I grew up in Nottingham, and don't really remember anyone that I knew having a 'real' radio. Rediffusion cable radio served the whole city, and that continued as far as I recall into the 1960s. Just a speaker on the wall, and a switch to select channels. By 'channels' during the war years of WW2 it was just 'Home' and 'Forces'. All of the regional stations ceased their regional transmissions, which would have otherwise have been an excellent direction finding aid to enemy aircraft, so regional stations all broadcast the same programmes simultaneously. After 1953, when the Coronation on the Queen gave a boost to TV penetration, Rediffusion added the TV sound channel to their radio channels so that you could listen to TV broadacsts without being able to view them. It's surprising how much you could understand without a picture! For those who could afford it, Rediffusion also rented TVs from the mid 50s, but we didn't have one until 1959, when I was 20.
I wonder how many vintage radio collectors realise that many, if not most, of the ubiquitous Bush DAC90As were not bought but were rented in the hundreds of thousands from the likes of Radio Rentals. That's why they're so commonplace today. In the late 1950s, early 60s, RR gave their rental customers the option to buy the sets for ten shillings, which many did. By the early to mid 1960s, many home had either a rented TV or a bought one, and as the song goes 'video killed the radio star' and DAC90As were either junked, as ours was - put out for the bin men, or relgated to the loft, (if you had a loft that is!). Really, only when radios in cars became a standard item, and car ownership increase to its present levels, did radio have a reannaisance. The sheer volume of DAC90As is what makes them an affordable and popular set with collectors. An icon of the late 40s - mid 50s, but they're never going to appreciate much in value in the same way that much rarer sought after sets have done, sch as the circular Ekcos.
I will forever associate the DAC90A with post-war austerity. I've got as couple, of course - who hasn't, but I think they look drab, austere and utilitarian, as beffited the time they came into being - 1948.
In an eariler posting, I mentioned that rationing didn't end until the year I left school - 1954. We tend to think that back in the 30s and 40s, Britain was failry self-sufficient, as regards home produced food, unlike the 'food miles' about which so much is said today. But that simply wasn't true. At the start of World War II the UK imported 20 million tons of foodstuffs per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of cereals and fats. The population would have been somewhere between 46 million in the 1931 census and 52 million in the 1951 census. (There was no census in 1941 for wartime security reasons, and the fact that so many people were on the move due to the war effort). It was one of the principal strategies of the enemy to attack shipping bound for the UK, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission.
To deal with extreme shortages, the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. Each person had to register at local shops, and was provided with a ration book that contained coupons. The shopkeeper was provided with enough food for registered customers. When purchasing goods, the purchaser had to give the shopkeeper a coupon as well as money. On 8 January 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and canned fruit.
One of the few foods not rationed were fish and chips! The price of fish increased considerably as the war progressed, Rationing continued after the end of the war. In fact, it became stricter after the war ended than during the hostilities. Bread, which was not rationed during the war, was rationed from 1946 to 1948; potato rationing began in 1947. Petrol rationing ended on 26 May 1950 when I was aged 11. Sweet rationing ended in February 1953, and sugar rationing ended in September 1953, however the end of all food rationing did not come until 4 July 1954, with meat the last to go. Petrol rationing was briefly reintroduced in late 1956 during the Suez Crisis but ended again on 14 May 1957. All advertising of petrol on the then recently-introduced ITV was banned for a period.
Wartime rations per person:
Bacon and ham: 4oz (100g)
Meat: To the value of 1s.2d (6p today). Sausages were not rationed but difficult to get; offal (liver, kidneys, tripes) was originally unrationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.
Cheese: 2oz(50g) sometimes it went up to 4oz (100g) and even up to 8oz (225g).
Margarine: 4oz (100g)
Butter: 2oz (50g)
Milk: 3 pints(1800ml) occasionally dropping to 2 pints (1200ml). Household milk (skimmed or dried) was available : 1 packet per four weeks.
Sugar: 8oz (225g)
Jam: 1lb (450g) every two months.
Tea: 2oz (50g).
Eggs: 1fresh egg a week if available but often only one every two weeks. Dried eggs 1 packet every four weeks.
Sweets: 12oz (350g) every four weeks
In 1944 thirty allocations of one egg each were made. Children and some invalids were allowed three a week; expectant mothers two on each allocation. 1 egg per week or 1 packet (makes 12 "eggs") of egg powder per month (vegetarians were allowed two eggs)
All schoolkids had to have a weekly dose of 'VIROL' a sweet and sticky extract of malt, to ensure they got the proper ration of vitamins. I rather liked it, but not the daily doese of cod liver oil, taken on a spoon, quickly followed by Ministry of Food orange juice concentrate as a bribe to wash it down!
'British Restaurants':
Restaurants were exempt from rationing, which led to resentment, as the rich could supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and extravagantly. To restrict this, rules were put into force: no meal could cost more than five shillings; no meal could consist of more than three courses; meat and fish couldn't be served at the same sitting. Establishments known as British Restaurants supplied another almost universal experience of eating away from home. British Restaurants were run by local authorities, who set them up in various premises such as schools and church halls. I don't think they ceased operation until the mid 1950s.
'Pig Clubs' were very popular. People joined the club, kept all their food scraps, potato peelings and the like, and had a share of the pig when it had been suitably fattened! Anyone who went to school in the 1940s/50s will recall the pigswill bins into which the remnants of school meals were tipped, to decompose in the sun, giving off the most ghastly smell until the bins were collected, and the cycle began over again with a new bin.
