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Boulton Family
Ken and Maureen Boulton All Photos Ken Boulton January 2019 Who knows how our descendants will cope if they try to produce a history of our time based on millions of mobile phone photos. That isn't true of the 1940s when wartime restrictions stopped the flow of photos which had illuminated Victorian and Edwardian society. Even in the 1950s there were few snaps because they were too expensive. Ken Boulton's pictures of houses and people in the 1950s are so important in recording the village story. He took them with a Brownie camera, many pictures just 1-inch square. They show life in the raw through the eyes of a young man. This article records the life of the Boulton family in Box and later articles deal with their friends and places in the village. Left: Arthur and Mabel Boulton in later life |
Life in Utility Britain
It is commonplace to say that Britain was bankrupt after the war but this says little about the lives and the level of subsistence, if not poverty, of ordinary villagers. The utility clothing scheme introduced in 1941 was cheaply-styled with a maximum of two pockets, five buttons, and 160 inches of stitching. Making-do and rearing chickens in the back yard were still commonplace.
It is commonplace to say that Britain was bankrupt after the war but this says little about the lives and the level of subsistence, if not poverty, of ordinary villagers. The utility clothing scheme introduced in 1941 was cheaply-styled with a maximum of two pockets, five buttons, and 160 inches of stitching. Making-do and rearing chickens in the back yard were still commonplace.
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Aunty Ada in back yard March 1949 Dad and David feeding chickens in our back yard
The family moved around Box village in rented accommodation. In 1931 Arthur and Mabel were one of the first recipients of the new council houses at Barn Piece. They moved out of their old and overcrowded cottage in Queen's Square to brand new number 5 Barn Piece.[1] By the end of the war they had relocated again, this time to the centre of the village at 3 The Parade.
The family at 3 The Parade, Box, January 1949
For many young women the return of servicemen from overseas had recompense and a large number of marriages took place in the next decade, leading to the generation of babies called the Baby Boomers. It was a chance for the whole family to have a party and look forward to the future.
Ken's older sister Joan married Stanley Mortimer in April 1950. Stan was a regular with the Box Rovers Football side and Joan was a loyal follower washing the teams kit after most matches.[2]
Ken's older sister Joan married Stanley Mortimer in April 1950. Stan was a regular with the Box Rovers Football side and Joan was a loyal follower washing the teams kit after most matches.[2]
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Left: Joan's 21st birthday party in 1949 at 3 The Parade with Beryl and Mabel and Right: Brian and David
For all there was peace and a chance to return to a non-military life and annual trips to the seaside. We probably all have photos like those below of English family holidays.
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Left: John Hinton, L Weekes, Joan and Mrs Gibb on a 1951 trip to Exmouth and
Right: Mary Harding and Maureen Boulton experiencing the Bournemouth beach in 1956.
Right: Mary Harding and Maureen Boulton experiencing the Bournemouth beach in 1956.
In 1951 the Boulton family went up to London to see the Festival of Britain, held to try to revitalise British industry after the war. The Skylon was symbolic of the whole event, a great tower called a Vertical Feature 300-foot-high next to the Dome of Discovery on the newly-opened, public areas of the South Bank, which had previously been derelict warehousing.
Seen below left is the Horse Guard regiment escorting the King and Queen of Denmark.
The photo below right was taken at the Festival Gardens, Battersea.
The photo below right was taken at the Festival Gardens, Battersea.
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The Boulton family enjoyed life at the end of the 1950s in the Never had it so Good world of 1957. The claim was made by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan expressing the end of Second World War rationing when meat and bacon could be bought freely after July 1954.[3] Steel and coal production were at their highest level since the war and able to take a share of an international boom after the war. It led to a sudden rise in the standard of living with many people affording to buy a refrigerator, a washing machine and a television. It was this boom that saw a rise in shops in Box Market Place including the shop that Mabel ran from number 3 The Market Place, sometimes a café and taking orders for coal and wool.
Family Tree
Boulton Family
Ken's father was Arthur W Boulton, GWR employee and goods shunter (b 13 September 1901 - 1970) who married in 1928 to Mabel Hillman (b 14 January 1904 - 2005) from Pontypridd. Their children were:
Joan (b 1928) who married Stanley Mortimer in 1950; Kenneth H (b 10 September 1929); Beryl (b 1931); Mabel E (b 1937); Brian H (1939 - 2019, sometimes called Taffy) who married Patricia A Dowling in 1961; and David H (b 1946).
Kenneth H Boulton (b 1929) married Maureen Anne May (b 1934) from 2 The Wharf on 15 June 1957.
Boulton Family
Ken's father was Arthur W Boulton, GWR employee and goods shunter (b 13 September 1901 - 1970) who married in 1928 to Mabel Hillman (b 14 January 1904 - 2005) from Pontypridd. Their children were:
Joan (b 1928) who married Stanley Mortimer in 1950; Kenneth H (b 10 September 1929); Beryl (b 1931); Mabel E (b 1937); Brian H (1939 - 2019, sometimes called Taffy) who married Patricia A Dowling in 1961; and David H (b 1946).
Kenneth H Boulton (b 1929) married Maureen Anne May (b 1934) from 2 The Wharf on 15 June 1957.
References
[1] The Wiltshire Times, 28 November 1931
[2] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 22 April 1950
[3] The Times, 24 January 2017 quoting a survey by the University of Warwick
[1] The Wiltshire Times, 28 November 1931
[2] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 22 April 1950
[3] The Times, 24 January 2017 quoting a survey by the University of Warwick