Popular Nostalgia

Popular Nostalgia from the 1950s. Memories of events and items from popular culture recorded in words and pictures on the internet. Share, remember and get wonderfully sentimental…

It was Queen Anne who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot, which in those days was called East Cote. Whilst out riding in 1711, she came upon an area of open heath, not far from Windsor Castle, that looked an ideal place for “horses to gallop at full stretch.” The first race […]

The Queen’s involvement with racing stretches back to before she came to the throne in 1952, with her first winner, owned jointly with her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, being Monaveen in a National Hunt race at Fontwell. On the death of her father, King George VI, the Queen inherited the Royal […]

1780 Diomed, owned by Sir Charles Bunbury, wins the inaugural running of the Derby on Thursday, May 4. 1784 The distance increases from a mile to a mile and a half which still prevails today, though from 1991 the offi cial distance has been one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards. 1794 The smallest fi […]

The Derby has been run on the Downs near Epsom since 1780 and is named after Edward Smith Stanley, the 12th Earl of Derby. The original race was The Oaks, named after Derby’s estate, and was exclusively for three-year-old fillies. The race became so successful that The Derby was created to find the best colts […]

We’ve been renovating a very old cottage and found this old wallpaper under several layers of paint, plaster and paper. The owner informs us that this design is from the 1950’s. We also found this design from the 1960’s. It has fish on because the room was used as a bathroom for some time. The […]

George Formby was born George Hoy Booth on 26 May 1904 in Wigan, Lancashire. He started out as a professional jockey because his father didn’t want his son to follow him into showbusiness. Once his Father died, George went into stand-up. He bought a ukelele from an actor for £2.50 with a bet that he […]

A comprehensive history of the Grand National from its official beginning in the 1800’s. From paintings to photo finishes and radio commentary to internet broadcasting. 1839 The Grand National was run at Aintree for the first time on Tuesday, February 26 and a horse named Lottery took the honours. Captain Martin Becher was unseated from […]

Beltran de Osorio y Diez de Rivera, the “Iron” Duke of Albuquerque (1919-1994), was a Spanish aristocrat obsessed with horse-racing. After receiving a film of the Grand National as a gift for his eighth birthday, the Corinthian Duke set his sight on England’s greatest equestrian prize: “I said then that I would win that race […]

1956 was the year that the Queen Mother’s favourite, Devon Loch, tried to jump a phantom fence and landed on his belly. This left the way clear for ESB. Afterwards, The Queen Mother famously said “That’s racing”. Watch this video from 06:15 for the bizarre footage of the event from British Pathe. Dick Francis said […]

Following the death of King George VI on 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth immediately became Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith. She was the first monarch in over 200 years to succeed to the throne whilst abroad. However, the desire for a sunny day and a big party to accompany the coronation […]

This song sums up everything nostalgic about Christmas. Christmas in Australia just wasn’t the same without chestnuts roasting on an open fire or snow glistening outside. Bing felt the same way when he sang this classic as part of the 1942 classic “Holiday Inn” and later the 1954 hit “White Christmas”: Lyrics I’m dreaming of […]

I never quite understood why we had satsumas in our stockings at Christmas and oranges at the Christingle service. It may well be something to do with them being expensive in “the olden days” and so reserved for special occassions like Christmas. However, I always much preferred the sweets, chocolate and other presents inside and […]

They always used to serve arctic roll for school dinners. I don’t know whether arctic roll was especially cheap for some reason, or whether someone just liked making it but I always enjoyed it and could never work out how it was made. Everyone always tried for seconds and thirds when arctic roll was involved. […]

I love having mobile phones but there was a time before, when people could be unavailable, dates had to speak to the parents who answered the family phone and mates had to agree a time and place to meet. Landline phones meant that nights out on the town were a nightmare to organise. If someone missed […]

The whole reason we have 999 -the circular dial telephone took aaaaages to return to start before you could turn the next number in. People didn’t make so many phone calls because it was actually less effort to run round to your mate’s house or write a letter to your granny. I’m not quite of […]