Leicester in the 1960s: Ten Years that Changed a City

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The archive documents the history of Leicester and Leicestershire during the second half of the twentieth century. Prior to its transfer to the University, it formed a working newspaper library at the paper's offices in St George's Street. Until the mid-1990s stories were cut from the paper on a daily basis and filed by subject for future reference. In 2011 Sir Peter Soulsby became the first directly elected mayor of Leicester. In 2012 the body of Richard III was found in Leicester. Richard III I first met John Nixon, who’s often known as ‘Jelly’, in the early 2000s and it was because I wanted to record memories of being a teenager in post-war Leicester and Jelly was so well known as being one of the gurus of the local music scene from the early sixties onwards. Everyone said “oh you’ve got to go and talk to him, he knows everything. So I did go and talk to him and I recorded his memories over a couple of visits for quite a few hours. He did know everything and he was just this great source of information about loads of different aspects of youth culture through the 1960s.” In the first term of the first year, at lunchtimes some girls were given handwriting lessons if it was felt their script was not neat or clear enough. Others were given elocution lessons to level out regional accents. At the time received pronunciation was the accent associated with power, influence, money and a good education.

At all stations, there will be period dressed passengers and station staff. Plus, keep an eye out for any rowdy protests against Dr. Beeching cuts, and you may even spot the infamous Dr. himself. Mr Garner, who was a games master, was also very keen on gardening so we had lessons on how to grow veggies, thus he created a vegetable plot that we worked on and I assume the produce was used in the school kitchen for our dinners. Palace Theatre opened in 1901 and Leicester General Hospital opened in 1905. The first cinema in Leicester opened in 1910 in High Street. In 1926 the Guildhall was opened as a museum. Belgrave Hall opened in 1937 and in 1940 Newarke Houses were opened as a museum. The funeral took place at St Philip and St James Church, Groby. Many people attended, including family, friends, business associates, work colleagues and local council representatives. Several coaches were filled with floral tributes. No playing fields existed then as they had not been created, although the annual cross country run, which was two laps around Knighton Park during the winter months, was fun, with the teachers gathered to watch us boys running through the brook and slipping and sliding over the wet muddy banks.New industries grew up in Leicester during the 19th century. Engineering flourished after the Britannia ironworks was opened in 1804. Much larger works, the Vulcan works opened in Welford Road in 1878. The Boot and shoemaking industry boomed. In 1831 there were only 425 boot and shoemakers in Leicester. By 1861 there were 2,741. The elastic web industry began in 1839 when a factory opened in Southgate. But not everyone wore a parka or a suit, took amphetamines, fought on the beaches at Margate and Brighton or rode a scooter. Nor did they want to. However, many of them did exactly that. While some critics may see Quadrophenia as a pastiche of what actually happened, to many the film, or aspects of it, were spot on, it was exactly how the young people of Nottingham and Leicester lived their lives as Mods in the 1960s.” In 1964 there were almost 1,300 grammar schools in England and Wales; from then on the number has declined to be replaced by comprehensive education. Today in England there are 163.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Lawrence Brown. Better known as “Laurie”, he was the founder of Leicestershire’s largest independent bus and coach company, which started on January 1, 1924, under the name of L D Brown. He named his first vehicle “The Nancy”, after his sister, who helped this venture during the early years. The tower of St Nicholas Church is in the centre of the upper part of the picture, with the Jewry Wall visible just below it.

From medieval streets to modern shopping

After 1945 slum clearance continued and large areas of Leicester were redeveloped. Existing council estates like Braunstone were also enlarged. In the 1970s a new development of mixed council housing and private houses were built at Beaumont Leys. This estate was built with a popular shopping centre. Meanwhile, the last trams ran in Leicester in 1949. ve a great nostalgic treat for you today: there's so much in this amazing rare colour photograph that I hardly know where to begin.