| Event type: | Meeting |
| Date: | 16th October 2025 |
| Time: | 2:30 pm |
| Venue: | Kenilworth Methodist Church |
| Organiser: | |
| Cost: | Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1 |
Speaker: Ray Sturdy
…a defining decade with flourishing art, music and fashion. In 10 years much of Britain was transformed from the bleak 1950s into a time full of freedom, hope and promise with new cars, motorways, miniskirts, the Twist, Twiggy and Concorde plus scandals, a royal wedding, a moon walk and nearly a nuclear war! Join us, as Ray Sturdy takes back to a time when petrol was only five shillings a gallon!
Review - Post Meeting
Ray Sturdy presented his slides of the 60’s and took the audience back down memory lane! Too many memories to elaborate on in this bulletin but here are just a few to remember:
On 8 May 1945 the Monarchy stood on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to celebrate being able to look forward to a brighter future following the dark days of the second world war. The British people got inspired by the promise of an optimistic future and the ‘baby boom’ blossomed. When the babies grew up it heralded the start of the ‘swinging 60’s’.
As the name of the talk implies, rock & roll music dominated the 60’s with the emergence of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Helen Shapiro, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Tom Jones, amongst others, heading up the UK list. From the USA we had the ‘King’ Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker who introduced us to the ‘Twist’ and the Monkees.
Transportation was changing,
The E-Type Jaguar was launched in 1961, Bubble cars were getting even smaller with the launch of the Peel P50 in 1962 and the Mini car launched in 1959 had its heyday in the 60’s. Parking meters were introduced and also the breathalyser. Garages had petrol attendants who cleaned your windscreen! Mods had their scooters and Rockers had their motorbikes. Motorways started to be built with, initially, no central reservations!
There were however some serious moments:
The Great Train Robbers stole over £2.6 million. Ronnie Biggs, who helped plan and carry out the robbery, escaped from prison in 1965 and lived as a fugitive for 36 years. Russia caused the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 by trying to establish a nuclear missile base in Cuba but thankfully backed down when US President Kennedy warned Russia’s President Khrushchev that the USA’s nuclear missiles were being aimed at Moscow and St Petersburgh. President Kennedy was assassinated a little later in 1963.
Sir Winston Churchill, the British statesman and Prime Minister died in 1965 and was given a state funeral at the request of the Royal Family – the only ‘commoner’ to receive such an honour.
Entertainment was changing. People were now buying black and white screen TV sets and watching Andy Pandy, the Bisto Kids, and Dixon of Dock Green. Coronation Street had its first viewing and is still going strong today. Saturday morning pictures were very popular with the younger generation. The Eagle comic was launched in 1950 but came to a demise in 1969, it was however relaunched in 1982 for a further 12 years.
Other notable personalities in the 60’s were:
John Profumo together with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies who made some very interesting reading.
Cassius Clay / Mohammed Ali who ‘flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee’.
George Best who earnt a fortune playing football only to spend it all on ‘birds and booze and squandered the rest’!
Martin Luther King – the black American minister and civil rights activist who preached throughout the 60’s but was assassinated in 1968.
‘Twiggy’ the teenage model and British cultural icon who championed the mini-skirt designed by Mary Quant.
Richard Beeching, the first Chairman of the British Railways Board, who axed 5000 miles of rail track in the 60’s ………and many more.
An interesting talk to bring back many memories.
Apologies to those in the audience who had difficulties hearing the speaker, we will be addressing the microphone system as a matter of urgency.