SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

This does not apply specifically to Leeds, but is, I think, is of interest. Have just come across this old cutting from the Sunday Mirror of march 21st 1971

I wonder if the date of that is significant ie just a week after decimalisation. One of the early effects was an increase in the price of a lot of smaller purchases so something which had been, say, 1/6d ie 7½p was quite likely to be 16p shortly after the change.

Perhaps a guide to stop people being ripped off, or evidence that they already were being ripped of.

Started drinking around 1974 and I remember getting three pints at 13p a pint in the Headingley Three Horseshoes tap room. Pie and peas at the Bake & Take was 10p on the way home, leaving a penny change from 50p!

Bugblatter wrote:Started drinking around 1974 and I remember getting three pints at 13p a pint in the Headingley Three Horseshoes tap room. Pie and peas at the Bake & Take was 10p on the way home, leaving a penny change from 50p!

That 1p would probably soon have needed spending .

I'm not a pub frequenter so I wonder how many of the beer brands named in the 1971 list are still around?

Leodian wrote:

Bugblatter wrote:Started drinking around 1974 and I remember getting three pints at 13p a pint in the Headingley Three Horseshoes tap room. Pie and peas at the Bake & Take was 10p on the way home, leaving a penny change from 50p!

That 1p would probably soon have needed spending .

I'm not a pub frequenter so I wonder how many of the beer brands named in the 1971 list are still around?


This sort of talk makes me feel like Methusalah.
From what i remember in the late 1950 /60s. Tetley Mild Beere was about 10 pence ()old money) and Bitter was a 1/- ( 5p.)
It seemed to me that Beer Prices did not vary much or there were not so many price increases but maye that was because there was so much competition from Pub to Pub.

I remember there was some concern at the time of decimalisation about rounding up of prices for small items like a pint of beer, a cup of coffee , newspaper, bar of chocolate etc. The Heath government tried to diffuse this by saying on National TV News that it expected traders to round their prices up and down in equal measures. Would anyone swallow that today? I can remember standing in queues to buy my lunch with customers complaining that all the prices on the menu had been rounded up and it was against the law.
This "chunnering" lasted for a few weeks after decimalisation.

I have always thought that decimalisation broke people's sense of the value of things. (Not just older people who could never get the hang of it and some traders on KIrkgate market who continued working in £sp) . It's no coincidence that the next few years were some of the most inflationary on record.

This is a pretty good example of the proverb, "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves." One of the things that seemed to go out of the window almost overnight with decimalisation was people paying with "the right money." ie sorting out the correct change to pay and being reluctant to "break into a ten bob note." (50p) In the 1960's, in my student days, I had a summer holiday job selling ice cream from a van in Bradford. Cornets were 3d lollies the same unless you wanted something a bit more exotic like a "99." Before going home each evening - and on a warm day in midsummer that could be pretty late into the evening - each driver cashed up, sorting all the change into the bank's money bags which in those days were paper, with different colours for each type of coin. A days takings - possibly £30-00 on a hot Saturday - would be an awful lot of coins, often with no notes at all.

Since decimalisation, the banks keep retailers stocked up with small change because so many people pay with a note rather than dig out the change. IME, if you do present the correct change, it can throw the shop assistant, especially in supermarkets where the till - should that be cash register - tells them what change to give. Some people also assume that anybody sorting out their change is broke, rather than mentally alert.

There were obviously other things which contributed to the roaring inflation of the 1970's and early 80's but this helped stoke the flames.

We used to go to Morley Pubs on a Sunday night as they had music as opposed to Leeds licence laws. It would be about 1957 -58 when i came home and turned out my pockets, realised that the waiter had not given me a Ten Bob note which he had promised so went back on the Monday night ( They also had waiters and music on Mondays) confronted the waiter and he apologised and passed the Half a Quid over. I had probably gone out on the Sunday with just over a Pound so it shows how cheap beer was in those days and also how notes were not so much in use.
By comparision i had a indoor Market business also in Morley which coincided with the introduction of decimalisation !967 to 71. and not only did i struggle as produce changed to Kilo's etc. but some poor old ladies just opened their purses and held them out referring to it as "Funny Money" I am sure many folks were taken advantage of.
I was never a smoker but i noticed that just something llike a box of matches that was 2d. became 2p. (double) and as mentioned things that were priced at something Halfpenny were rounded up the next penny in the new money.
It also was not long before the new Halfpenny was so useless people used to throw them on the floor.
I bet that had never ever happened in our history before.

Hi Jack .

You mention how in "about 1957 -58" that "notes were not so much in use". It will be some years back now when I used to neatly fold notes (10/- and £1 ones as fivers and above were never part of my money then!) and put them away safely in a pocket until used. For many years now I simply crush them into a pocket as if they are (which in effect they probably are!) just loose change.

very interesting......