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Travelling, travelling, travelling in 1949

Summer holidays are in full swing at Adam Matthew with road trips to Germany, honeymoons in Italy and sailing in Croatia. It’s always an interesting time of year to find out what plans people are making, instilling wanderlust in the rest of us. After hearing a few of my colleagues’ holiday plans it inspired me to delve into Mass Observation Online to see what holiday plans people were making in 1949 (and Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture for some nice visual aids).

The March 1949 Directive Questionnaire asked the following questions:

Questionnaire March 1949, March 1949, © Mass Observation Archive. University of Sussex Special Collections. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Most of the respondents had a holiday planned, with only a couple of people saying they were staying at home and, for the most part, didn’t mind, including this questionable Chiswick-dwelling postmaster: ‘It's like a holiday, anyway, here in Chiswick except that I’m troubled by a feminist relative who thinks that if she gets the tea ready I ought to wash it up’. Destinations were all in Europe, with the most popular being Switzerland, France, Ireland, Bournemouth and the Lake District. A female respondent describes how she and her husband met in 1909 while cycling around Brittany and have loved travelling together since, but having hit retirement they switched from cycling to coach tours and were planning a coach tour to Devon and Cornwall. A young newlywed couple were looking for an affordable but still adventurous holiday and so were planning to do a house swap with someone in France for a month so they could 'live like natives'.

 

Seeburg. Lucerne Polytechnic Chalets and Stanserho..., n.d., © University of Westminster Archive. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

[Photograph of tourists on a bus (exterior)], 1948, © University of Westminster Archive. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 

It was interesting to learn that quite a few respondents’ decisions had been influenced by issues with currency, one respondent said ‘We had to decide in a hurry – take [the seats on the train] or leave them. It is the currency which is the trouble – we have no information as to whether private persons can obtain currency or not.’ Another respondent explained they would be going on holidays to Italy for the next three years as they had been left some lire that couldn’t be taken out of the country or exchanged. After some research1 I found that the UK exchange control was quite strict due to both the financial crises of the early 1930s and the Second World War. Due to the Exchange Control Act 1947 the Treasury had the power to determine residential status, look into previous places travelled to, intentions for permanent residence and nationality. In 1945 a basic allowance for personal travel abroad had been introduced – £100 for each adult and £50 for a child – however, these amounts changed year on year and were withdrawn completely between October 1947-May 1948. It wasn’t until 1959 that restrictions on spending for personal travel were lifted and cash gifts to persons abroad were not allowed until 1958.

All respondents seemed horrified at the idea of visiting the same place more than once or twice – ‘Very strongly against it. There is so much to see in the world’, ‘I could not bear to visit the same place every year’, ‘I should hate it!’ – all giving reasons along the same lines: ‘theoretically going to the same place is stupid one should use holidays to increase one’s knowledge of the world’. 

The descriptions of ideal holidays were more modest than I was expecting. My favourite responses ranged from the simple ‘travel but with a nice companion to stay at any place that appealed to me and then move on when we felt like it’ (I hope their current travel companion never read that), to the ingredients for a perfect trip ‘I think the essentials of a holiday are heat, sun, sea, swimming, bathing, and a small party of gay, congenial people – different ones from the ones with whom one is all the rest of the year, so that one gets rested and stimulated at the same time. Different food, customs etc. are also important … I don’t really mind where – whether Tahiti or the South of France or Italy – only it must be hot and foreign.’

Directive Respondent 1651, April 1943 - July 1950, © Mass Observation Archive. University of Sussex Special Collections. further reproduction prohibited without permission.

More than one respondent had the romanticised idea of touring the world by car but this one put it into words best: ‘Touring with a car around the world. Travelling during the day – every night at a new place – off in the morning to somewhere else. Fiddling about with maps, getting lost, moving on, gaining new experiences, travelling, travelling, travelling.’

For more information about Mass Observation Online and Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture, including free trial access and price enquiries, please email us at info@amdigital.co.uk

1 http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/archive/Documents/historicpubs/qb/1967/qb67q3245260.pdf


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