What was all this about then ?

Diamond Geezer

Diamond Geezer

Gone But Not Forgotten
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On Facebook there's a tribute page relating to Sir Henry Cecil and there's a short thread regarding some sort of strike by stable lads. I can't for the life of me remember anything about it.

1st May 1975: Striking stable lads at Newmarket in Suffolk watching horses owned by Henry Cecil being exercised.

Strike_zpsca609c60.jpg


A few remarks follow, but different spelling including

"Then Dettori Snr won on Bolkonski for Henry"

"yes but Bollonski would'nt had won if it was'nt for the standing start and the striking stable lads and jocks, Grundy would have won"


"Didn't they dig a big ditch at the start too?"


"They tried to drag Willie Carson off his horse then the trainers all ran up the course and chased them away, anarchy in the UK lol"



Anyone have any memories of the event ?
 
EC1 said:
i don't think so Simmo...even in 1972 such as electricians were on 30/35 sheets a week...i worked in an office for 6 months on BR in 72 and my wages then were 10 a week..as a 16 year old
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only going by what my father says - reckons he started in 1973 on £14 a week.
 
simmo said:
only going by what my father says - reckons he started in 1973 on £14 a week.
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my wages ..tenner a week...when i started on BR ..were very low..as you would expect at that age..but people over the age of 18 were on a damn sight more than 14 sheets.

In 1974 an adult labourer on a building site was about 30 quid a week..tradesmen a basic 40-50...with bonuses..60-70

by 1976 paper lads were on 14 a week:)
 
When I was starting uni (1973) I remember my father, a Rolls-Royce engineer, putting his salary on my grant application form. I'm pretty sure it was £3000pa, which couldn't have been that much as I was on the full grant. (He was the sole earner with six dependent children, mind.)

I was a summer relief jannie in the local primary school in those days, earning £98pw tax-free. At the time, I thought about not going to uni and becoming a jannie.

Does anyone remember what year the army recruitment TV advert with a Lionel Jeffries-type sergeant-major character saying:

'Ow mooch? A lad like yew? FORTY POUND A WEEEEK??!!
 
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Just watched The Ipcress File (1965) in which Harry Palmer was on £1300+expenses as an intelligence agent. £25 a week.
 
From Jinny's article:
At the time a local stable lad's average wage was £28 a week (£140 in today's money), scarcely enough for them to buy more than food and the odd pint of beer
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£140pw in 2001, that is, just to be clear. I'd have to question whether that would buy just the odd pint of beer. When I started drinking in 1973, a pint of beer was 12p. By 1975 it would have been 15p-18p.

What was the weekly state pension in 1975? About £60 at today's levels?
 
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