With just 5 days until Christmas Day, The English Apple Man is in nostalgic mood.
As we prepare for the impending event, (my wife and I) All the Christmas cards written (by my wife) during November and now sent to family and friends, all with second class stamps affixed; just as well as 100 cards with £80 worth of stamps attached
Looking back over the 60+ years we have been married, lots of changes spring to mind!
In 1963 when we married a 1st Class stamp cost 3d for 1 oz raised to 4d for 2oz in 1965
2nd class stamps were not introduced until 16th September 1968!
1968 1st class 5d 2nd class 4d
Decimalisation UK 1971 was the change of the British currency system from pounds, shillings and pence to a decimal system of 100 new pence to the pound. The change took place on 15 February 1971, which was known as Decimal Day. The change affected the entire nation, as people had to learn a new way of valuing everything.....
1971 1st class 3p and 2nd class 2.5p
1975 1st class 8.5p 2nd class 6.5p
2000 1st class 27p 2nd class 19p
The first postage stamp was introduced in 1840 at 1d (penny black) still 1d in 1897 and raised to 1.5d in 1918 - Today the 1st Class stamp costs £1.65p and the 2nd class stamp 80p
For those to young to have experienced £ s d - (that's pounds, shillings & pence) a pound was divided into 240 pennies (d) and after decimalisation 100 pennies to the pound £ so a new penny is worth 2.5 old pennies (d) and in those days Dad would notionally value each class 1 apple at 'one shilling' = to 5p today!
"The British pre-decimal penny was a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1/240 of one pound or 1/12 of one shilling. Its symbol was d, from the Roman denarius".
Christmas - then and now
£100 in 1963 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £2,624.33 today, an increase of 2,524.33% over 61 years. The pound had an average inflation rate of 5.50% per year between 1963 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 2,524.33%.
Back in 1963 when our apples were sold in Covent Garden and Brentford wholesale markets, we would stop packing apples a week to ten days before Christmas and concentrate on the turkey business. For a young man, fun times, getting a day off work accompanying Dad to the wholesale market to see how much the turkeys sold for.
Below: Old Covent Garden Market
Below: left. Christmas Turkey 'Ready for the oven' and Below right. 'Ready for table and tummy'
This 'Plump Turkey' reminds me of those far of 'halcyon days of 1963 when we reared several hundred turkeys each year for Christmas. In those days we slaughtered them on farm and sold them either at Hailsham Market or to a local Butcher. Dad and I also prepared about seventy 'ready for the oven' on our Farmhouse Kitchen Table! It would not be allowed today!
£15 to £17.5 / kg seems an indicative price for a fresh turkey and giblets like the one's we used to turn out 60 years ago. But they can (in frozen form etc.) be bought for less, and 'super fresh turkeys' - like in the second picture £110 feeds 4-6
Below: Ready to eat, top quality British Farm reared Turkey
Below: The selection of Christmas fare available amazes me, there is something for every need
Back in our childhood, my brother and I had to settle for one of our Dad's socks each to hang on the end of our beds for our Christmas Stockings. (Dad was a big man with size 12 feet, so his socks were just right.
Always an orange in the toe and a selection of toys or sweets from 'Father Christmas' - some may use the term Santa, but we always used the longer 'more formal' terminology.
Our tradition was; after Christmas Lunch, settle down to watch the Queens Speech before Dad distributed the presents beneath the Christmas Tree!
That is all for this week
Take care
The English Apple Man