Wales in the 1960's
The Industrial Household in Wales during the 1960s
Coal mining, iron and steel works were of extreme importance to Welsh industries during the 1960s, around 18,000 people were employed in it. According to Leon Gooberman in Depression to Devotion, 9.7% of the Welsh population worked in the steel industry by 1969, compared to 2.5% in the whole of the UK. By 1913, the town of Barry, located in the Vale of Glamorgan, was the largest coal exporting port in the world, followed by Cardiff, the Welsh capital at the time. Abbey Steelworks in Port Talbot was Europe’s largest steelworks factory and Wales’ largest employer. Areas such as Port Talbot and Merthyr Tydfil were the hub for industry in Wales. The mining industry put a strain on relationships in the 1960s with long hours and low wages being very common. The Black Lung illness also affected and killed thousands of workers in Wales more than anywhere else in the UK
Interestingly enough, an increasing number of jobs in industry were in manufacturing, not mining. By 1968, there were 210,000 people employed in non-metal manufacturing. However, they were paid less than the miners and this meant that they did not enjoy the affluence that the rest of the country did. As the slowdown of the industry began to affect young people searching for jobs, the landscape of the family changed as young adults moved to the Midlands instead of staying close to their parents.
Only 28% of women aged fifteen and over had full-time jobs. Of married women with children under fifteen, this figure fell to 7%. Women’s lives got slightly easier with the introduction of durable goods. After electricity, most families got irons first as they were relatively cheap and saved heating irons up on the fire and risking iron marks on the laundry. However, this also made women feel required to keep their homes to a higher standard, as laundry, for example, became more frequent and new carpets required vacuuming.
Uptake of consumer durables was slow in Wales. In 1964, 41% of Welsh households had cars, but by 1969, this had only risen by 2%. In 1964, only 1% of Wales was centrally heated, but this had risen to 17% by 1969. In the UK as a whole, it was a rise from 7% to 25%. Also important to note is that the average household size had dropped from 4.01 in 1931 to 3.11 in 1966. Rising affluence also enabled home owners in Wales to grow from around 30% in 1950 to 48% in 1963. By 1966, 30% of Welsh population lived in local-authority houses, which generally meant bigger houses with bigger gardens, garages and more space between neighbours. The 1960s saw the introduction of televisions, carpets, sofas, extensions for bathrooms, electrical goods and tiled kitchens. In 1966, two thirds of houses in Wales had a fixed bath, inside toilet and hot running water. Vibrant paintings and wallpapers were common as houses became more colourful and home owners became more comfortable. Buying things quickly became a competition. Lights were left on and curtains opened in rooms where new things had been placed, and when the bins were put out, the best bits of food were put on the top, so that people could see how well the family ate. This is most obvious in the use of electric ovens. People bought them to keep up, but they were often concerned about the cost of using them, or had nowhere to put them in the kitchen, and some even used them as store cupboards. Traditional ovens, bakestones, and even the odd spit could still be found in most kitchens and families ate traditional, simple fare.
The slow uptake of affluence was also evident on the high street. Although shops like confectioner’s opened, there were no launderettes in Ammanford, Carmarthen, Llanelli, Neath, Pontardawe, or Port Talbot. In Swansea, there were only two carpet shops and one coffee bar (a symbol of the new era). By the mid-1960s, smaller businesses battled for survival as supermarkets arrived in Wales. This made women’s lives easier as they no longer had to trudge up and down the high street, and they were open later, which meant that women could do things with their day other than shop. In addition, they could buy more interesting food for their families. However, this also meant that conversations with local shopkeepers with whom shoppers were well-acquainted all but died out, which struck a blow to the Welsh sense of community.
The television set was the biggest icon of modernity in the 1960s, and by the end of the decade, 92% of houses had a set. However, this figure took a long time to be reached, and this was probably because many upland areas had previously been unable to receive pictures. This led to a fashion for knocking through the front and middle rooms to create a larger “lounge” - which was coming to replace the term “parlour” - to watch in. It led to the expansion of people’s horizons but had the adverse effect of causing declines in attendance for other activities, such as dances, sport, and the cinema.