights – 60s fashion didn’t confine itself to one look only. Lace and frills also featured: the first dresses that Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin designed for the influential 21 Shop in Knightsbridge department store Woollands made use of frills.

Denim was much loved by the fashion industry for its versatility – it was used for jeans, jackets, waistcoats, bags, coats and much more. And you could now buy jeans cut for the female form instead of having to buy men’s jeans.

The 60s gave us Carnaby Street, world renowned to this day. It was packed with boutiques, nine of them owned by a Glaswegian named John Stephen, a very astute young man.

After leaving art school he opened his first boutique in Beak Street, Soho in 1956. A fire at these premises caused a move around the corner to Carnaby Street the following year.

Many more young designers followed: Samuel Sherman of Dollyrockers fame, Laura Ashley, Jeff Banks, John Bates (Jean Varon), Zandra Rhodes, Ossie Clark and his wife Celia Birtwell, Gina Fratini and Stephen Marks, amongst others. Men’s underwear also got a big update, courtesy of Bill Green and his Vince boutique. If you wanted way out clothing you visited boutiques like Nigel Weymouth’s Granny Takes A Trip, or Mr Fish, owned by the eponymous Michael Fish, whose customers included David Bowie and Mick Jagger.

Hair styles changed too with Vidal Sassoon’s crops and bobs, in particular the iconic “five-point cut” sported by Mary Quant – a spike of hair at each ear and a W shape at the nape of the neck. We no longer needed an ironmongery shop’s worth of kirby grips and a gallon of hair lacquer: these styles meant you just washed your hair, shook your head and it all fell into place. Life was exciting and we needed the time saved to go out and enjoy ourselves.

The world of entertainment was also undergoing a revolution. Music was the mainstay of most teenagers’ lives: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Kinks, the Move and the Animals were just a few of the new groups springing up. We spent our time bopping the night away at the local youth club or dance, dressed – of course – in our mini skirts and coloured tights. Another hang-out for teenagers was the high street espresso bar, where we could while away many a happy hour drinking coffee or hot chocolate and listening to the latest hits on the jukebox.

Many people now had televisions and could watch programmes like The Avengers, That Was The Week That Was, Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go and Thank Your Lucky Stars. We all wanted to see our idols perform their latest record. On Sunday afternoons we tuned in to Pick of the Pops on the BBC Light Programme to find out what was number one in the Top 20 chart. It wasn’t until 1967 that Radio 1 made its appearance, created to meet the

Left: The Beatles Below: The Rolling Stones

demand for non-stop music created by the now outlawed pirate radio stations. Small transistor radios and turntables were the gift of choice. The new music found its way into the cinema as well, with films like Summer Holiday, with Cliff Richard, and the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night.

By the end of the 1960s our homes were following the fashion trend, with bold shades of orange, mustard, burgundy and yellow. It was also the decade that saw the rise of the throwaway society – razors, plates, cutlery and glasses were some of the items that could now be disposable. One designer who took this to heart was Barbara Hulanicki, founder of Biba. Her philosophy was to make clothing cheap enough for teenagers to be able to wear an item a few times and then discard it for the next in-thing. It worked, and High Street chains such as Wallis, Richard Shops, Etam, Chelsea Girl, Miss Selfridge and C&A followed suit. Barbara is still designing to this day.

I hope this provides a glimpse into 1960s Britain – I’m sure you will all have your own memories and agree it was a wonderful time to be a teenager. Why not catch up with me at the NWR conference in September*, where I will be presenting my talk on Mary Quant and her 1960s fashions, with original clothes and memorabilia? *At the time of publication, the NWR conference was being rearranged to take place online, due to Covid-19.

NWR Magazine 1960–2020

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