People always seemed cheerful, and as I recall, coped well, but then despite the Blitz etc, no-one suffered the extent of the deprivations that were suffered on mainland Europe.
I hope this trip down memory lane is of interest to someone.
David
I wonder how many vintage radio collectors realise that many, if not most, of the ubiquitous Bush DAC90As were not bought but were rented in the hundreds of thousands from the likes of Radio Rentals. That's why they're so commonplace today. In the late 1950s, early 60s, RR gave their rental customers the option to buy the sets for ten shillings, which many did. By the early to mid 1960s, many home had either a rented TV or a bought one, and as the song goes 'video killed the radio star' and DAC90As were either junked, as ours was - put out for the bin men, or relgated to the loft, (if you had a loft that is!). Really, only when radios in cars became a standard item, and car ownership increase to its present levels, did radio have a reannaisance. The sheer volume of DAC90As is what makes them an affordable and popular set with collectors. An icon of the late 40s - mid 50s, but they're never going to appreciate much in value in the same way that much rarer sought after sets have done, sch as the circular Ekcos.
I will forever associate the DAC90A with post-war austerity. I've got as couple, of course - who hasn't, but I think they look drab, austere and utilitarian, as beffited the time they came into being - 1948.
In an eariler posting, I mentioned that rationing didn't end until the year I left school - 1954. We tend to think that back in the 30s and 40s, Britain was failry self-sufficient, as regards home produced food, unlike the 'food miles' about which so much is said today. But that simply wasn't true. At the start of World War II the UK imported 20 million tons of foodstuffs per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of cereals and fats. The population would have been somewhere between 46 million in the 1931 census and 52 million in the 1951 census. (There was no census in 1941 for wartime security reasons, and the fact that so many people were on the move due to the war effort). It was one of the principal strategies of the enemy to attack shipping bound for the UK, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission.
To deal with extreme shortages, the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. Each person had to register at local shops, and was provided with a ration book that contained coupons. The shopkeeper was provided with enough food for registered customers. When purchasing goods, the purchaser had to give the shopkeeper a coupon as well as money. On 8 January 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and canned fruit.
One of the few foods not rationed were fish and chips! The price of fish increased considerably as the war progressed, Rationing continued after the end of the war. In fact, it became stricter after the war ended than during the hostilities. Bread, which was not rationed during the war, was rationed from 1946 to 1948; potato rationing began in 1947. Petrol rationing ended on 26 May 1950 when I was aged 11. Sweet rationing ended in February 1953, and sugar rationing ended in September 1953, however the end of all food rationing did not come until 4 July 1954, with meat the last to go. Petrol rationing was briefly reintroduced in late 1956 during the Suez Crisis but ended again on 14 May 1957. All advertising of petrol on the then recently-introduced ITV was banned for a period.
Wartime rations per person:
Bacon and ham: 4oz (100g)
Meat: To the value of 1s.2d (6p today). Sausages were not rationed but difficult to get; offal (liver, kidneys, tripes) was originally unrationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.
Cheese: 2oz(50g) sometimes it went up to 4oz (100g) and even up to 8oz (225g).
Margarine: 4oz (100g)
Butter: 2oz (50g)
Milk: 3 pints(1800ml) occasionally dropping to 2 pints (1200ml). Household milk (skimmed or dried) was available : 1 packet per four weeks.
Sugar: 8oz (225g)
Jam: 1lb (450g) every two months.
Tea: 2oz (50g).
Eggs: 1fresh egg a week if available but often only one every two weeks. Dried eggs 1 packet every four weeks.
Sweets: 12oz (350g) every four weeks
In 1944 thirty allocations of one egg each were made. Children and some invalids were allowed three a week; expectant mothers two on each allocation. 1 egg per week or 1 packet (makes 12 "eggs") of egg powder per month (vegetarians were allowed two eggs)
All schoolkids had to have a weekly dose of 'VIROL' a sweet and sticky extract of malt, to ensure they got the proper ration of vitamins. I rather liked it, but not the daily doese of cod liver oil, taken on a spoon, quickly followed by Ministry of Food orange juice concentrate as a bribe to wash it down!
'British Restaurants':
Restaurants were exempt from rationing, which led to resentment, as the rich could supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and extravagantly. To restrict this, rules were put into force: no meal could cost more than five shillings; no meal could consist of more than three courses; meat and fish couldn't be served at the same sitting. Establishments known as British Restaurants supplied another almost universal experience of eating away from home. British Restaurants were run by local authorities, who set them up in various premises such as schools and church halls. I don't think they ceased operation until the mid 1950s.
'Pig Clubs' were very popular. People joined the club, kept all their food scraps, potato peelings and the like, and had a share of the pig when it had been suitably fattened! Anyone who went to school in the 1940s/50s will recall the pigswill bins into which the remnants of school meals were tipped, to decompose in the sun, giving off the most ghastly smell until the bins were collected, and the cycle began over again with a new bin.
People always seemed cheerful, and as I recall, coped well, but then despite the Blitz etc, no-one suffered the extent of the deprivations that were suffered on mainland Europe.
I hope this trip down memory lane is of interest to someone.
David
interesting.. If i'm honest I'd rather have had rations knowing it came from britain than supermarket food coming from ugayugatoraewsdtslavia! 
